900 euro limit comp science student

sumsar

Hi guys,

I've got the template below filled out but to add a bit to it..

Currently I have a Samsung RC420 laptop a few years now (maybe 5+?), but I'm looking to either buy or build a desktop, building seems to be the best bang for buck (unless someone advises otherwise) so I'm looking for advice on a build that will either be similar or better to my current laptop for around the 800 euro range (maximum I can pay is 900 on the dot including delivery).

Appreciate any and all feedback.

1. What is your budget? - 900 maximum.

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? - It will be a mixture between college work (computer science), Unity, Photoshop, Lightroom (I enjoy photography) and other similar areas.

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? - Yes I believe so...

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? - No, starting from scratch.

5. Do you need a monitor? - No

5b. If no, what resolution is your current monitor and do you plan to upgrade in the near future? - 2560x1080 UltraWide monito , no plans to upgrade.

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? - Would like to get a wireless card yes and depending on the budget a card reader (sd or multi)
would be nice but not essential.

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? - Don't know what it is so I will say no...

8. How can you pay? - Card or PayPal

9. When are you purchasing? - I can purchase now or wait.

10. If you need help building it, where are you based? - No help required, have a family member who can help.

If anyone has any questions that will help with recommendations or if anyone has any suggestions fire ahead.

K.O.Kiki

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor (€245.84 @ Mindfactory)
Motherboard: ASRock AB350M Pro4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard (€90.18 @ Mindfactory)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2800 Memory (€130.43 @ Mindfactory)
Storage: Silicon Power Slim S55 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (€87.93 @ Mindfactory)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (€77.54 @ Mindfactory)
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 1050 2GB Mini Video Card (€124.83 @ Mindfactory)
Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mini Tower Case (€49.44 @ Mindfactory)
Power Supply: SeaSonic G 550W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (€80.84 @ Mindfactory)
Wireless Network Adapter: Gigabyte GC-WB867D-I PCI-Express x1 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi Adapter (€35.79 @ Mindfactory)
Total: €922.82
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-04-23 12:15 CEST+0200
Approximation.

Get everything except the case from Mindfactory & delivery should be €30.
Buy a mATX case on Amazon for free shipping.

Talk to your IT dept about getting a Windows license, or install Win10 un-activated for free.

ED E

Your college most likely will give you free keys for all windows OSs via Microsoft Imagine as Ko has mentioned.

If you want that'll allow you to setup a rake of different VMs on the same machine for testing etc.

Sheogorath

ED E wrote: »

Your college most likely will give you free keys for all windows OSs via Microsoft Imagine as Ko has mentioned.

Is this generally only for comp science students? never heard of it

ED E

Sheogorath wrote: »

Is this generally only for comp science students? never heard of it

Up to the institution, they pay per seat. Wouldnt be unheard of for Maths and Eng courses to be included.

K.O.Kiki

I completely forgot about the new Radeon RX 550 (€89-99) - can play games at Medium-Low settings and cheaper than the GTX 1050.

Xenoronin

A secondhand card would probably be the way to go rather than bothering with the 550. Something like the GTX 760 would perform better and usually is pretty damn cheap nowadays.

K.O.Kiki

Xenoronin wrote: »

A secondhand card would probably be the way to go rather than bothering with the 550. Something like the GTX 760 would perform better and usually is pretty damn cheap nowadays.

True, I'm just looking at new parts.

Could go all the way into budget territory, and get an old Quadro from eBay for €25-40 if displaying an image is all that matters.

minitrue

When the OP says Unity I'm guessing that means the game development platform so they might want a current card, though I think really only they could know what they would need. Photo editing stuff can also use gpu acceleration so I wouldn't go back too far or down too low

Cuddlesworth

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

True, I'm just looking at new parts.

Could go all the way into budget territory, and get an old Quadro from eBay for ?25-40 if displaying an image is all that matters.

Funnily enough, older low end cards tend to struggle with things like HTML5 video.

sumsar

minitrue wrote:

When the OP says Unity I'm guessing that means the game development platform so they might want a current card, though I think really only they could know what they would need. Photo editing stuff can also use gpu acceleration so I wouldn't go back too far or down too low

Spot on, I will start to buy the parts suggested next week, hoping to get them all one purchase to save on delivery so fingers crossed the funds are fine then, if not just an extra week or two of waiting to buy in one purchase.

Thanks for the suggestion and comments.