Dad build advice

Cotj · July 10, 2021

Budget (including currency): <$700

Country: US

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Sound Forge Audio Cleaning lab(converts records and reel-to-reel), converting VHS to digital, burning DVD/Blueray. Also my dad is horrible at maintenance, so something that the processor can take some abuse of random crap running in the background

Because of the burning and such I am looking at a MotherBoard with 6 Sata ports, he "wants 3 disk drives" Fast DVD burner, Fast Blueray Burner, and a lightscribe + ability to upgrade later if needed

Other details

have an old:

Graphic Card: EVGA GTX 660

Power Supply: Corsair C650M

Case: From old build? or something cheap

I wanted to take my dad to Micro Center here in Denver to pick up the parts so put together a build on their website:

https://www.microcenter.com/site/content/custom-pc-builder-intel.aspx?load=19dcca70-90dd-494a-aa7c-dd1a2a0d4132

So far I have only customized an Intel build, I really know little about AMD.

On the intel side, they have available an

i5

Intel Core i5-10400F - $135 <- Comet Lake
Intel Core i5-10600K - $185 <- Comet Lake

Intel Core i5-11600K - $250 <- rocket lake

i3
Intel Core i5-11600K - $99 <- Comet Lake

If I stick to Intel, would the upgrade to rocket lake actually do much, or just save the money on comet i3 and buy a sound card for the audio input. Also The 660 I am using until the Graphics market settles, and I have no idea how much longer it will last! so the on board graphics are a HUGE bonus.

Also would a 650 watt Power Supply be able to push the 660 and all of this?

Thanks for the help!

Edited July 10, 2021 by Cotj
Link did not work

Cotj · July 10, 2021

Side Note: I have a retail copy of windows so can throw that on here, saving the $140

Cotj · July 10, 2021

Second side note: I used the AMD builder and they have 1 AMD processor with On board graphics

https://www.microcenter.com/site/content/custom-pc-builder-amd.aspx?load=76656423-3ac9-4e93-9ac1-346e1b02fa0f

Hamster Homie · July 10, 2021

For the kind of workload the PC will be used, I whould take CPU cores/threads over clockspeeds and integratedgraphics. I dont think the PC will suffer from the GPU because you dont plan on doing fancy stuff with graphics.

All the intel CPUs have 6 cores / 12threads where the AMD one only has 4Cores/8Threads.

I whould go with the cheapest intel CPU.

Also, the EVGA GTX 650 has the same performance as the integrated graphics in the AMD CPU so dont bother with the 3200G.

Your power supply will have NO trouble giving all the power your PC needs. It might even be overkill.

Poinkachu · July 10, 2021

Your power supply should be enough if it's only 660. Just make sure the PSU is still good enough, quality and power delivery wise. Since it's been used for idk how long.
I powered i7-9700K and a ROG RTX2060 Super with 750. Not even a corsair, or any other usual top tier brands.

But yeah, if your dad isn't the tinkering and maintenance type, like Hamster Homie said, probably best to just go with Intel. For core count as well.
And don't bother with 3200G.
Me personally, (in normal situation), on-board graphic is only just to serve as my backup GPU in case my stand-alone breaks.

Might want to research about his usual apps though, whether it benefits more or not from high cores cpu.
Example : Photoshop efficiency increase drops quite big after 2 cores.
Doesn't mean that you should just get 2 cores, mind you.
At the very least it is so that you can balance budget better between core counts and ram size (or any other thing you wanna put in the case).

As for sound card, that you will need to ask your Dad, since none of us know how sensitive his hearing is. Modern motherboard onboard sound processor is good enough for most peoples, especially mid to high end motherboards, since nowadays gamers uses good headphones.