First draft spec - VMs, photo processing, general use

[JohnPatterson547]

Hi all,

First post here, so go easy on me I'm looking to replace my main desktop PC which is very long in the tooth, and although I've done a little research I'm quite out of the loop on current PC hardware. So any advice and recommendations would be welcome and appreciated.

My main anticipated uses of the PC are:
- photo management: lots of scanning through a reasonable sized collection and reading/processing of metadata
- running VMs: I intend to run Linux as the OS, but I want to be able to run Windows 10+ and Linux in (probably VirtualBox) VMs at times
- some development work: primarily Java in IntelliJ, but occasionally C, potentially some Go or Rust
- general use (web, playing music, etc)

I'm not intending to use it for gaming, though I don't want to totally rule it out! I'd probably look to add a reasonable graphics card later if that ever became something I wanted to do. I'm just going to use it with a fairly standard 1080p monitor for now, but I'm thinking about upgrading to something higher res later.

So I think I want to prioritise lots of local fast storage, and memory, over CPU grunt or graphics.

I have a rough budget of 1000 - 1500, though that's a little flexible.

Here's what I picked out as a first draft:

Case
FRACTAL FOCUS G BLACK GAMING CASE (Window)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i5 Six Core Processor i5-11400 (2.6GHz) 12MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® PRIME Z590-P (LGA1200, USB 3.2, PCIe 4.0) - ARGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB PRO DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
INTEGRATED GRAPHICS ACCELERATOR (GPU)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 7000MB/R, 5000MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
16x BLU-RAY WRITER DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW & SOFTWARE
Power Supply
CORSAIR 350W VS SERIES™ VS-350 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
STANDARD CPU COOLER
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
Wireless Network Card
WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 2,400Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 16 to 19 working days
Welcome Book
PCSpecialist Welcome Book - United Kingdom & Republic of Ireland
Price: £1,302.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/intel-z590-pc/GvGxp8p7m4/

I'm especially unsure about the PSU, cooling and paste options.

I'm guessing the first bit of feedback will be to avoid Intel and go for AMD - I'm not opposed to that, but I know (even) less about that, and it seemed to jump the price up!

What do you think? As I say, any advice welcome

 

[sck451]

Right now the only decent iGPU option is Intel; hopefully AMD's 5600G will come to PCS in August, but who honestly knows...

If you want to go ahead with this now, I'd go for something like this. I've upgraded the motherboard, removed the RGB on the RAM, changed the storage to get fast boot but cheaper bulk storage, given you more and better quality power, far better cooling, and gone to built-in WiFi rather than a WiFI card, all for £80 more.

I'll do another post with an entry-level AMD build...

Case
FRACTAL FOCUS G BLACK GAMING CASE (Window)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i5 Six Core Processor i5-11400 (2.6GHz) 12MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING Z590-PLUS WIFI (LGA1200, USB 3.2, PCIe 4.0) - ARGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
INTEGRATED GRAPHICS ACCELERATOR (GPU)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 6900MB/R, 5000MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB INTEL® 670p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 3500MB/sR | 2700MB/sW)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
16x BLU-RAY WRITER DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW & SOFTWARE
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H100i RGB PRO XT Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
Wireless Network Card
NOT REQUIRED
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 16 to 19 working days
Price: £1,382.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/intel-z590-pc/xtGMr4T8pn/

 

[sck451]

The AMD option for now involves a discrete graphics card, but we'll go for one that's not really suited for gaming.

Case
FRACTAL FOCUS G BLACK GAMING CASE (Window)
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Six Core CPU (3.7GHz-4.6GHz/35MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® PRIME B550-PLUS (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GT 1030
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 6900MB/R, 5000MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB INTEL® 670p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 3500MB/sR | 2700MB/sW)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
CoolerMaster Hyper 212 (120mm) Fan CPU Cooler Black Edition
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
Wireless Network Card
WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 2,400Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 16 to 19 working days
Price: £1,354.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/9GZkDMHw2t/

 

[JohnPatterson547]

... and gone to built-in WiFi rather than a WiFI card, all for £80 more.

Thanks so much! I'll have a proper dig through both of those specs next.

I just wanted to note that I don't need wifi per se (I'll use it wired), but I do want BT5, so that's why I added the card.

 

[sck451]

Thanks so much! I'll have a proper dig through both of those specs next.

I just wanted to note that I don't need wifi per se (I'll use it wired), but I do want BT5, so that's why I added the card.

I have no idea why you'd want Bluetooth on a desktop, but the motherboard supports Bluetooth 5.

 

[JohnPatterson547]

I have no idea why you'd want Bluetooth on a desktop, but the motherboard supports Bluetooth 5.

For headphones, mainly. But I've also needed it for some other random things in the past, like upgrading firmware on some peripherals.

Thanks, if the motherboard supports it already then that's ideal

 

[sck451]

For headphones, mainly. But I've also needed it for some other random things in the past, like upgrading firmware on some peripherals.

Thanks, if the motherboard supports it already then that's ideal

Fair enough, though the idea of using Bluetooth headphones with all their latency for e.g. watching videos or gaming is beyond me! In any case: you're covered.

For clarity and because I didn't say it before: of the above systems, I'd recommend the AMD one rather than the Intel one.

 

[JohnPatterson547]

Fair enough, though the idea of using Bluetooth headphones with all their latency for e.g. watching videos or gaming is beyond me! In any case: you're covered.

For clarity and because I didn't say it before: of the above systems, I'd recommend the AMD one rather than the Intel one.

You're right, of course, but I expect I'd only use the bluetooth for music (and not most of the time).

Thanks again for your help, I've been looking up details of the AMD build you configured, and that's looking pretty great.