Entry Plus Photography PC V2

A value system for the amateur photographer

This system offers a good upgrade over our entry photography system. This system uses the new six core AMD Ryzen 5 8500G processor which uses a newer generation core.  In terms of performance in photography applications, its around 14% ahead of the AMD 5600GT system. It’s still a value focused system, but with the 16GB DDR5 RAM and 1TB M.2 NVMe SSD and the 2TB HDD, it now leaves a regular desktop PC system for dust.

This system includes the MSI A620M-E motherboard.  Its higher performance than the A520M in the entry system and it is far better able to handle large volumes of data processing as it utilises the latest generation chipset and provides high power delivery and supports DDR5 memory.

The SSD drive is a higher performance model than used on the entry model.  It uses the high performance M.2 NVMe technology and with 1TB of storage capacity.

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 which has 16GB of memory.

The processor is an AMD Ryzen 5 8500G offering six cores and a 3.5GHz frequency with 5.0GHz Turbo. 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.

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

Specifications:

Processor

• AMD Ryzen 5 8500G 3.5Ghz Six Core CPU
• Max Turbo Frequency 5.0GHz
• Cache: 22MB
• AMD Wraith Cooler

Memory

• 16GB DDR5 5600Mhz RAM
• Dual Channel Single Dimm
• Supports up to 64GB
• 2 x DIMM sockets (1 Used)

Hard Drive

• 1TB NVMe M.2 SSD (3500MB/R, 2100MB/W)
• 1 M.2 sockets, 1 used
• 2TB Seagate BarraCuda 3.5″ Hard drive
• 4 SATA Ports, 2 free (2 Used for DVDRW & 2TB HDD)

Optical Drive

• Asus DVD Re-Writer, SATA, 24x, M-Disk Support
• 1 x Optical Bays, 0 free

Software

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

Chipset

• AMD A620 Chipset

Display Outputs

• 1 x HDMI 2.1
• 1 x VGA
• Supports up to 2 monitors at once
• Supports HDCP

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

• 2400Mbps Wifi PCIe Card Included
• Bluetooth 5.2

Power Supply

• 500 watts
• Minimum 82% efficient
• 85% efficient at 50% load

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 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
• 1 x VGA

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

Expansion

• 1 x PCI-e x 16 Slots, 1 free
• 1 x PCI-e x 1 Slots, 0 free (1 x used for wifi)

Case

• Contour Contender mATX Case
• Space for 1 additional fan at the front and back
• Not compatible with liquid coolers
• 2 x 3.5″ Hard drive bays, 1 free (1 used for 2TB drive)
• 1 x 5.25″ bays, 0 free (1 used for the DVDRW drive)
• 1 x 2.5″ bays, 1 free

Warranty

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

Last updated 22/06/23