Is this an OK gaming PC?

[Ghozer]

32GB of ram would be better for what you have described.

 

Consider also going for an AMD Ryzen 1600 6 core as its cheaper and has a good benchmark score on multi-threaded tasks but a bit slower at single threads though. The money you save could also be put towards buying a 1440p monitor then, which I'm sure would benefit you for design work.

 

EDIT:

 

Just did a quick look on Amazon as a suggestion as overclockers do tend to be a bit on the high side.

 

AMD Ryzen 5 1600 CPU TDP 65W 190.00

Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) 2666 MHz 228.00

ASUS PRIME B350M-A Micro ATX Motherboard 72.00

Nvidia GTX 1050 GDDR5 2GB PCI-E 100.00

Corsair CC-9011077-WW Carbide Series 100R Case 55.00

Decent 500W PSU 50.00

250GB Samsung SSD 85.00

1TB Hard Drive 40.00

DVD Rom 20.00

 

Total £840

 

the AMD Ryzen are a good alternative at the moment...

 

But I wouldn't bother with a MicroATX board, only has 2 RAM slots, limits future upgradability...

 

also, no need for a Corsair Case (which can be got for <£50)

 

I would personally pay more than £50 for a PSU....

and a DVD Rom is generally pointless and left out of new builds...

 

I just priced up too..

 

i5-7600

MSI B150 "PC Mate" 1151 Board

16GB Corsair Vengeance DDR4-3000

GTX 1050Ti 4GB

250GB SSD

2TB HDD

Corsair 500w PSU

Basic 'none fancy' Case

 

£765

 

Obviously the GPU could be down-graded a level, to a none Ti card, the RAM can be upgraded at a later date if needed (or during purchase)

[apelike]

The Asus board I quoted has 4 ram slots and can take 64GB memory although I only included 32GB of DDR4 2666 in my list. It also can use faster memory up to DDR4 3200 whereas the MSI board is limited to DDR4 2133 RAM. I agree about the case and I just chose it as an example but the build quality is good compared to some cheaper cases. As for DVD it still comes in handy for ripping CD's but yes, not strictly necessary.

Edited July 2, 2017 by apelike

[Love2print]

Barely use my CD/DVD drive. The last time I tried to use it it had stopped working. Probably been like that for ages but because I don't use it I hadn't noticed.

 

I download software. My CDs were copied years ago to a NAS drive. We have USB ports in the car so music is stuck on a USB key. I don't think I would miss not having a disc drive.

 

Not bothered about anything fancy for a case as long as it does the job.

 

I will consider my options, thanks for all the advice. I won't be buying until my student loan comes in so I'm not rushing to get one. I wanna make sure I get one that I'm happy with mainly because I regret buying my current laptop.