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noahwsnd
Participant
July 17, 2017
Answered

Building a budget PC for Illustrator/Photoshop Design Work, and need help.

  • July 17, 2017
  • 3 replies
  • 6983 views

I should start by saying that I build my own gaming PCs, and have a solid grasp on the hardware and what is required.  My concern is that Adobe utilizes everything much differently from what I would build in a gaming rig, and I don't want to build something overkill, or something that won't perform up to the standard that I'm looking for.  So any help is very much appreciated.

From my research/understanding, both Photoshop and Illustrator use a ton of memory, and can greatly benefit from an SSD.  I'm mostly hung up on which GPU to go with, though.  It seems that Adobe brings Nvidia cards to a screeching halt, so I'm considering an RX 560 4GB card.  If any of this information is inaccurate, please let me know.  My build ideas are below:

CPU:  Ryzen 7 1700

RAM:  32 GB (2x16) DDR4 2400

GPU:  RX 560 4GB

SSD:  Samsung 850 EVO 250GB (space is a non-issue b/c of network drives)

CPU:  i5 7600K

RAM:  32 GB (2x16) DDR4 3200

GPU:  GTX 1050ti 4GB

SSD:  Samsung 850 EVO 250GB (space is a non-issue b/c of network drives)

Would the unlocked Quad Core i5 7600K with 3200 speed memory be a better option vs the 8 core Ryzen 1700 with 2400 speed memory?  Is the 8 core Ryzen 1700 overkill for these tasks?  The RX 560 4GB card and GTX 1050ti 4GB cards are very similar in performance, but does one run better with Illustrator/Photoshop?  These are the kind of answers I'm looking for.  I'm also on a budget, so please don't suggest anything pricier than the parts I've listed.

I just want to be able to design without large/heavily stylized designs taking 5 mins to save or even align to the art board.  I don't do any video editing, so this doesn't need to be a graphics crushing monster or anything... Its sole purpose will be to do everyday tasks, and design in Illustrator and Photoshop. 

Thanks in advance for your help.

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer JonathanArias

    That is the source of your issues with illustrator.  You are working on the wrong program.

    Do you typesetting and layout in adobe indesign and place your illustrator file and photoshop files into the indesign layout. You are never going to not have issues if you continue working that way. Adobe illustrator is not for entire layouts.

    Start working in adobe indesign for your layout and place your art ( nice vector art made in illustrator, edited images in photoshop) into the layout. Your issues will go away and your life will get much easier if you layout in indesign.

    3 replies

    R
    RoboJ1M
    Participant
    October 3, 2017

    Hi,

    I have been tasked with spec'ing and building an entry level InDesign/Illustrator/Photoshop PC for a friend.

    May I ask how your build turned out?

    That AMD spec is very close to what I'm considering? Does that GPU work well? Does it not have to be listed in illustrators System Requirements page?

    Because there they don't list RX4 and RX5 type cars.

    Will any AMD OpenCL card with enough RAM work?

    Can Illustrator use multiple GPUs?

    Thanks,

    Jim.

    JonathanArias
    JonathanAriasCorrect answer
    Legend
    July 17, 2017

    That is the source of your issues with illustrator.  You are working on the wrong program.

    Do you typesetting and layout in adobe indesign and place your illustrator file and photoshop files into the indesign layout. You are never going to not have issues if you continue working that way. Adobe illustrator is not for entire layouts.

    Start working in adobe indesign for your layout and place your art ( nice vector art made in illustrator, edited images in photoshop) into the layout. Your issues will go away and your life will get much easier if you layout in indesign.

      N
      noahwsndAuthor
      Participant
      July 17, 2017

      Oh wow!  Thank you for that info!  I'll see how that changes things, and go from there. 

      Thanks again!

      Jeff Witchel, ACI
      Community Expert
      Jeff Witchel, ACICommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      July 17, 2017

      Hi Jessica,

      If Jonathan's answer is correct, which it is, please mark it as the correct answer, so people will stop answering.

      Thanks!

      Jeff

      JonathanArias
      JonathanArias
      Legend
      July 17, 2017

      what kind of graphics work do you do? are you doing 3D work? you said no video. are you doing animation?

      I do digital illustration, digital magazines with in5 technology. I am running photoshop, illustrator, indesign and bridge all the same time all day. my set up with a mac mini i5 with 16gb of ram a 1t SSD and an external 1T time machine with a 32"Samsung curved screen monitor. I spent about $299 on the monitor, and $1300 on the mac mini.  I work from home connected to a vpn all day and i do run other stuff at the same time ( outlook, word, textwrangler). Solid performance all day. But this is my set up for what i know i do all day.

      I guess what i am getting at is that you have to examine the kind of work to do, the toll and performance you need and buy something that fits that set up. Don't make sense spending a ton of money if you are not doing work that demands that level machine.  I am a big fan of the mac mini because i travel so i like been able to plug and go to other big monitors. i can't do a laptop anytime.

      N
      noahwsndAuthor
      Participant
      July 17, 2017

      Thank you for your response!

      I don't animate anything, but more so just design signs/logos/banners/etc for businesses in my area.  I want a machine that will run smoothly through heavily stylized files, and not be too overkill for the job.  Currently if I have any files with a shadow on them, they slow my entire system down... that means aligning to artboard, just a simple drag and drop into place, and saving/loading the files ALL leave me sitting at my computer unable to do anything until they are finished.  Sometimes it results in a full crash of Illustrator, sometimes it goes through "(Not Responding)" freezes until it finally gets where I asked it to go.  I want that to not be a thing, and my boss is with me on that. 

      I'm here to hopefully find answers to my initial questions so I don't build this new computer and not see any positive results from it.  If I'm going to have these hangups no matter what system I'm using, I need to know that.  If there is a hardware "sweet spot" to make that not happen, I need to know that, too. 

      I typically create files around the 1/2 GB-1GB range, and they are usually very stylized.  If there is a way to eliminate the issues I've asked about, please point me in that direction!

      Thanks.

      JonathanArias
      JonathanArias
      Legend
      July 17, 2017

      An illustrator file that is 1GB is huge.  are you doing entire layouts in illustrator?

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