Intel i5 2400 for graphics

[Ash]

Hi,
I'm looking at getting a PC with the Intel® Core™ i5-2400 Quad Core 3.10Ghz + HD Graphics processor.
What I'm confused about is the HD Graphics part. Are the graphics capabilities of these processors good enough for me to run programs like Photoshop on? I only use programs like Photoshop to create basic images. Nothing too intensive. Just things like forum signatures/avatars and desktop wallpapers. I can't think of anything else I would use the computer which would need a powerful graphics card. I'm getting one to do college/uni work (I'm doing a software development course) so, at the moment, I'm just using programs like Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Express. I use my PlayStation 3 for games, so I won't be using my PC for gaming. I might tinker with the odd game, but nothing anywhere Crysis and I definitely wouldn't want to run them on High settings. I won't be watching DVDs on the PC, as again I use my PS3 for that.
The reason I ask is because cost is an issue for me, so saving money on a graphics card would be quite good.
If I do need a graphics card, I've been looking at the NVIDIA GeForce 210 or the AMD Radeon HD6450. The latter is a better card, but is more expensive.
Finally, would a 350w PSU but good enough to run a system like that? I'm using 8GB of RAM if that makes a difference. Rakk in a different thread said that it should be enough but he didn't know too much about what programs like Photoshop require to run.
Thank you...

 

[Wozza63]

you probably wont even use 200w with everything at 100% usage as it wont include a graphics card which you don't need

 

[PokerFace]

I would get the best psu you can afford. That way you could add stuff like a graphics card later if you want and would still have enough power.

 

[mantadog]

Well i have a very similar system to yours by the sounds of it. In the section where i can look t my build it says the max power my computer will need is something like 254W. That includes a couple of PCI cards you probably wont have so you can take off a 10W ish from that for you system.

If you think your system will use 250W of power that gives you approx 100W to use on a GPU, the low end GPU's use approx 30W of power and the next step up 60W or so. That still leaves you a bit of wiggle room in your PSU to be safe.

As i said i have a very similar spec to yours by the sounds of it, and it will have no problems with light photoshop or any of the 'standard' uses of a PC these days. The integrated graphics will probably allow you to play older games no bother, i have tried some of older games and no problems playing them, however anything new is probably a non starter. Playing DVD's etc wont trouble the computer at all so you can do that aswell if needs be.