Entry Photography PC V2

A value system for the amateur photographer

This system represents the first step on the ladder. Its a value focused system, only one step up from a regular desktop PC system but offers an entry to those on a budget. It offers a system which is a little over specified on storage compared with those systems you would normally find at this price point.

The money has been carefully spent on the components which offer the biggest performance boost and bang for buck for the amateur photographer. Anyone undertaking more heavy duty image processing tasks would be better off looking at our higher end models.

This system is perfectly capable of running Adobe Photoshop CC and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom CC applications but the image file sizes should be kept to a small size, ideally below 200MB when in memory. Users should avoid complex transformations and multiple layers.

Modern commercial image processing software requires a minimum of 16GB of memory, and you will need plenty of fast storage to hold your image catalogue. This is a budget system but we have still squeezed in the required 16GB of memory.  As this is an AMD system with integrated graphics, we have used high performance DDR4 3200MHz memory in a dual channel configuration.  As these AMD systems incorporate the graphics processor within the CPU, both the CPU and GPU share the system memory bandwidth so using high performance memory will deliver significant benefits.

The processor is an AMD Ryzen 5 5600GT six core with a 3.6GHz base frequency and 4.6GHz boost. The performance isn’t at all bad given the low price point as Photoshop benefits mainly from increases in processor frequency rather than multiple processor cores.

The Ryzen processor also provides a very respectable GPU in the form of the new AMD Radeon Vega.  The performance is similar to the NVidia GTX 1050 but the downside is that it has to rely on sharing the computers system memory.  If a discrete NVidia GTX card is used in your photography PC, you benefit from it having its own memory installed on the GPU.

Read our blog articles to find out more about customising your PC spec to benefit Photoshop and Lightroom.

Specifications:

Processor

• AMD Ryzen 5 5600GT 3.6GHz Six Core CPU
• 6 Cores, 12 Processor Threads
• Max Precision Boost Frequency 4.6Ghz
• Cache: 19MB
• AMD CPU Cooler

Memory

• 16GB DDR4 3200MHz RAM
• Dual Channel – 2 x 8GB
• Supports up to 64GB
• 2 x DIMM sockets (2 Used)

Hard Drive

• 500GB NVME M.2 SSD (3500MB/R, 2100MB/W)
• 2TB Seagate BarraCuda SATA 3.5″ HDD
• 1 x M.2 slot, 0 free
• 4 SATA Ports, 3 free (1 Used for 2TB HDD)

Optical Drive

• None
• 1 x Optical Bays free

Software

• Windows 11 Home 64-bit
• Clean install, no additional software

Motherboard

• AMD A520 Chipset

Display Outputs

• 1 x VGA
• 1 x HDMI
• Supports up to 2 monitors at once

Graphics

• AMD Radeon Vega Integrated Graphics

Audio

• High Definition Audio, 5.1 or 7.1 channel
• Audio provided by Realtek ALC887 Audio Chip on the motherboard

Input Devices

• No Keyboard or Mouse Included

Wired Networking

• Realtek 10/100/1000 LAN

Wireless Networking

• 300Mbps Wifi PCIe Card Included

Power Supply

• 300 watts

Dimensions

• Height: 353mm
• Width: 182mm
• Depth: 410mm

Interfaces

• 1 x PS/2 Keyboard / Mouse Port
• 4 x USB 2.0 Port (2 Front, 2 rear)
• 4 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Port (4 rear)
• 1 x RJ-45 Ethernet Port
• 3 x Audio Jacks at the rear
• 2 x Audio Jacks at the front
• 1 x HDMI 2.1 Port
• 1 x VGA Port

Note the display outputs from the motherboard are disabled when a graphics card is installed.

Expansion

• 1 x PCI-e x16 Slot, free
• 1 x PCI-e x1 Slots, 0 free (1 used for wifi card)

Case

• Contour Contender
• Space for 1 additional 80mm/92mm fan at the front
• Space for 1 additional 80mm/92mm fan at the rear

Warranty

• 3 Year Return to Base parts and labour
• 1st 30 days collect and return at our expense