New PC to run Adobe Creative Cloud

[Mike4]

Mrs M4 is currently studying at uni and uses "Adobe Creative Cloud" extensively. Her 15 year old desktop is running Win 7 Professional and can't really cope with ACC - well it can but it objects randomly by seizing up and generally barfing unexpectedly at being asked to do stuff once in a while, apparently.

The Adobe site is not particularly helpful, just saying it needs to run on "Microsoft® Windows 10 (64-bit only) and later", and an internet connection. So straight away this highlights a problem, her current PC is not running Win10.

So, we are looking for advice and recommendations on what to buy please. Does The Team think that any cheap and cheerful Win10 PC will work ok? Or are there some more specific recommendations for processor speed, type of hard drive we should go for? Neither of us has bought a PC for 20 years so feel a bit at sea regarding choosing one. She doesn't want/need anything flashy, just a basic core machine she can plug here existing monitor, keyboard, scanner, printer etc into.

She is wanting to spend the minimum possible as an impoverished student to get a functioning machine. Any specific suggestions as to what to buy would be much appreciated. Many thanks.

[kyu66]

Mrs M4 is currently studying at uni and uses "Adobe Creative Cloud" extensively. Her 15 year old desktop is running Win 7 Professional and can't really cope with ACC - well it can but it objects randomly by seizing up and generally barfing unexpectedly at being asked to do stuff once in a while, apparently.

The Adobe site is not particularly helpful, just saying it needs to run on "Microsoft® Windows 10 (64-bit only) and later", and an internet connection. So straight away this highlights a problem, her current PC is not running Win10.

So, we are looking for advice and recommendations on what to buy please. Does The Team think that any cheap and cheerful Win10 PC will work ok? Or are there some more specific recommendations for processor speed, type of hard drive we should go for? Neither of us has bought a PC for 20 years so feel a bit at sea regarding choosing one. She doesn't want/need anything flashy, just a basic core machine she can plug here existing monitor, keyboard, scanner, printer etc into.

She is wanting to spend the minimum possible as an impoverished student to get a functioning machine. Any specific suggestions as to what to buy would be much appreciated. Many thanks.

I would imagine any modern PC with a min of 8GB of memory (ideally 16GB for image/video editing) and an SSD drive (as opposed to HDD) would do the job. The adobe website lists the system requirements for each of the products in CC, so have a check on the ones most likely to be used.

https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/ ... ments.html

[Mike4]

I would imagine any modern PC with a min of 8GB of memory (ideally 16GB for image/video editing) and an SSD drive (as opposed to HDD) would do the job. The adobe website lists the system requirements for each of the products in CC, so have a check on the ones most likely to be used.

https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/ ... ments.html

Thanks! I hadn't realised that within the list of each element of Creative Cloud, there was a more detailed statement of the spec required.

Looking on the (massively confusing) Dell site a PC with 16gb ram and SSD seems to cost about £1,200. Looking on ebay a similar machine seems to start at about £250.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CCL-3-5GHz-D ... ition=1000

Would the £250 one be a Bad mistake, does the team think? Is a Dell machine for £1200-ish reasonable value or just priced that high to help pay for Dell marketing and flashy offices?

Where would The Team here go first, to buy a new PC?

[Mike4]

Just noticed my ebay PC doesn't have Windows 10 (despite me selecting Win 10 in the search bar), so rule that out.

Amazon returned this in a search:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Optiplex-i7-26 ... 349&sr=8-4

Seems to tick all the boxes but concerned I'm overlooking something.

[scrumpyjack]

I've bought second hand machines from Amazon, all fine

[Watis]

I would imagine any modern PC with a min of 8GB of memory (ideally 16GB for image/video editing) and an SSD drive (as opposed to HDD) would do the job. The adobe website lists the system requirements for each of the products in CC, so have a check on the ones most likely to be used.

https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/ ... ments.html

Thanks! I hadn't realised that within the list of each element of Creative Cloud, there was a more detailed statement of the spec required.

Looking on the (massively confusing) Dell site a PC with 16gb ram and SSD seems to cost about £1,200. Looking on ebay a similar machine seems to start at about £250.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CCL-3-5GHz-D ... ition=1000

Would the £250 one be a Bad mistake, does the team think? Is a Dell machine for £1200-ish reasonable value or just priced that high to help pay for Dell marketing and flashy offices?

Where would The Team here go first, to buy a new PC?

Looking at the spec for the Ebay PC you linked to, there would appear to be some shortcomings:

- the processor is only 2 core. I would expect 4 cores as a minimum these days.

- it does not come with any wireless network capability, only wired ethernet. This could be added though, at the cost of a Wifi dongle or an internal board.

- the only video outputs are DVI & HDMI. Do either of those match her monitor? If not, that's another adaptor to buy . . .

- the keyboard and mouse ports are PS/2. Again, are her keyboard and mouse compatible? If they are USB devices, they should work but will tie up two of the USB ports on the PC.

Now, Dell.

I have a ten year old Dell laptop at home that is still running fine. And my employer buys Dell exclusively and they rarely need attention. You shouldn't need to spend as much as £1,200 though.

HTH,

Watis

P.S. - only now have I seen your later post, but I'll leave this up in case it helps anyone else in the future.

[Mike4]

Looking at the spec for the Ebay PC you linked to, there would appear to be some shortcomings:

- the processor is only 2 core. I would expect 4 cores as a minimum these days.

- it does not come with any wireless network capability, only wired ethernet. This could be added though, at the cost of a Wifi dongle or an internal board.

- the only video outputs are DVI & HDMI. Do either of those match her monitor? If not, that's another adaptor to buy . . .

- the keyboard and mouse ports are PS/2. Again, are her keyboard and mouse compatible? If they are USB devices, they should work but will tie up two of the USB ports on the PC.

Now, Dell.


I have a ten year old Dell laptop at home that is still running fine. And my employer buys Dell exclusively and they rarely need attention. You shouldn't need to spend as much as £1,200 though.

HTH,

Watis

P.S. - only now have I seen your later post, but I'll leave this up in case it helps anyone else in the future.

Thanks for your observations, these are exactly the sort of things I know I miss, not having been that interested in PC building since about 20 years ago!

We are not averse from buying Dell for the reasons you outline, but the extra £1k or so seems a lot to pay for the known reliability. I've had a closer look through the Dell site and I really can't find any desktop with 16gb of RAM for under £1k. I still haven't had time for a really thorough look though. ISTR Dell also has a 'factory seconds' type of website too. Will have another look after work.

[mc2fool]

She doesn't want/need anything flashy, just a basic core machine she can plug here existing monitor, keyboard, scanner, printer etc into.

To avoid any surprises I recommend you google for if your specific scanner and printer models work under Windows 10. If they're anywhere near close to as old as the rest of your kit there's always a possibility that they won't if the manufacturer hasn't updated their drivers ... that's unlikely if it's a major manufacturer, but do check anyway.

Given your requirements and the desire to "spend the minimum possible" I'd say the Amazon machine you linked to is almost certainly overkill. 8Mb will probably be more than enough, you don't need an i7, and do you really need a 240GB SSD and a 1TB HDD? How much space is she using on the W7 machine?

If price is really important then for £100 less you might look at something like this, which I suspect would more than do the job for her (not a recommendation, just what I came up with on a quick search ): https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dell-OptiPlex- ... B0774SKM4Z

[Infrasonic]

Mrs M4 is currently studying at uni and uses "Adobe Creative Cloud" extensively. Her 15 year old desktop is running Win 7 Professional and can't really cope with ACC - well it can but it objects randomly by seizing up and generally barfing unexpectedly at being asked to do stuff once in a while, apparently.

The Adobe site is not particularly helpful, just saying it needs to run on "Microsoft® Windows 10 (64-bit only) and later", and an internet connection. So straight away this highlights a problem, her current PC is not running Win10.

I'd have a quick look in Task Manager and see where the bottlenecks are occurring, whether it is CPU or Disk (HDD) based.
It's possible if the disk is the issue that simply replacing with an SSD could solve 99% of the issues. (Backup and restore or clone the old W7 HDD to the new SSD using something like free Macrium Reflect.)

If so you could always upgrade the machine from W7 to W10 legitimately for free via the Microsoft Media Creation Tool route (which afaik is still working fine even though officially it finished some time back). The licensing should pick up via MS' servers and transfer across to the new W10 install.

You can actually run W10 unlicensed if you want to try it out on a dual boot or VM basis, just to check legacy hardware compatibility (printers et al). If it all works fine then upgrade as above or buy a new/refurb W10 desktop with OEM/retail license.

My only caveat with refurbs is watch out for the age of the CPU, many of the 'bargains' have ancient versions, so future proofing is minimal around new standards/protocols.

I'd be inclined to get something that is gen 7 or higher CPU on a refurb and then add to it as needed with more RAM, bigger/secondary SSD's et al which is relatively simple on a mid tower size desktop with four accessible SATA ports on the MB.

Having done upgrades on SFF/ 'slimline' desktops' for others it's not something I'd get for myself unless going the all SSD route, (boot and any additional drives) as it's a PITA working on them -- resulting in skinned knuckles and lots of swearing as the multiple gotchas arise...