Advice on new desktop to use adobe photoshop, Premier pro and after effects

theb52s

Silver Level Poster
I'm looking at thoughts on the kind of price range I'd need to be looking at for a decent desktop for video editing and capable of running Adobe Photoshop, Premier Pro and After Effects. I've been given an idea of what I should be looking at for a laptop used for those purposes but was wondering if it might be better to pay a little more for the desktop.
 

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
I'm looking at thoughts on the kind of price range I'd need to be looking at for a decent desktop for video editing and capable of running Adobe Photoshop, Premier Pro and After Effects. I've been given an idea of what I should be looking at for a laptop used for those purposes but was wondering if it might be better to pay a little more for the desktop.
A desktop is a longer term investment for a couple of reasons

1/. components of the same tier are more powerful

2/. The overall price is quite significantly cheaper.

3/. They're upgradeable, as soon as you start wanting for more performance, on a well designed desktop, you just purchase a new gen GPU and slap it in, instant performance boost.

A high end laptop for this kind of purpose would probably remain relevant for perhaps 4 years at a stretch. A desktop will go 7 - 10 years happily with one or two GPU upgrades during that time.

I'll leave it to someone else to suggest specs simply because my heads a little in tatters this week and finding quite simple things quite challenging to complete, so pulling a spec together is like rocket science atm :p

But someone will be along soon to help out with some suggestions.
 

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
I'm looking at thoughts on the kind of price range I'd need to be looking at for a decent desktop for video editing and capable of running Adobe Photoshop, Premier Pro and After Effects. I've been given an idea of what I should be looking at for a laptop used for those purposes but was wondering if it might be better to pay a little more for the desktop.

As suggested above, it really depends on the level you want to be working at. £1500-£1700 would be the starting point for me, without a monitor. £2000 gets a high end system and £2500 is no compromise.

You would want to factor in a good monitor setup as well though. This can range from £300 right through to £1500.

We would really need some sort of insight into the level of work you're wanting to produce, timelines, etc, and the sort of budget you want to work within. The world is your oyster really.
 

theb52s

Silver Level Poster
Thanks for the replies. This would be for my son, to replace an older desktop that he had. He produces a largely audio fan series which he puts out on you tube. He sometimes includes live action trailers for this series and uses after effects to add effects to this and to his opening and closing credits. I'm pretty clueless myself about that sort of thing so don't really know much about what is involved with that but to my untrained eyes what he intends to spend on this seems like slight overkill for what he is doing. He won't be gaming on it. He intends to pay the monthly subscriptions for the adobe software as it is what he is used to. I have suguested he may want to look at cheaper alternatives to achieve what he wants but I don't know whether that would impact on the requirements of whatever he decides to buy. He is looking at up to around £2000 but that would include the monitor.
 

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
What monitor(s) does he have just now? Can they be re-purposed. What monitor is it he is wanting, so that this can be factored into the budget. Around £2k for a monitor and a media PC is definitely doable. There will need to be compromise to make it all fit though :)
 

theb52s

Silver Level Poster
The monitor he has at
What monitor(s) does he have just now? Can they be re-purposed. What monitor is it he is wanting, so that this can be factored into the budget. Around £2k for a monitor and a media PC is definitely doable. There will need to be compromise to make it all fit though :)
His monitor is fairly basic and is around 9 years old so he'll be looking for a new one. He doesn't have a lot of space so wouldn't want something too large.
 

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
Is there a possibility to use the Windows license from the current system? The reason I ask is that this would get you further inside budget without compromising too much.

Monitor:


System below:

Case
LIAN LI LANCOOL 215 GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i5 10-Core Processor i5-12600K (3.7GHz) 20MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING Z690-PLUS WIFI D4 (LGA1700, USB 3.2, PCIe 5.0) - ARGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB PRO DDR4 3600MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
12GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3060 - HDMI, DP, LHR
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 6900MB/R, 5000MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB INTEL® 670p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 3500MB/sR | 2500MB/sW)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair iCUE 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
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00003]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge
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 4 to 7 working days
Price: £1,768.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/intel-z690-pc/Ny5!FQ7nwY/
 

theb52s

Silver Level Poster
Thanks. He had never even upgraded to Windows 10 and his old desktop won't boot up at the moment. I think its best to go with a new one.
I'll show him this build. I think he was giving it a month or so before ordering to get his money together so plenty of time yet.
Thanks again
 

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
Thanks. He had never even upgraded to Windows 10 and his old desktop won't boot up at the moment. I think its best to go with a new one.
I'll show him this build. I think he was giving it a month or so before ordering to get his money together so plenty of time yet.
Thanks again
If it's a windows 7 system it's even easier to transfer the license. And still free.
 

Aza

Rising Star
If it's a windows 7 system it's even easier to transfer the license. And still free.
Can you still upgrade it? I remember you were still able to for a long time after the official offer expired, but searching now I cant find references anymore (admittedly, it was only a quick search)

Sometimes product keys can also be found on stickers and such, but if you cant get the old one to boot it might have an issue with a key it recognises as being in use still. When I transferred from laptop to desktop, it was an old (win 7?...might of been 8) and I had to remove the product key from the laptop through command prompt, then used that in the new install and go from there, I ran into complications trying to upgrade windows and transfer all at the same time and it wouldnt associate to the digital licence on the first attempt. Bear in mind that it was a bit of a hatchet job swap over though there are probably far easier ways of doing it! (and also the possibiliity I did something wrong myself that made it so complicated)
 

Martinr36

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
Can you still upgrade it? I remember you were still able to for a long time after the official offer expired, but searching now I cant find references anymore (admittedly, it was only a quick search)

Sometimes product keys can also be found on stickers and such, but if you cant get the old one to boot it might have an issue with a key it recognises as being in use still. When I transferred from laptop to desktop, it was an old (win 7?...might of been 8) and I had to remove the product key from the laptop through command prompt, then used that in the new install and go from there, I ran into complications trying to upgrade windows and transfer all at the same time and it wouldnt associate to the digital licence on the first attempt. Bear in mind that it was a bit of a hatchet job swap over though there are probably far easier ways of doing it! (and also the possibiliity I did something wrong myself that made it so complicated)

And yes it does still work as the W11 on the Berserker in my signature, started off life as W7 on an old HP machine
 
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SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
I don't think the OP's son would be able to upgrade their Windows 7 licence as their current system isn't booting up...so, unless they can resolve that issue, then there's no way to upgrade it
You don't need to do it on the current machine.

Just install windows 10 on the new device, activate with windows 7 key which should be on the case of the dead computer, then convert to digital license and do whatever you want from there.
 
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