Any suggestions for a prebuilt for my dad?

[Ha-Satan]

So I'm looking to help my dad get a new desktop. I could very well build it myself (and that might be what I end up doing) but I wanted to give him some reasonable options for prebuilts as well if he wants to go that route.

 

The most demanding softwares he uses are music softwares (like StudioOne, Cubase, and Dorico) as well as Zwift, which is a cycling simulator. So, with that in mind, I was looking for something with a pretty high-end CPU (at least Zen 4 level with 8+ cores) and either a high-end iGPU (like the 780M) or low-end dGPU (like a 3050). Zwift, like many similar sim games, is heavy on the CPU and in particular heavy on single-core performance, but relatively light on the GPU (though I'd still probably want something on the level of a 780M or Lunar Lake iGPU at the minimum).

 

Other requirements include:

 

-Needs wifi (or the ability to easily add an internal wifi card). He is currently using a USB wifi adapter and it sucks.

 

-Needs at least one 3.5" drive bay so he can bring over his old storage HDD from his old PC.

 

-Micro-ATX form factor so it fits under his desk (maximum ~350mm tall)

 

-Prefer it to have a "business" aesthetic rather than "gamer"

 

-32GB of RAM preferred, but 16GB is fine I guess so long as it's upgradable

 

I was considering going for an 8700G-based system, but I couldn't find any reasonably priced prebuilts with the 8700G that also listed support for a 3.5" drive.

 

Budget: ideally less than $1K USD (we are in the US)

 

Thanks in advance for your suggestions!

[PDifolco]

11 minutes ago, Ha-Satan said:

So I'm looking to help my dad get a new desktop. I could very well build it myself (and that might be what I end up doing) but I wanted to give him some reasonable options for prebuilts as well if he wants to go that route.

 

The most demanding softwares he uses are music softwares (like StudioOne, Cubase, and Dorico) as well as Zwift, which is a cycling simulator. So, with that in mind, I was looking for something with a pretty high-end CPU (at least Zen 4 level with 8+ cores) and either a high-end iGPU (like the 780M) or low-end dGPU (like a 3050). Zwift, like many similar sim games, is heavy on the CPU and in particular heavy on single-core performance, but relatively light on the GPU (though I'd still probably want something on the level of a 780M or Lunar Lake iGPU at the minimum).

 

Other requirements include:

 

-Needs wifi (or the ability to easily add an internal wifi card). He is currently using a USB wifi adapter and it sucks.

 

-Needs at least one 3.5" drive bay so he can bring over his old storage HDD from his old PC.

 

-Micro-ATX form factor so it fits under his desk (maximum ~350mm tall)

 

-Prefer it to have a "business" aesthetic rather than "gamer"

 

-32GB of RAM preferred, but 16GB is fine I guess so long as it's upgradable

 

I was considering going for an 8700G-based system, but I couldn't find any reasonably priced prebuilts with the 8700G that also listed support for a 3.5" drive.

 

Budget: ideally less than $1K USD (we are in the US)

 

Thanks in advance for your suggestions!

 

Your specs are underwhelming, for $1K you can get much better

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 7600 3.8 GHz 6-Core Processor  (£170.00 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Gigabyte B650 EAGLE AX ATX AM5 Motherboard  (£126.46 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Patriot Viper Venom 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory  (£86.54 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Crucial P3 Plus 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  (£64.95 @ AWD-IT)
Video Card: Gigabyte GAMING OC Radeon RX 7700 XT 12 GB Video Card  (£359.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Case: Phanteks XT PRO ATX Mid Tower Case  (£54.95 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Power Supply: MSI MAG A750BN PCIE5 750 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  (£69.98 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £932.87
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-05-13 19:41 BST+0100

 

[PDifolco]

8 minutes ago, Jaslion12 said:

Love this list. Yeah OP you could go with this

7700 XT is a lot better than a 3050. Don’t know if you still want the 3050?

Nobody else than Jensen deserves a 3050  

[Ha-Satan]

@Jaslion12 @PDifolco

 

If I were going for a standard gamer build, you'd both be on the money with your suggestions. To be honest, though, Zwift (which is the only game-ish thing that he'll use it for) is sufficiently undemanding on the GPU that something on the level of a 7700 XT is actually wild overkill. This post about Zwift from earlier this year says that a 1650 Super is sufficient for 4K at ultra settings in Zwift (but that a CPU with reasonable single-core speed is necessary for 60 fps in certain scenarios, which is expected considering it's a sim). That's why I figured that something like an 8700G would be a good choice, because it has a lot of CPU power (which is good for music software) and a big enough iGPU to run Zwift at reasonable settings, while consuming much less power than something like a 7700 XT.

 

If we do go the DIY route, I'm going to spend a lot less than $1K USD (probably closer to $500 or less). But I'm hoping to give him some options for prebuilts for non-technical reasons, i.e., it might be easier for both of us if he can just take it to Best Buy and get a warranty replacement quickly instead of having to wait for me to coordinate my schedule in order to come over and fix it.

 

(This makes it sound like I don't want to spend time with my dad lol, I promise that's not it, he's just kind of impatient and I'm extremely busy right now)

 

[PDifolco]

3 minutes ago, Ha-Satan said:

@Jaslion12 @PDifolco

 

If I were going for a standard gamer build, you'd both be on the money with your suggestions. To be honest, though, Zwift (which is the only game-ish thing that he'll use it for) is sufficiently undemanding on the GPU that something on the level of a 7700 XT is actually wild overkill. This post about Zwift from earlier this year says that a 1650 Super is sufficient for 4K at ultra settings in Zwift (but that a CPU with reasonable single-core speed is necessary for 60 fps in certain scenarios, which is expected considering it's a sim). That's why I figured that something like an 8700G would be a good choice, because it has a lot of CPU power (which is good for music software) and a big enough iGPU to run Zwift at reasonable settings, while consuming much less power than something like a 7700 XT.

 

If we do go the DIY route, I'm going to spend a lot less than $1K USD (probably closer to $500 or less). But I'm hoping to give him some options for prebuilts for non-technical reasons, i.e., it might be easier for both of us if he can just take it to Best Buy and get a warranty replacement quickly instead of having to wait for me to coordinate my schedule in order to come over and fix it.

 

(This makes it sound like I don't want to spend time with my dad lol, I promise that's not it, he's just kind of impatient and I'm extremely busy right now)

 

Ok, but there's still no reason to buy overpriced crappy GPU

Best value at low budget is something like this :

(sorry I wrongly located my previous built in the UK !)

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 7600 3.8 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($198.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte B650 EAGLE AX ATX AM5 Motherboard  ($164.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Kingston FURY Beast 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory  ($71.48 @ Amazon)
Storage: Crucial P3 Plus 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($61.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: ASRock Challenger D Radeon RX 6600 8 GB Video Card  ($219.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Phanteks XT PRO ATX Mid Tower Case  ($80.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: MSI MAG A650BN 650 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($74.98 @ Amazon)
Total: $873.40
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-05-13 15:02 EDT-0400

 

[Ha-Satan]

1 minute ago, PDifolco said:

Ok, but there's still no reason to buy overpriced crappy GPU

Oh yeah, if I go the DIY route I'm going to buy something like a used 2060 on ebay as that should be more than enough for his purposes (I'll also re-use his old case and a bunch of other stuff). I only brought up the 3050 in the original post as an example because it's the sort of thing you might find in a prebuilt in the price range I mentioned and I wanted people to know that I was cool with that level of performance.

[CatTNT]

if you can reuse his old case and buy a used low end GPU, you have enough budget to buy a 9900X or 9800X3D, depending on the expected ratio of productivity/gaming. A 9900X is a safe choice if you aren't sure, still pretty damn fast single core but with lots of multithreading power. 

Total cost: $778
Case: Free
GPU budget: ~$222 (If iGPU isn't good enough, I don't know how good any iGPUs are)
Based on Ebay listings near me, using the $180-$230 range for already sold and complete listings shows that you can get something like a 2060, 3060, RX 6600 tier GPU in that price. 

 

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/2hchxg

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 9900X 4.4 GHz 12-Core Processor  ($374.00 @ Amazon) 
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler  ($35.90 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: ASRock B650M Pro RS WiFi Micro ATX AM5 Motherboard  ($139.99 @ Newegg) 
Memory: Kingston FURY Beast 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory  ($65.98 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Crucial P3 Plus 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($61.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: MSI MAG A750GL PCIE5 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($99.99 @ Amazon) 
Total: $777.85
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-05-13 15:27 EDT-0400

I have personal experience with the CPU cooler i selected, it's able to cool a 9950X and maintain above stock multithreaded performance. 
 

[Ha-Satan]

37 minutes ago, CatTNT said:

if you can reuse his old case and buy a used low end GPU, you have enough budget to buy a 9900X or 9800X3D, depending on the expected ratio of productivity/gaming. A 9900X is a safe choice if you aren't sure, still pretty damn fast single core but with lots of multithreading power. 

Total cost: $778
Case: Free
GPU budget: ~$222 (If iGPU isn't good enough, I don't know how good any iGPUs are)
Based on Ebay listings near me, using the $180-$230 range for already sold and complete listings shows that you can get something like a 2060, 3060, RX 6600 tier GPU in that price. 

 

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/2hchxg

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 9900X 4.4 GHz 12-Core Processor  ($374.00 @ Amazon) 
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 SE 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler  ($35.90 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: ASRock B650M Pro RS WiFi Micro ATX AM5 Motherboard  ($139.99 @ Newegg) 
Memory: Kingston FURY Beast 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory  ($65.98 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Crucial P3 Plus 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($61.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: MSI MAG A750GL PCIE5 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($99.99 @ Amazon) 
Total: $777.85
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-05-13 15:27 EDT-0400

I have personal experience with the CPU cooler i selected, it's able to cool a 9950X and maintain above stock multithreaded performance. 
 

Yeah, this is pretty similar to what I initially had planned out:

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7700 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor  ($265.00 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Assassin X 120 Refined SE 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler  ($17.89 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock B650M Pro RS WiFi Micro ATX AM5 Motherboard  ($139.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: TEAMGROUP T-Create Expert 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory  ($92.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Silicon Power UD90 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($61.97 @ Newegg Sellers)
Video Card: EVGA SC GAMING GeForce RTX 2060 6 GB Video Card  ($140.00)
Case: Rosewill FBM-01 MicroATX Mini Tower Case
Power Supply: MSI MAG A550BN 550 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($58.00 @ Amazon)
Total: $775.84
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-05-13 16:02 EDT-0400

 

The 9900X would probably be a good upgrade for some of his music production work but it would also mean probably buying a new case (because his current case (in the list) is a shitty hotbox and probably not good enough for a high-power 12-core) and spending more on the power supply and CPU cooler, which he might be OK with so I'll see what he says!

[strange13930]

1 hour ago, Ha-Satan said:

The 9900X would probably be a good upgrade for some of his music production work but it would also mean probably buying a new case (because his current case (in the list) is a shitty hotbox and probably not good enough for a high-power 12-core)

you could take the side panel off