PC Build for home/office productivity

[jb_123]

1. Budget & Location

$800 (US) but flexible. Multiple CPU and/or GPU options at different price tiers would be great.

 

2. Aim

I would like to build a PC for my dad for Christmas. He would mainly be using it for stock trading, HEAVY Excel use, holding WebEx meetings, and for personal use (i.e. surfing the web, email, etc.). He might do some light CAD, but only very occasionally. He does NOT play games or do any video video-editing.

 

I would like some advice on whether I should go with one of the new AMD 5000 series CPUs with a cheap graphics card (like maybe a GTX 1650 super) or use the GPU money to buy a higher tier Intel CPU with integrated graphics. For storage, I was planning on going with NVME. For RAM, 2 x 8gb. I would also like inexpensive case ideas based on the CPU/GPU recommendation. ITX is preferred but mATX works too.

 

3. Monitors

He is currently using an ultrawide 1080p monitor; however, I would like to build a PC that supports dual 4k monitors or a 4k ultrawide in case he would like to upgrade in the near future.

 

4. Peripherals

He already has the necessary peripherals (mouse and keyboard, etc.).

 

5. Why are you upgrading?

He’s currently using a ~$500 laptop that’s a few years old, which takes forever to boot up and is incredibly slow doing everyday tasks (like email, browsing, searching for files). I would like to build him a snappy replacement

 

[Coolmaster]

Quite honestly the $800 might be excessive, you can build a basic Ryzen APU build for half the price.

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 3 3200G 3.6 GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($136.88 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: MSI B450M BAZOOKA MAX WIFI Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($93.98 @ Newegg) 
Memory: Team T-FORCE VULCAN Z 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 CL16 Memory  ($51.98 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Western Digital SN750 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  ($62.99 @ Amazon) 
Case: Thermaltake Versa H15 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($29.99 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: Corsair CX (2017) 450 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($44.94 @ Newegg) 
Total: $420.76
 

And if he needs a little more power you can swap for a 3400G.

And I put a motherboard with integrated wireless.

 

If he'd need more power this is good

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($219.99 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: MSI B450M BAZOOKA MAX WIFI Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($93.98 @ Newegg) 
Memory: Team T-FORCE VULCAN Z 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 CL16 Memory  ($51.98 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Western Digital SN750 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  ($62.99 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER 4 GB WINDFORCE OC Video Card  ($169.99 @ B&H) 
Case: Thermaltake Versa H15 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($29.99 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: Corsair CX (2017) 450 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($44.94 @ Newegg) 
Total: $673.86
 

If you want a more compact case you can go for this one https://pcpartpicker.com/product/rnGxFT/cooler-master-masterbox-q300l-microatx-mini-tower-case-mcb-q300l-kann-s00

Or spend more on a ITX board and find an ITX case, this one is pretty good for a budget https://pcpartpicker.com/product/xK848d/cooler-master-mastercase-h100-mini-itx-desktop-case-mcm-h100-kann-s00

 

I don't think he'll use more than 6 cores for excel, you can swap the 1650 Super for a RX 570/580 for about the same price, or spend more for a 1660 (Super) or a RX 5600XT. 

 

If you want to go upto $800 you could spend more on Storage, maybe get more storage, go upto 32GB of RAM, get a more expensive powersupply.

[Letgomyleghoe]

23 minutes ago, jb_123 said:

ITX is preferred but mATX works too.

good luck building a decent itx build with $800, just get a tower

 

 

a more GPU oriented build, can be easily upgraded down the road

 

CPU: AMD Ryzen 3 3100 3.6 GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($107.67 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($114.99 @ B&H) 
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  ($68.61 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Crucial P1 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  ($53.99 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER 6 GB VENTUS XS OC Video Card  ($259.99 @ Newegg) 
Case: Fractal Design Meshify C ATX Mid Tower Case  ($88.98 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: EVGA B5 650 W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($87.86 @ Amazon) 
Total: $782.09

 

a more cpu oriented build and probably the better choice

 

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/FH42mk

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($219.99 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($114.99 @ B&H) 
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  ($68.61 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Crucial P1 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  ($53.99 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER 4 GB WINDFORCE OC Video Card  ($169.99 @ B&H) 
Case: Fractal Design Meshify C ATX Mid Tower Case  ($88.98 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: EVGA B5 650 W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($87.86 @ Amazon) 
Total: $804.41

 

 

 

both of these builds have excessive psu's for upgrades in the future, as they will likely be needed

[Guest]

I work in software, my usage is similar enough to your dad's. I use 3x screens every day, a lot of excel, frequent cad work, loads of web tabs in various browsers, a bunch of other apps running like anti virus, music streaming, MS Office programs even VMs and I would recommend that you go big on core count, big on RAM and at least 6GB vram.

 

Everyone talks about "light cad" or "light video editing" but the last thing you want is having to suffer long loading times or processing times just to do some 'light' work.

 

With that in mind here's a quick list I threw together. The reason I chose a 2tb mech drive is so he can back up all his stuff fully and regularly.

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 7 2700X 3.7 GHz 8-Core Processor	$219.99 @ Newegg
Motherboard	ASRock B450M PRO4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard	$79.98 @ Amazon
Memory	GeIL EVO SPEAR Phantom Gaming 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3000 CL16 Memory	$95.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Crucial P1 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	$53.99 @ Amazon
Storage	Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive	$54.99 @ Newegg
Video Card	MSI GeForce GTX 1660 Ti 6 GB VENTUS XS OC Video Card	$249.49 @ Newegg
Case	Phanteks Eclipse P300A Mesh ATX Mid Tower Case	$51.99 @ Amazon
Power Supply	be quiet! Pure Power 11 500 W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply	$79.98 @ Amazon
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$906.40
	Mail-in rebates	-$20.00
	Total	$886.40
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-11-10 12:15 EST-0500