Low Budget Desktop CPU

[Jonathan Lemmens]

Hey guys,

I'm building a simple low budget desktop PC for my uncle. He'll primarily use it for e-mail and browsing the web. Light Photoshop work will probably be his most cpu intensive task.

Since his needs probably won't change in the future, he want's this pc to last a long time. (10 years?)

 

These are the parts i'm thinking of:

Pentium G3258

AsRock H81M-DG4 mobo

8GB Kingston valueRAM 1600MHz

120GB Kingston V300 SSD

Case, PSU, etc.

 

The Core i3-4170 is 0,5GHz faster, has hyperthreading and is €50 more expensive. Would that be a noticeable improvement for him? In Photoshop specifficaly?

 

Also, is 8GB of RAM overkill in this case? going with 4GB only saves me €15 though.

 

[Starelementpoke]

Just now, Jonathan Lemmens said:

Hey guys,

I'm building a simple low budget desktop PC for my uncle. He'll primarily use it for e-mail and browsing the web. Light Photoshop work will probably be his most cpu intensive task.

Since his needs probably won't change in the future, he want's this pc to last a long time. (10 years?)

 

These are the parts i'm thinking of:

Pentium G3258

AsRock H81M-DG4 mobo

8GB Kingston valueRAM 1600MHz

120GB Kingston V300 SSD

Case, PSU, etc.

 

The Core i3-4170 is 0,5GHz faster, has hyperthreading and is €50 more expensive. Would that be a noticeable improvement for him? In Photoshop specifficaly?

 

Also, is 8GB of RAM overkill in this case? going with 4GB only saves me €15 though.

 

For photoshop? Yeah, those threads will probably help. Get a different ssd though.

[Jonathan Lemmens]

Just now, Starelementpoke said:

For photoshop? Yeah, those threads will probably help. Get a different ssd though.

Thanks.

 

Do you mean more GB, or a different brand/type?

[Starelementpoke]

Just now, Jonathan Lemmens said:

Thanks.

 

Do you mean more GB, or a different brand/type?

Different brand/type. V300 is the ssd you avoid like the plague.

[Castdeath97]

Just now, Jonathan Lemmens said:

Thanks.

 

Do you mean more GB, or a different brand/type?

Different type/brand e.g kingston hyper X 

[Castdeath97]

The i3 4170 is definitely worth it. See if you can afford the i3 6100 as well.

[Jonathan Lemmens]

Just now, Starelementpoke said:

Different brand/type. V300 is the ssd you avoid like the plague.

Haha, okay. Anything you can recomend?

 

Why is the V300 so bad?

[Jonathan Lemmens]

1 minute ago, Castdeath97 said:

The i3 4170 is definitely worth it. See if you can afford the i3 6100 as well.

I've looked in to that, but the DDR4 and a different mobo would make it more expensive. He's on a tight budget

[Starelementpoke]

1 minute ago, Jonathan Lemmens said:

Haha, okay. Anything you can recomend?

 

Why is the V300 so bad?

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7763/an-update-to-kingston-ssdnow-v300-a-switch-to-slower-micron-nand

And this ssd if you want to stay low cost: http://de.pcpartpicker.com/part/a-data-internal-hard-drive-asp550ss3120gmc

[Jonathan Lemmens]

2 minutes ago, Starelementpoke said:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7763/an-update-to-kingston-ssdnow-v300-a-switch-to-slower-micron-nand

And this ssd if you want to stay low cost: http://de.pcpartpicker.com/part/a-data-internal-hard-drive-asp550ss3120gmc

Thanks, That SSD is even cheaper

[southpaw5271]

Everyone here has covered the SSD. I would recommend something that has more threads than the G3258. While it's a good chip now for light tasks, it probably won't hold up for the next 10 years. I would look into an AMD quad-core as more and more tasks will start to rely on multiple threads. Also the APU will probably help him with Photoshop.

 

This is coming from a die-hard Intel fan, AMD has better budget friendly options.

[Moonzy]

9 minutes ago, southpaw5271 said:

Everyone here has covered the SSD. I would recommend something that has more threads than the G3258. While it's a good chip now for light tasks, it probably won't hold up for the next 10 years. I would look into an AMD quad-core as more and more tasks will start to rely on multiple threads. Also the APU will probably help him with Photoshop.

 

This is coming from a die-hard Intel fan, AMD has better budget friendly options.

nah, the i3 6100 (2 core) stomps the fx6300 (6 cores) in term of multi threaded workload

as well as single core of course

[Jonathan Lemmens]

12 minutes ago, southpaw5271 said:

Everyone here has covered the SSD. I would recommend something that has more threads than the G3258. While it's a good chip now for light tasks, it probably won't hold up for the next 10 years. I would look into an AMD quad-core as more and more tasks will start to rely on multiple threads. Also the APU will probably help him with Photoshop.

 

This is coming from a die-hard Intel fan, AMD has better budget friendly options.

I've checked out that AMD option, but it will be more expensive. And I really don't think he needs those 4 cores. Besides that, I just have a gut feeling an Intel chip has more longevity than an AMD one. (though i'm a bit of an "AMD fanboy" myself)  

 

When I asked what his current pc's spec's are, he said: I don't know, but I upgraded to 1GB of RAM 3 months ago!  So I guess even the cheapest hardware will be an improvement for him.

[southpaw5271]

Right now he won't need those 4 cores, but in a few years when more programs can handle multi-threaded workloads (which is not a question of if, but a question of when) that dual core Pentium will show it's age where the AMD will at least be able to keep up with the heavily threaded demand.

 

I'm not saying that the G3258 is a bad chip or isn't adequate right now, but in 5 years it will be pretty far behind what an AMD APU can handle.

[Jonathan Lemmens]

5 minutes ago, southpaw5271 said:

Right now he won't need those 4 cores, but in a few years when more programs can handle multi-threaded workloads (which is not a question of if, but a question of when) that dual core Pentium will show it's age where the AMD will at least be able to keep up with the heavily threaded demand.

 

I'm not saying that the G3258 is a bad chip or isn't adequate right now, but in 5 years it will be pretty far behind what an AMD APU can handle.

I'm already convinced to get the Core i3, But my uncle will probably use the very same software for the next 10 years, he specifically asked if I could install an older version of Microsoft Outlook because he can't work with the newer ones..... Thats why i'm sure he won't need 4 core's even in the future

Edited March 15, 2016 by Jonathan Lemmens

[southpaw5271]

1 minute ago, Jonathan Lemmens said:

I'm already convinced to get the Core i3, But my uncle will probably use the very same software for the next 10 years, he specifically asked if I could install an older version of Microsoft Outlook because he can't work with the newer ones..... Thats why i'm sure he won't need 4 core's even in the future

I'm just speaking from my experience. The i3 will be fine for the long run. It's just that dual cores are quickly becoming obsolete.

[Jonathan Lemmens]

Just now, southpaw5271 said:

I'm just speaking from my experience. The i3 will be fine for the long run. It's just that dual cores are quickly becoming obsolete.

I agree with you in general, but my uncle is himself obsolete so the i3 will fit him well  I tried endlessly to keep updating his software and get him to learn to use newer versions, etc. But he's too old for that.

[southpaw5271]

1 minute ago, Jonathan Lemmens said:

I agree with you in general, but my uncle is himself obsolete so the i3 will fit him well  I tried endlessly to keep updating his software and get him to learn to use newer versions, etc. But he's too old for that.

Been there and done that! Took years to finally get my parents an iMac, and I had to buy it for them .

[Jonathan Lemmens]

1 minute ago, southpaw5271 said:

Been there and done that! Took years to finally get my parents an iMac, and I had to buy it for them .

LOL, I wonder if we're going to be the same when we reach 70..... 

[southpaw5271]

1 minute ago, Jonathan Lemmens said:

LOL, I wonder if we're going to be the same when we reach 70..... 

I don't know about you, but with adequate water cooling, my temps never reach 70

[Jonathan Lemmens]

1 minute ago, southpaw5271 said:

I don't know about you, but with adequate water cooling, my temps never reach 70

Good one, thumbs up to you sir