A value system for the amateur photographer
This system offers a good upgrade over our entry photography system. This system uses the six core AMD Ryzen 5 5600G processor which is the latest generation AMD processor. In terms of raw compute performance, its around 25% ahead of the AMD 4350G system. It’s still a value focused system, but with the 16GB RAM and 500GB M.2 NVMe SSD and the 2TB HDD, it now leaves a regular desktop PC system for dust.
One of the key upgrades in this PC system is the inclusion of the Gigabyte B550M Aorus Elite motherboard. Its higher performance than the B450M in the entry system and it is far better able to handle large volumes of data processing as it utilises the latest chipset and provides high power delivery via its 5 + 3 phase pure digital VRM.
The SSD drive is the same high performance model as used on the entry model. It uses the high performance M.2 NVMe technology and with 500GB of storage capacity.
The money has been carefully spent on the components which offer the biggest performance boost and bang for buck for the amateur photographer. Anyone undertaking more heavy duty image processing tasks would be better off looking at our higher end models.
This system is perfectly capable of running Adobe Photoshop CC and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom CC applications but the image file sizes should be kept to a small size, ideally below 200MB when in memory. Users should avoid complex transformations and multiple layers.
Modern commercial image processing software requires a minimum of 16GB of memory, and you will need plenty of fast storage to hold your image catalogue. This is a budget system which has 16GB of memory.
The processor is an AMD Ryzen 5 5600G offering six cores and a 3.9GHz frequency with 4.4GHz Turbo. The performance isn’t at all bad given the low price point as Photoshop benefits mainly from increases in processor frequency rather than multiple processor cores. The performance is very similar to the Intel i7-9700k which was the fastest CPU for photo editing only 18 months ago.
Read our blog articles to find out more about customising your PC spec to benefit Photoshop and Lightroom.
Six Core Ryzen Processor
500GB NVme SSD Drive
Specifications:
Processor
- AMD Ryzen 5 5600G 3.9Ghz Six Core CPU
- Max Turbo Frequency 4.4GHz
- Cache: 19MB
- Arctic Alpine 23 Air Cooler Installed
Memory
- 16GB DDR4 3200Mhz RAM
- Dual Channel – 2 x 8GB
- Supports up to 32GB
- 2 x DIMM sockets (2 Used)
Hard Drive
- 500GB WD Blue SN550 M.2 NVMe SSD
- 1 M.2 socket, used
- 2TB Seagate BarraCuda 3.5″ Hard drive
- 4 SATA Ports, 2 free (2 Used for DVDRW & 2TB HDD)
Optical Drive
- Asus DVD Re-Writer, SATA, 24x, M-Disk Support
- 1 x Optical Bays, 0 free
Software
- Windows 11 Home 64-bit
- Clean install, no additional software
Chipset
- AMD B550 Chipset
Display Outputs
- 1 x HDMI 2.0b
- 1 x DL-DVI
- Supports up to 2 monitors at once
- Supports HDCP
Graphics
- AMD Radeon Vega Integrated Graphics
Audio
- High Definition Audio, 5.1 or 7.1 channel
- Audio provided by Realtek ALC887 Audio Chip on the motherboard
Input Devices
- No Keyboard or Mouse Included
Wired Networking
- Realtek 10/100/1000 LAN
Wireless Networking
- 1733Mbps Wifi & Bluetooth PCIe Card Included
Power Supply
- 400 watts
- Minimum 82% efficient
- 85% efficient at 50% load
Dimensions
- Height: 353mm
- Width: 182mm
- Depth: 410mm
Interfaces
- 1 x PS/2 Keyboard/Mouse Port
- 4 x USB 2.0 Port (4 rear)
- 6 x USB 3.1 Port (2 Front, 4 rear)
- 1 x RJ-45 Ethernet Port
- 3 x Audio Jacks at the rear
- 2 x Audio Jacks at the front
- 1 x HDMI 2.1
- 1 x DVI-D
Note the display outputs from the motherboard are disabled when a graphics card is installed
Expansion
- 2 x PCI-e x 16 Slots, 2 free
- 1 x PCI-e x 1 Slots, 1 free (1 x used for wifi)
Case
- Contour Contender mATX Case
- Space for 1 additional fan at the front and back
- Not compatible with liquid coolers
- 2 x 3.5″ Hard drive bays, 1 free (1 used for 2TB drive)
- 1 x 5.25″ bays, 0 free (1 used for the DVDRW drive)
- 1 x 2.5″ bays, 1 free
Warranty
- 3 Year Return to Base parts and labour
- 1st 30 days collect and return at our expense
