New desktop PC for photography and (light) gaming - starting from scratch

Hello everyone!

This is my first post here. I found my way here while researching a nice configuration for my new desktop PC and found the contents of this forum and the Youtube channel really helpful.

The last time I used a desktop PC privately is some 20 years ago. Back then I did not build it myself either. As I am appalled by Apple’s current pricing and its move away from (semi-)pro apps, I would like to get out of this ecosystem. A nice new desktop PC might be a good start, I suppose. Therefore, I would like to build a new system completely from scratch and do so myself (as in assembling the components myself). Accordingly, I do not want to re-use anything.

Location:

I live in Germany and therefore will have to spend my money in EUR, preferably at Alternate.

Aims:

My demands for the system are manifold and I will try to organise them below. All the points mentioned should be accomplished without too much fan noise.

  1. Regular daily use
    No problems here, I guess…

  2. Photography
    I like to take photographs with a decent camera and do my own RAW processing and organisation (Capture One Pro, darktable, and the likes) and some image manipulation (the GIMP).

  3. (Financial/statistical) simulations
    Due to my professional background, I like/have to do some CPU- and RAM-intensive financial/statistical simulations from time to time.

  4. Gaming
    I am not a regular gamer and do not have too much time for it anyway. That being said, I really like simulation and strategy games (like Anno 1800 and Starcraft II) and the odd RPG (like Skyrim) or survival horror game. Although I know that the GPU idea below is not the best for 4K gaming, I would still like to get a 4K monitor due to my photography-related stuff and would like to game in FHD (which should nicely scale down from a 4K monitor, I suppose).

Operating systems:

I have quite a lot of Linux experience as I use Ubuntu on a daily basis at work. A Linux system should be my primary OS (most likely Ubuntu or a derivative of Ubuntu). For gaming, I would like to have Windows as a separate system into which I can boot from Bios at start-up.

The key therefore is to find hardware that plays nicely with both operating systems.

Budget:

Without a monitor (will have to look into this as well though), the whole system should ideally cost at most 1,500 EUR. If there is a considerable gain to be had by spending a bit more, I might think about it. Overall, I am looking for a powerful but still value-oriented rig that will last me for the next 6 years or so.

Current configuration idea:

After some research I came up with the following configuration.

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600
GPU: MSI GeForce GTX 1660 Super Gaming X
Mainboard: MSI B450 Tomahawk Max
RAM: G.Skill RipJaws V black DDR-4 3200 (2x 16 GB)
PSU: be quiet! Pure Power 11 500W (with cable management)
Cooling: Scythe Mugen 5 Rev. B
Case: Fractal Design Defince C
M.2-SSD for main system (Linux): Samsung 970 EVO 1 TB
SATA-SSD for secondary system (Windows): Samsung 860 EVO 500 GB
SATA-SSD for photos, music, etc.: SanDisk Ultra 3D 2 TB
WLAN: Some PCIe card or USB adapter

This setup will cost approx. 1,400 EUR as of yesterday.

Questions:

I would like to pick your brains about the following.

a)
Does this system seem to be OK and working for my use case as well as in both operating systems? If not, where should I switch components (ideally with specific recommendations)?

b)
As I would like to be able to play Anno 1800 (which is kind of resource-hungry) with rather detailed settings, I guess that a GTX 1660 Super is the minimum requirement for a GPU. Stronger GPUs suffer from being weak value propositions and/or power hogs, though.
I know that AMD GPUs have a better history of OS drivers under Linux. However, currently there seem to be many problems with Radeon cards (blue screens, etc.). Nvidia seems to be a better bet then, right? Or is this issue blown out of proportion online?

c)
Do you have specific recommendations for a wireless solution (either PCIe or USB). Unfortunately, due to a bad supply of plugs in my flat, I currently have to use WLAN.

d)
If you had a good recommendation for a nice 27 inch 4K monitor with good colour accuracy and brightness, I would really appreciate it as well. :wink:

Thank you very much for your patience and for sharing your experiences/suggestions!

All the best!

Welcome to the forum.

After reading the first couple of paragraphs I was going to start by suggesting just getting a prebuilt but your detailed requirements are very much PCMR calibre so you are right to build.

To answer your questions:

CPU ram and mainboard are fine although I’d suggest upgrading to the MSI B450 GAMING PRO CARBON for built in WiFi, saving you a slot. It’s a good board.

The GPU is at the bottom end of what I’d say is reasonable for a 4K monitor. It won’t game well. You could drop ram to 16GB and use the additional money to go for a 2060 super or 5700XT. Both work well at 4k moderate settings.

Psu is on the low end. It will be enough but consider 650W for more headroom.

Case - check it is the full size define C and not the mini.

SSD - are you intending to do virtualisation and passthrough or dual boot. Curious why you need 3 SSDs if you plan to dual boot (just partition the m.2) and for virtualisation (just put the virtual disk on your bigger SSD). Remember to budget for backup hard disks for your data.

Both have their quirks. I have endless issues with my vega56 but my Nvidia drivers on Linux are slower to update. Go for cards at least 1 year old and it is generally ok.

Covered above. Get a motherboard with WiFi built in and save the slot.

Need more information. Do you want to game at more than 60Hz or do you need HDR features? One monitor or two? Ultra wide or 16:9? If suggest watching some of Wendell’s videos on monitors (or Linus tech tips) and refining your needs otherwise you can spend €3000 on just the screen and still hate it.

Good luck

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Thank you very much for your useful input!

This board was actually part of my original selection. :wink: Unfortunately, it is not ready for Ryzen 3000 out of the box; only the MSI “Max” versions or X570 boards are. I could update the Bios but I read several reports of people who had trouble getting this done. Additionally, I was wondering whether this would not be burying money if (!) the wireless card on the board would not work under Linux. Hm, do you own the board?

You are right here. My idea was to do my gaming in Full HD instead of in 4K (figuring that 4K is basically 4x FHD, leading to an integer multiplier). Daily work and photography in 4K should be handled nicely by the GTX 1660 Super as well. I might consider an RTX 2060 Super, although an additional 160 EUR (+55%) is quite a lot plus a 40% larger power draw. But if this really further future proofs the setup, it might be a good idea. Then I would certainly have to consider a stronger PSU.

I meant the full-size version.

My idea was to really separate the two OSs. This way I am free to, say, drop Windows without having to renew the whole system. I plan to do a dual boot, where I select the OS from the Bios. I have loads of external storage (currently working on a 512GB SSD with lossless music and lots of RAWs, which would not be possible without it). So this is covered.

Yes, there was a bit of information missing. I have not yet got deep into the frequency topic (60Hz etc.). I do not think that I need HDR. One monitor is enough in my private setting, ultra wide might be an option. I would feel best with a limit at 500 EUR, I guess.

Once again, thank you for taking the time! Really appreciated!

I don’t own the board but have the same WiFi chipset and it works fine under Linux. .

https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/B450-GAMING-PRO-CARBON-AC/Specification

Only at full load. At desktop and idle the power draw is the same. The better GPU just gives more headroom. It should only be a price / PSU decision.

And here is where the ‘modern’ OS gets tricky. That worked in bios days but with uefi windows will write to the uefi on the board and “take over” the board. You can disable this and still manually switch, or install grub (better) but windows will fight you and I have had issues with drives that are swapped around suddenly no longer being recognised. Grub would be better to switch or virtualise your remaining windows apps and use linux.

I’ll leave the monitor choice for others to comment on. I use Dell workstation panels at 1440p and they are lovely. Freesynch would be nice. HDR is a gimmick IMO.

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The moment you said photography in the topic, I had a strong urge to convince you to get an HDR monitors on the spot because that is your primary use case. I mean, leave the 8bit displays to us plebs. If photography is your job, and I assume that is your job, you have the responsibility to work on the correct colors and to do that, you need a proper 10bit display. You can only get that from HDR monitors.

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I will look for a board with included WiFi.

I agree. Maybe buying a GTX 1660 Super now might still be a good route to take. If FHD gaming on a 4K monitor is OK for me, the card should be fine. If not, I could always swap the card at a later stage once prices for the current generation (RTX 2060 Super or RTX 2070 super) come down with the introduction of the new Nvidia chips or AMD fixes the driver issues at the end of the year. Gaming is not my top priority anyway, so the money might be put to better use in a nice monitor IMO.

I will have to figure this one out. Luckily, a friend of mine has an OS setup like the one I plan to implement. He is currently quite happy with it.

Thank you for the tip! But photography is actually not my job. I would describe myself as an enthusiastic hobbyist. :wink:

Right now I have this setup and it serves me well. However, I read that you switch from Apple to Linux, a move I have done as well. I too was fed up with Apple moving away from productivity towards consumer-centric devices. I have no need to budget myself when buying hardware but there is just so much of that Apple-tax I can take. And I like to know where my files are instead of those murky invisible iPhoto and iTunes libraries or iCloud. You might think about not installing Windows at all.

I did make the mistake to install Windows before switching to Linux but it has been a pain all the way. Had to buy a lot of software (for like € 1000) to do basic tasks a Mac user takes for granted like antivirus, antimalware, full text search, automatic driver updates. And in the end I still had a system that could not boot without error messages, full text search that only worked so-so and a built-in e-mail client that also worked so-so.

I would advise to just focus on Linux.

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I hear you.

I actually have been working on a Linux system at work for years. So my main system will be Linux, no doubt about it.

Unfortunately, I have this small gaming itch that I cannot properly scratch on Linux (i.e. specifically the Anno games which are too taxing on a virtual machine). But do not worry; Windows will really just be for gaming or in case I really have to use some piece of software that I cannot replace on Linux (tax software comes to mind).

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