Legit Reviews

Hi all,
I need to tell my dad what pc to get to upgrade from his XPS400. He has 2 24" monitors that currently run on a 9800gt (i think).
Software which he uses: photoshop for basic editing, ms office, with news videos playing on the second screen.

I was thinking that any i5 or i7 would be enough if there is at least 8gb ram. But most have integrated gpus which might cut it for the dual monitors, and the psu might not have enough connections/power if i add a gpu.

Recommendations for <$1000 for prebuilt with decent customer service.

Thanks

Most any setup now a days can run dual monitors but it would probably be a smoother experience with a dedicated GPU but not necessary. Integrated will run dual monitors but you need a motherboard that has dual monitor ports. You can use one HDMI and 1 VGA, 1 HDMI and 1 DVI, etc you just have to set up the way you want it to work in the settings.

You never said what the PSU was so I dont know if it would be powerful enough.

If he doesnt game or use advanced photoshop/premiere with RAW then an i5 would be fine. Could go to an i3 but i5 is a more middle ground choice.

8GB of ram should be fine, again, as long as he is not working with RAW files and doing a lot of editing as RAW is huge and takes a good bit of power to manipulate (in my experience). 16GB would be better and should not be a whole lot more $$$.

Look for one of the new Skylake i5 systems, the integrated video on them is really good now. Sadly though, if you can hold out another month, when Intel releases all the Skylake CPU's that would be better, I doubt he has a need for the enthusiast grade "K" processor.

Of course after my experience with them, I have to say check out Maingear.