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I'm totally out the loop (although to be fair I've never really in it in the first place) on PC specs and prices
Looking for something for typical home use. - internet, Microsoft office, music, editing videos etc. Won't use it for gaming although if suitable for zwift that will give me another option other than using the ipad for it.
Fast boot up, doesnt struggle editing videos, good storage space, dvd drive.
What sort of specs and general price range should i be looking at for this as well as have a bit of future proofing built in (if such a thing is possible).
Cheers
Any decent spec machine will meet your needs, apart from maybe the DVD drive - you might need to buy an extrenal USB unit these days. A lot depends on budget.
A budget of approx. £1500 should get you a decet setup including a good quality monitor, keyboard and mouse.
Getting a 32" 2560x1440 screens was one of the best bits of PC kit I have ever bought (and much better than the 28" 4k screen I tried first).
So assuming that kind of budget with room for decent components I'd start with something like this:
If you really didn't need the nvidia GPU (only some creative software will properly use it) you could probably upgrade the CPU and RAM to an i7 and 16GB.
Amd released ryzen earlier this year and it's pretty good with the video editing renderings. I've recently rebuilt my old fx6300 unit to a ryzen 7 1700.
For fast boot up use an ssd and then store files on a standard hdd. I built my own rather than pay for someone else to do it which can save a wee bit of cash depending on the spec. Sadly ddr4 ram isn't cheap, upwards of 150 for 16gb.
The new AMD Ryzen CPUs are the best vfm at the moment if you aren't going to be gaming and they are particularly strong with video editing. The extra cores over Intel equivalents makes then more future proof as well.
If you are happy to build your own then use PC Partpicker and put something together for a fair saving.
Nothing wrong with ryzen for gaming if you are using a 60hz monitor. I'm over 100fps on BF4 on ultra settings with an rx480. I ain't going to notice 20fps more
I cobbled one together out of some cast off bits from my son and a few new parts, SSD, Memory and Graphics.
Quite enjoyed the process, no real issues and all pretty straightforward.
Its been a rock solid machine, very quick and very reliable.
Thanks for the advice!
I like the idea of building my own, unfortunately my skills run somewhat behind my enthusiasm for making a mess of projects like this 😀
If you can clip Lego together then you can build a PC.
I'd you get compatible parts (PC part picker will help) then it's extremely straight forward.
The thing I find most fiddly is the cooler but even those can be pretty straight forward these days.
As for Ryzen and gaming, yes they are perfectly good but it's not an area where they offer best vfm.
I'd go Ryzen if upgrading now as gaming isn't a primary focus.
Have a play with https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/ if you know roughly what components you want in it, this will let you know if they are compatible and give you the cheapest price on the net for them.
There are enough vids on youtube to guide you through a build and nowadays its not too stressful...
A budget of approx. £1500 should get you a decet setup including a good quality monitor, keyboard and mouse.
Wow! £1500!
I would of thought that £500 - £700 would get you a pretty fast and capable non-gaming PC?
do you have any current parts?
I'd personally advise against building yourself for anything under £1500, you just don't save enough for it to be worth the hassle. My own experience (building a £2500 PC) end up we me being out of pocket for a £225 motherboard and I still think my CPU is dodgy (it's only stable if I overclock it so it has more voltage). I know my experience isn't typical and 90%+ of the time it all goes fine but I just don't think it's worth the potential hassle for the small saving made on cheaper PCs.
Wow! £1500!I would of thought that £500 - £700 would get you a pretty fast and capable non-gaming PC?
£500-700 gets you into "Very Good" territory for gaming, according to the suggested builds on Logical Increments. TBF though that's without allowing for a monitor, and it won't be anything that'll impress the more fanatical gamer.
The OP has already stated it wasnt going to be used much for gaming so there isn't any point looking at builds specifically for gaming.
Ryzen will be fine for video editing, probably get a Ryzen 5 1600 as the 1600x just isn't worth the money and you'd have to get stand alone cpu cooler which would be more money in full.
My current build cost me around £1000 self built and has a far better spec that the one listed above (ryzen5 1600, gtx 1070 16gb ram 512gb SSD & 3tb HDD).
Black friday/cyber monday is coming, you might find you get some cracking deals on parts and even a full build.
If you go down your own building route, I have an monitor going spare and a PSU available - a corsair CX750 semi modular and some samsung monitor, couple of years old but still works 🙂
I'd look at low end Ryzen builds and up-spec them with bigger SSD & RAM and reduce the gfx card to a low end one (assuming Zwift doesn't need anything faster).