Upgrading mom's desktop advice

[Austinjh]

Hi, I'm planning on upgrading the desktop I built for my mom 5ish years ago. The primary reason is she will need WiFi soon and instead of adding a wireless card I'd rather upgrade the core components. Her current system includes:

 

i3 3225

Asus P8H77-I

2x4GB Corsair DDR3

2x1TB WD Blue

Corsair semi-modular powersupply (maybe a cx500, I cant remember)

BitFenix Prodigy

 

I'll be adding an 860 evo 500GB this weekend, making it the os+programs drive, and using one HDD for storage and the other for backups. She has a small book keeping business which is the desktops primary use.

Also something of note is that when I originally built it I installed 32 bit windows because I was an idiot. So I have to reinstall windows anyways so I figured I'd combine it will the SSD install.

 

Currently the plan is to go with an:

 

Intel i3 8100

Asus ROG Strix B360-I Motherboard (I'm partial to Asus and its not too expensive on Newegg canada)

2x4GB DDR4 (whatever is cheapish at the time of purchase)

 

It's a pretty basic upgrade but is there any other boards or processors I should consider?

What could I do with the old hardware? Would it work for an HTPC or something?

 

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[Firewrath9]

why not get a used i7-3770 (120$), and 2x8 ddr3 (80$)

200$ vs i3-8100 (120$) + mobo (120$) + ram (100)

all prices usd, so convert to CAD

[Eastman51]

I'd say go with an Asus PRIME board instead of the Strix; those are cheaper and more basic, which would be better suited for a generic PC like this. Otherwise I think it will be fine.

 

The old PC could be used as an HTPC, I'd maybe throw in a GT 1030 for a bit more graphics power and to lighten the CPU load.

[Alex Atkin UK]

Its a decent upgrade, the only thing I might consider is if Ryzen would be cheaper for a similar (or better) specification.

 

The old system would work as an HTPC, depending on what codecs you are using for the video files.

 

Not sure how it would handle H265 or 4K, but for 1080p H264 I would expect it to be fine.

[Austinjh]

8 minutes ago, Firewrath9 said:

why not get a used i7-3770 (120$), and 2x8 ddr3 (80$)

200$ vs i3-8100 (120$) + mobo (120$) + ram (100)

all prices usd, so convert to CAD

I'd rather buy new components for warranty purposes and Id also still have to get a wireless card to solve the original problem.

7 minutes ago, Eastman51 said:

I'd say go with an Asus PRIME board instead of the Strix; those are cheaper and more basic, which would be better suited for a generic PC like this. Otherwise I think it will be fine.

 

The old PC could be used as an HTPC, I'd maybe throw in a GT 1030 for a bit more graphics power and to lighten the CPU load.

As far as their website goes Asus doesn't have an ITX prime board with WiFi for LGA 1151. Thanks, I'll keep the 1030 in mind for the old parts.

6 minutes ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

Its a decent upgrade, the only thing I might consider is if Ryzen would be cheaper for a similar (or better) specification.

 

The old system would work as an HTPC, depending on what codecs you are using for the video files.

 

Not sure how it would handle H265 or 4K, but for 1080p H264 I would expect it to be fine.

Hmm, oh ok, I haven't really consider Ryzen, I usually stick with Intel but I'll take a look at it. I'll have to look into the codecs more, I'm not that knowledgeable on them, thanks for the advice.