This question is one that I have come across in the past, my friends are cheap and lazy! They
would love something pre-built that can connect to their television. I decided on the
CyberPower PC with the AMD Ryzen 5 3600, this machine has 8GB of ram. It also sports an
AMD Radeon RX 580. It has a 2tb hard drive, and a 250GB solid state drive (Hunt, 2020). It
also comes with a wired mouse and Keyboard. The AMD Ryzen 5 processor is excellent for
gaming. If they choose to game a little more extensively, they are covered. Having that
future proof option on the gaming side is a good idea. The storage space is adequate to
start. Photo and video editing can eat away at storage quickly but having the two 2.5” bays
and the two 3.5” bays for internal expansion is a plus. This PC also has 8 USB ports which
can help with external hard drives if they choose to not go with internal options. The HDMI
output is great for their existing flat screens, there is no need to buy a dedicated computer
screen. The specs of this PC will help with all photo editing and/or video editing needs. They
may need to purchase the software, or they can use GIMP for free! (Wilber, 2020) With the
speed and reliability of this pre-built PC it will provide all the necessary support for my
friend’s needs, while being able to provide future modifications, and all at an affordable
price.
I would suggest that my friend build his own. It is more cost effective, and in turn can
receive more power for the amount of money that he does put in. Given that he would be
photo and video editing, I would recommend he uses something between the AMD 3rd Gen
processors as they have really great hyper threading for being able to run multiple apps
such as a game and Lightroom or Adobe Premiere for video and photo editing. Something
like an AMD 3800X with 8 cores, or as high as an AMD Threadripper 3950X 16 core. Having a
good processor with hyperthreading is always a great decision because it can make long
tasks seem shorter and you would still be able to multitask without a hickup.
Since he will be doing some gaming, but is not the focus of his projects, I would suggest a
video card in a more conservative fashion, as it will help with the video and photo editing,
but because of the processor being very good, it is not needed for a heavy gpu. In this case I
would go with a Nvidia 1660 super. This 6GB GPU could run a good amount of games at
high resolution upwards of 1440p and 144hz on high settings and still be able to give an
average of 60 FPS. This will also help with the editing software as he would be able to run
multiple programs at once without having a bottleneck down the road as he is working on
projects.
Because he will be working with large files such as RAW for editing on Lightroom or AP, I
would suggest, for his storage, to be a Samsung 970 EVO NVME m.2 at 1TB. This Hard drive
can be used for all his booting up needs and photo and video editing needs as m.2 drives
will deliver the fastest boot times and responsiveness to his projects when working with
large files as mentioned earlier. I would also couple this with at least 2 Samsung EVO 980
SSD drives at 1TB each for the purpose of saving projects. I chose to have 2 because working
with larger files you need the extra storage to be able to save them for your later portfolio
and even smaller edits if needed.
With these options, I feel that he would surpass what he truly would be looking for, but in
the end, he would not have to worry about too many upgrades or switching any parts out
soon.
Reference list
Hunt, C. (2020, April 06). Any of these pre-built PCs are perfect for playing Minecraft.
Retrieved August 10, 2022, from https://www.windowscentral.com/best-pre-built-pcs-
minecraft
