Budget dual monitor build for Minecraft

YattaRX8 · February 28, 2021

Budget (including currency): <700USD

Country: USA. Also close enough to drive to the Tustin, CA Microcenter

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Minecraft

Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc):

Told a friend I'd help her put together a PC for her daughter's birthday(9 y/o). From what I'm told, the daughter wants two monitors to play Minecraft and chat with friends. I guess my biggest concern is whether a 3200g will drive Minecraft okay on one monitor while the second monitor is active with non-intensive tasks. Not really used to piecing together budget builds but this is what I got so far. The monitors have a VGA and HDMI port, which the motherboard also has.

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 3 3200G 3.6 GHz Quad-Core Processor	$105.95 @ Adorama
Motherboard	MSI B450M PRO-M2 MAX Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard	$74.98 @ Amazon
Memory	G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 8 GB (2 x 4 GB) DDR4-2666 CL15 Memory	$44.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Samsung 860 Evo 500 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive	$59.99 @ Newegg
Power Supply	Corsair CX (2017) 450 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply	$44.94 @ Newegg
Monitor	Acer SB220Q bi 21.5" 1920x1080 75 Hz Monitor	$92.98 @ Amazon
Monitor	Acer SB220Q bi 21.5" 1920x1080 75 Hz Monitor	$92.98 @ Amazon
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$516.81
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2021-02-28 13:06 EST-0500

I figure in the future they could buy a low end GPU when needed. And I'd let the mom pick out the case and other peripherals

Another thing I'd like to ask is if there's a comparable prebuilt PC sold somewhere. I'd like to give the option to spend a little extra money in exchange for less hassle in the future if something goes wrong with the PC. My friend's on the low end of the spectrum in tech literacy. I found a couple budget options from Microcenter but one is a bit above budget, and the other looks like it would be a nightmare to get inside the case if needed. I'll link them below

Nightmare Case: https://www.microcenter.com/product/623275/lenovo-ideacentre-510a-desktop-computer

Above budget when adding monitors and other peripherals: https://www.microcenter.com/product/632412/powerspec-b246-desktop-computer

If anyone knows off-hand some better or similar options, it'd be appreciated.

ProjectBox153 · February 28, 2021

That should be alright for Minecraft, but I'd recommend connecting both monitors through their HDMI ports. You'll need to use a DVI to HDMI cable to do that, but that would be better than 1080p at 75Hz over VGA.