Competing Budget Builds

[brock2112]

I am building a budget rig for a friend's father. The gentleman is in his late 50s and has no need to anything extravagant - he is just sick of companies like Dell and HP being a pain in the ass to deal with - he's ready to have a computer built from scratch. I have come up with a part list, but I also had another list recommended to me (not on LTT). I am interested in seeing what the community has to say about the two lists, pros/cons of each, and I'm also open to hearing additional recommendations as well.

 

This is my first post in this community so I'm going to follow the Read First guidelines for this sub-forum:

 

1. Budget & Location

Total budget is $425 - may be willing to go as high as $450, but the "customer" in this case is extremely budget conscious. Local currency is USD. The customer would not be willing to go much higher for better performance as his performance requirements are very low (he is an everyday user).

2. Aim

The system will be used for typical office work - tax software, Microsoft Excel and Word, as well as web browsing (mainly email and maybe watching YouTube). No gaming or heavy lifting.

3. Monitors

Customer will be using 1 monitor. No plans to increase monitor count in the future. I do not know the specs of his current monitor but at most it would be 1920x1080.

4. Peripherals

Customer is adamant about the computer's location in his home - unfortunately that location is nowhere near his cable modem and router, and he does not want to knock holes in the walls or have ethernet running around his rooms. He is insistent on a wifi solution for this desktop build. No other peripherals necessary. Keyboard and mouse are already owned.

5. Why are you upgrading?

The computer I am replacing is a 10 year old Compaq... so just imagine that. The customer has been putting bandaids on it for the last 5 years and he's had enough. The computer was a budget option when he bought it back in the late 2000s so the hardware is horribly outdated. Note that 

(6. OTHER)

Note that to save money the customer wants to reuse his existing case (which I still need to examine) as well as his existing HDD (he replaced that part a few years ago so it's still in decent shape, albeit a bit full of junk). I recently upgraded him to Windows 10 and it seems to be working fine. As such, no case, SSD, or operating system is listed on either part list.

 

Option 1 my initial build idea. It's a generation old, using an FM2+ CPU and an A68H chipset. Option 2 is the second recommendation I got - that option uses a Ryzen APU but feels like it makes less sense to me than Option 1.

 

Thank you so much in advance - I've been watching LTT for a long time and I'm very excited to finally be a part of this community!

 

PART LIST OPTION 1

• Main Board: GIGABYTE GA-F2A68HM-H
• Processor: AMD Athlon X4 860K
• Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws 2x4GB DDR3-1600
• Power Supply: EVGA 450W 80+B Full-Modular
• Wifi Card: Rosewill RNX-AC1900PCE
• Total Cost ~385 USD

PART LIST OPTION 2

• Main Board: Asus - PRIME A320M-C R2.0 Micro ATX
• Processor: AMD - Ryzen 3 2200G 3.5GHz
• Memory: G.Skill - Aegis 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-3000
• Power Supply: SeaSonic - S12II 520W 80+ Bronze
• Wifi Card: Rosewill RNX-AC1900PCE
• Total Cost ~330 USD

[LienusLateTips]

Why not use PCPartPicker? It would give you the cheapest prices from reputable vendors.

 

Both of those PSUs are junk.

[hconverse02]

Oh god the first one is painful to look at, https://pcpartpicker.com/list/yxq4D2

[SupaKomputa]

I'd pickup a ryzen system over athlon any day.

And that athlon need a gpu, so add $50-$100 for a cheap one.

[Electronics Wizardy]

option 2 seems like a obvious choice here.

 

The cpu is much faster, the gpu is much faster, its cheaper

 

wifi card is a bit overkill, you can get a cheaper one here.

 

The first build won't output video, you need a apu or a video card for it.

 

Id get a ssd as the drive from that old system will be very slow.

[SupaKomputa]

1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Id get a ssd as the drive from that old system will be very slow.

2. Aim

The system will be used for typical office work - tax software, Microsoft Excel and Word, as well as web browsing (mainly email and maybe watching YouTube). No gaming or heavy lifting.

 

No SSD needed.

[Jurrunio]

Option 1 is out. It's slower than Option 2 but costs more.

 

Option 2 still need changes imo. for office machine, more RAM capacity is preferred, so 16GB. However, A320 chipset doesnt support high RAM frequency, so get cheap 2133/2400MHz sticks instead. Also the PSU is no good.

 

2 minutes ago, SupaKomputa said:

2. Aim

The system will be used for typical office work - tax software, Microsoft Excel and Word, as well as web browsing (mainly email and maybe watching YouTube). No gaming or heavy lifting.

 

No SSD needed.

SSD isnt needed but it makes a day and night difference in terms of system responsiveness compared to a HDD. Best use one since the budget can clearly allow it.

[Electronics Wizardy]

4 minutes ago, SupaKomputa said:

2. Aim

The system will be used for typical office work - tax software, Microsoft Excel and Word, as well as web browsing (mainly email and maybe watching YouTube). No gaming or heavy lifting.

 

No SSD needed.

ssd will make a huge difference. the difference between word taking 10sec to start and 2 sec is a big jump. ssd akes everything better.

 

and if you don't get a ssd, don't reuse the old drive, it will be very slow and probably fail soon.

[SupaKomputa]

SSDs are low capacity, it might not appeal to regular joe that do office work.

Since it will have 8gb, any office programs will load off memory anyway.

Ms office is a slow program to begin with, i found no difference using ssd and hdd.

 

Maybe get a sshd to get the benefits of both world will less complexity.

 

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, SupaKomputa said:

SSDs are low capacity, it might not appeal to regular joe that do office work.

Since it will have 8gb, any office programs will load off memory anyway.

Ms office is a slow program to begin with, i found no difference using ssd and hdd.

 

Maybe get a sshd to get the benefits of both world will less complexity.

 

Most people with systems like this are using very little storage, so a 240gb ssd is more than enough space. Also if hes using a 10 year old hdd, hes not using much space.

 

Have you used a ssd much? its a massive difference in performance for work like this.

[brock2112]

Thanks for all of the advice so far guys! I am shocked by how many responses this (relatively mundane) post has gotten - very impressive. Here is a PPP list for Option 2 with the PSU from Option 1 and more RAM: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/ZFkdCb

 

Note that PPP notes a compatibility issue which has me a bit scared:

"Some AMD A320 chipset motherboards may need a BIOS update prior to using Raven Ridge CPUs. Upgrading the BIOS may require a different CPU that is supported by older BIOS revisions."

[SupaKomputa]

Yes  i have 5 ssds, 2 dead ones.

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, brockmvendors said:

Thanks for all of the advice so far guys! I am shocked by how many responses this (relatively mundane) post has gotten - very impressive. Here is a PPP list for Option 2 with the PSU from Option 1 and more RAM: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/QzcYJ8

 

Note that PPP notes a compatibility issue which has me a bit scared:

"Some AMD A320 chipset motherboards may need a BIOS update prior to using Raven Ridge CPUs. Upgrading the BIOS may require a different CPU that is supported by older BIOS revisions."

yea you need to update the bios to use the new apu, amd as a kit for this.

 

also get a ssd, dont reuse the old drive.

[SupaKomputa]

Just now, brockmvendors said:

Note that PPP notes a compatibility issue which has me a bit scared:

"Some AMD A320 chipset motherboards may need a BIOS update prior to using Raven Ridge CPUs. Upgrading the BIOS may require a different CPU that is supported by older BIOS revisions."

Its normal, Ryzen 2200 is very new.

Not all motherboard that support it have been updated to the lates bios.

Go ask the seller to update the motherboard to latest bios before shipping.

Is just a upgrade away, and problem will be solved.

[brock2112]

To re-clarify, the existing HDD is only a 2-3 year old WD blue so I'm not hugely concerned about it - plus it's the customer's choice, even if it isn't a great one.

[brock2112]

1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

yea you need to update the bios to use the new apu, amd as a kit for this.

I'm guessing there is a decent guide somewhere online for this? Or is it pretty straightforward? The note says that I will need a different CPU to upgrade the BIOS at all... is this true? I don't have spare parts laying around...

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, brockmvendors said:

I'm guessing there is a decent guide somewhere online for this? Or is it pretty straightforward? The note says that I will need a different CPU to upgrade the BIOS at all... is this true? I don't have spare parts laying around...

you want this https://support.amd.com/en-us/kb-articles/Pages/2Gen-Ryzen-AM4-System-Bootup.aspx

[brock2112]

28 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

you want this https://support.amd.com/en-us/kb-articles/Pages/2Gen-Ryzen-AM4-System-Bootup.aspx

Looks like the ASUS Prime A320M-K can be EZ Flashed...

https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/PRIME-A320M-K/

https://www.asus.com/us/support/FAQ/1012815/

 

Seems like that might be my ticket to flashing that BIOS without the need for a boot kit or anything like that (?)

[Electronics Wizardy]

2 minutes ago, brockmvendors said:

Looks like the ASUS Prime A320M-K can be EZ Flashed...

https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/PRIME-A320M-K/

https://www.asus.com/us/support/FAQ/1012815/

 

Seems like that might be my ticket to flashing that BIOS without the need for a boot kit or anything like that (?)

ez flash still need a combatible cpu. you need to enter to bios to ez flash and that needs a compatible cpu. Some highend boards let you flash with no cpu, but this isn't one of them.

[brock2112]

2 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

ez flash still need a combatible cpu. you need to enter to bios to ez flash and that needs a compatible cpu. Some highend boards let you flash with no cpu, but this isn't one of them.

What about the A320M-K? The part list above has the A320M-C, but that isn't the MOBO I'm going with at this point.

 

A local MicroCenter rep. confirmed I should be able to flash via USB without a compatible CPU installed via EZ Flash... can anyone else confirm/refute?

[brock2112]

Looks like MicroCenter was wrong, ASUS confirmed I need a separate CPU to use while flashing. Surprising as I would have expected MC to try to upsell me their services to perform the flash.