Steve and Marcel delivered Andy's project through The IT Guy Bournemouth before Elements launched. It is a real build, but the image below is an illustration, not a photograph of his machine or workspace.
Start with the photographs, not gaming parts
The enquiry was unusually clear: photo editing, email and occasional documents, with no gaming requirement. The existing iMac still held years of work, so choosing a new Windows desktop was only one part of the job. The team also needed to plan how Lightroom, files and external drives would fit into the change.
A compact case appealed because the computer would live close to the working area. The chosen black Lian Li A3 with a wood-look front offered a smaller footprint than a conventional tower while leaving room for a practical editing specification.
The selected build plan
Andy selected the first of two November 2025 proposals. The revised quote recorded the following parts. These are the documented plan, not a current fixed-price offer; individual installed parts have not been independently audited for this article.
| Case | Lian Li A3 mATX Glass Edition, Wood Black |
|---|---|
| Processor | AMD Ryzen 5 7600X |
| Memory | 64 GB DDR5 |
| Storage | 2 TB NVMe SSD |
| Graphics | ASUS Dual GeForce RTX 3050 |
| Cooling | Thermalright air cooler and Arctic case fans |
The emphasis was on memory and working storage for a photograph library, rather than paying for a gaming-led graphics card. A new customer would get a fresh specification based on today's software, component availability and budget.
The handover mattered as much as the build
Marcel said he was building the PC in mid-November; by 25 November it was waiting at Steve's office. The later conversations moved to data transfer, Lightroom and making Mac-formatted external drives usable on Windows. Some software questions needed follow-up after collection. That is normal for a platform move, and it is why we plan the whole working setup, not just the tower.
If you are moving from an older Mac or replacing a photo-editing PC, tell us which applications, plug-ins, photo libraries and external drives you rely on. Our custom PC guide explains how we turn those needs into a build brief.
Compact does not mean one-size-fits-all
This was a Lian Li A3 build, not a Fractal Terra or one of our proposed TERRA3.0 systems. The cases differ in size and component choices. What carries across is the method: begin with the owner's work, agree a case that suits the space, then check cooling, connectivity and the path from the old computer.
We currently serve Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole, with collection by arrangement from our Bournemouth office and no shipping of completed PCs.