PC for grandpa

[JammyCreedog]

Hey guys, as the title suggests, this pc build is not for me.  My grandfather uses a Dell XPS midtower with a core i7 3770, 8 gigs of ddr3 ram, and a 1TB hdd. My grandfather spends most of his time running Quickbooks and other financial applications for the charity and community programs he works with. He also does light web browsing and email as well as video streaming from Netflix and Amazon prime.  I managed to replace the power supply from some no name 350watt max unit to an EVGA 600 Bronze and cram in a gtx 1070 that I had laying around from an old build. I made those mods because I occasionally play Rise of the Tomb raider or Fallout 4. 

 

I don't really have any complaints about the gaming performance. But my grandfather is always complaining about having to wait for things to load and a generally sluggish feel when doing productivity stuff. My suspicions are that the hdd is holding everything back and possibly the ram but to a lesser extent.

 

I'd like to put together a system that re-uses my gtx 1070 and EVGA 600.  The one thing that is a MUST for the new system build is an NVME boot drive. 500GB would hold all of his files, no problem. I think he'd be open to a micro-atx ir mini-itx build, takes up less space under the desk, etc... Other than that, i'd be interested in any suggestions ppl want to put forward.

 

Ummm, budget is $600 firm. I live on east coast USA.

 

Go.

[Shiv78]

I think a SATA SSD (240-500GB) and another 8GB RAM stick would be plenty fast enough, and be like $150-200 max. No need for a new CPU or mobo; 3770 is still solid. 

[orbitalbuzzsaw]

PCPartPicker part list: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/HDJnJ8
Price breakdown by merchant: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/HDJnJ8/by_merchant/

Memory: G.Skill - Value Series 8 GB (1 x 8 GB) DDR3-1333 Memory  ($37.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial - MX500 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($118.99 @ B&H)
Power Supply: Corsair - RMx (2018) 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $226.97
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-12-15 16:56 EST-0500

That should do it (the 600B is pretty crappy)

[BigDamn]

Is there anything he is currently doing that cant be done on an iPad paired with a keyboard? I'm no Apple fan by any stretch, but they are very intuitive and helpful for less tech savvy people. If not, I would just get the SSD and roll with it. The rest of that rig isn't too shabby.

[imreloadin]

When someone's grandpa has a better system than 90% of people out there

[JammyCreedog]

22 minutes ago, Shiv78 said:

I think a SATA SSD (240-500GB) and another 8GB RAM stick would be plenty fast enough, and be like $150-200 max. No need for a new CPU or mobo; 3770 is still solid. 

Yeah, you're probably right. But, i have real troubles when I think about buying ddr3 in, lets be real, 2019.  I tried once to migrate the windows partitions to a samsung 850 ssd I had laying around and it just would not take, the system wouldn't recognize it as a bootable drive and that bios is tough as hell to work with. I just want an excuse to buy a nvme on someone elses credit card, ya know. 

[Shiv78]

6 minutes ago, JammyCreedog said:

Yeah, you're probably right. But, i have real troubles when I think about buying ddr3 in, lets be real, 2019.  I tried once to migrate the windows partitions to a samsung 850 ssd I had laying around and it just would not take, the system wouldn't recognize it as a bootable drive and that bios is tough as hell to work with. I just want an excuse to buy a nvme on someone elses credit card, ya know. 

Lol

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor	$159.99 @ Amazon
Motherboard	ASRock - B450 Pro4 ATX AM4 Motherboard	$59.99 @ Newegg
Memory	G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-2400 Memory	$99.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Samsung - 970 Evo 500 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive	$117.99 @ Amazon
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$452.96
	Mail-in rebates	-$15.00
	Total	$437.96
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-12-15 17:23 EST-0500

 

[JammyCreedog]

Geez this is looking more feasable than I thought. I had no idea that 16gb ram kits were now under $100 or that a 970evo is only $120.

 

Are there any compact cases that would still fit an atx motherboard and a 1070 fe?

[Shiv78]

24 minutes ago, JammyCreedog said:

Geez this is looking more feasable than I thought. I had no idea that 16gb ram kits were now under $100 or that a 970evo is only $120.

 

 Are there any compact cases that would still fit an atx motherboard and a 1070 fe?

Yeah, RAM and SSD prices are pretty damn great right now!

 

Why ATX? If you want to go compact, you could get an mATX or even mITX motherboard. Since your grandpa probably won't be SLIing or adding tons of expansion cards (lol) you could easily get away with a tiny little case.

[JammyCreedog]

So i found this case on amazon. Its a Cooler Master Elite 130.  If I went with a m-itx motherboard, i think it would work. At first I thought that none of the itx motherboards came with m.2 slots and thought well that won't work I need that nvme. But then I saw that a bunch of them have the slot on the back side.  I know that standoffs space the motherboard away from the tray but is it safe to have an ssd cramed in between?

[Shiv78]

27 minutes ago, JammyCreedog said:

So i found this case on amazon. Its a Cooler Master Elite 130.  If I went with a m-itx motherboard, i think it would work. At first I thought that none of the itx motherboards came with m.2 slots and thought well that won't work I need that nvme. But then I saw that a bunch of them have the slot on the back side.  I know that standoffs space the motherboard away from the tray but is it safe to have an ssd cramed in between?

yeah, in most cases it's fine

[JammyCreedog]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($159.99 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: MSI - B450I GAMING PLUS AC Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard  ($122.00 @ Amazon) 
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  ($109.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Samsung - 970 Evo 500 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive  ($117.99 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Seagate - Barracuda 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Video Card: Gigabyte - GeForce GTX 1070 8 GB Founders Edition Video Card  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Case: Cooler Master - Elite 130 Mini ITX Tower Case  ($49.99 @ B&H) 
Power Supply: EVGA - 600B 600 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Optical Drive: LG - GH24NSC0 DVD/CD Writer  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Total: $559.96
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-12-15 21:34 EST-0500

 

So this is looking like the config I envisioned.  Other than the difficulty of building in a small form factor chassis, any advice or things I overlooked? I already have a windows 10 usb but no activation code, gonna just havew to live with the watermark for a lil bit.

[JammyCreedog]

Any thoughts? Bueller......  Bueller.......?

[Shiv78]

On 12/15/2018 at 9:37 PM, JammyCreedog said:

Storage: Samsung - 970 Evo 500 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive  ($117.99 @ Amazon) 

Instead of this, just get a 1TB 2.5 inch or m.2 SATA-based Samsung SSD. NVMe isn't worth it for consumer use.