Building my parents a computer

[Interstellarechoes]

I am currently building a new computer for my parents to replace their 15 year old Dell. My mom likes to play (hidden objects/mystery games) so I figured one of the new ryzen apu's would sufficeand my dad just wants to download music and burn cd's.The main concern i have is the bios update for the motherboard as i have never performed one before, So idk how that works. All in all its a really basic build and I want it to be as basic as possible given they are tech illiterate. I think this build would be more than enough. Give me your thoughts.

P.s. I know the psu is a little overkill. If you know of one that's better for cheaper just show me.

[Interstellarechoes]

Sorry for one picture being there twice.

[Interstellarechoes]

I'd like to keep the price below 400 as well. Considering how basic of a pc they want.

[johnukguy]

You, or rather they, should be fine with this build, so long as you up the RAM and add an SSD to each system. 4Gb of RAM is going to cause problems and 8Gb should be the minimum. I know you're trying to keep the budget down but adding a cheap SSD and another stick of RAM will make the difference between a slow system that struggles with some tasks to a nippy system that is usable for just about anything that they want to do. I'd suggest the 2400G over the 2200G also if possible, but otherwise it should be a solid setup for your parents and nice that you're doing this for them. You can, for future use, setup pcpartpicker to display a list of your parts here.

[Interstellarechoes]

Thank you so much! I was thinking 4 gigs of ram might not be great, I'll find a single 8 gig stick. I'm gonna stick with the 2200g for the purpose of keeping the cost low. Thank you and I appreciate your input! I haven't been on ltt forums in years so all this newness has me confused. Lol 

[Lurick]

Rough build in PCPP:

You could drop the board to an A320 to shave about $10 off

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 3 2200G 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($99.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock - AB350M Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($59.89 @ OutletPC)
Memory: Crucial - Ballistix Sport LT 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 Memory  ($80.49 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($46.49 @ OutletPC)
Case: Thermaltake - Versa H15 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($37.89 @ OutletPC)
Power Supply: Corsair - CX (2017) 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($44.89 @ OutletPC)
Total: $369.63
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-03-04 15:29 EST-0500

 

 

Or with an SSD added:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 3 2200G 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($99.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock - AB350M Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($59.89 @ OutletPC)
Memory: Crucial - Ballistix Sport LT 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 Memory  ($80.49 @ Amazon)
Storage: ADATA - Premier Pro SP600 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($47.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($46.49 @ OutletPC)
Case: Thermaltake - Versa H15 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($37.89 @ OutletPC)
Power Supply: Corsair - CX (2017) 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($44.89 @ OutletPC)
Total: $417.52
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-03-04 15:30 EST-0500

 

 

Edit:

Forgot to mention, the CX (2017) PSU usually drops down to about half the price shown here on sale which seems to happen pretty often so check around before pulling the trigger on that.

[unkn0wn1]

I think if you are trying to keep it cheap maybe try to find something with ddr3. You could also look for cheap Dell, HP type computers, I believe you can get like a sandy bridge i5 for like $125.

[dizmo]

The PSU looks a little overkill for what you're doing. You can likely save quite a bit of money there. I also wouldn't waste money on a modular PSU, as there's no window and it's not really necessary. I second adding an SSD, or perhaps using it as sole storage if mas storage isn't needed.

 

6 minutes ago, johnukguy said:

You, or rather they, should be fine with this build, so long as you up the RAM and add an SSD to each system. 4Gb of RAM is going to cause problems and 8Gb should be the minimum. I'd suggest the 2400G over the 2200G also but otherwise it should be a solid setup for your parents and nice that you're doing this for them. You can, for future use, setup pcpartpicker to display a list of your parts here.

It might cause problems in some of the games his mom wants to play, but that's it. Otherwise 4GB is plenty for basic operation; his dads system can save the money and go with 4GB over 8GB. Why would you suggest the 2400G? For their use it's absolutely overkill and a waste of money.

[Crunchy Dragon]

Flashing a BIOS is pretty simple, but it requires a first-gen Ryzen CPU. Depending on how quickly you need this system, you could wait until motherboards that support the APUs natively release.

[Lurick]

Intel is also an option with the B250 and a G4560

 

No SSD:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Pentium G4560 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($60.90 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: MSI - B250M PRO-VD Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($49.90 @ OutletPC)
Memory: Crucial - Ballistix Sport LT 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 Memory  ($80.49 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($46.49 @ OutletPC)
Case: Thermaltake - Versa H15 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($37.89 @ OutletPC)
Power Supply: Corsair - CX (2017) 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($44.89 @ OutletPC)
Total: $320.56
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-03-04 15:34 EST-0500

 

SSD:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Pentium G4560 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($60.90 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: MSI - B250M PRO-VD Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($49.90 @ OutletPC)
Memory: Crucial - Ballistix Sport LT 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 Memory  ($80.49 @ Amazon)
Storage: ADATA - Premier Pro SP600 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($47.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($46.49 @ OutletPC)
Case: Thermaltake - Versa H15 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($37.89 @ OutletPC)
Power Supply: Corsair - CX (2017) 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($44.89 @ OutletPC)
Total: $368.45
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-03-04 15:35 EST-0500

[Interstellarechoes]

Thank you all, I will definitely take this all into consideration before buying anything! 

[Interstellarechoes]

Also forgot to mention it is one pc not 2 they will be sharing a single pc.

 

[Herman Mcpootis]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 3 2200G 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($99.98 @ SuperBiiz) 
Motherboard: ASRock - A320M-DGS Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($49.49 @ SuperBiiz) 
Memory: Crucial - Ballistix Sport LT 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 Memory  ($80.49 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Silicon Power - Slim S55 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($62.99 @ Amazon) 
Case: Rosewill - FBM-01 MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($19.99 @ Newegg Business) 
Power Supply: Corsair - CX (2017) 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($44.89 @ OutletPC) 
Total: $357.83
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-03-04 20:21 EST-0500

[johnukguy]

17 hours ago, dizmo said:

It might cause problems in some of the games his mom wants to play, but that's it. Otherwise 4GB is plenty for basic operation; his dads system can save the money and go with 4GB over 8GB. Why would you suggest the 2400G? For their use it's absolutely overkill and a waste of money.

In fact 4Gb will mean that the system overall is sluggish and is a problem with any modern OS. As for the 2400G, it provides some headroom and is just better value all around than the 2200G. So no, it's certainly not a waste of money at all.

[dizmo]

1 hour ago, johnukguy said:

In fact 4Gb will mean that the system overall is sluggish and is a problem with any modern OS. As for the 2400G, it provides some headroom and is just better value all around than the 2200G. So no, it's certainly not a waste of money at all.

Are you kidding me? He's browsing the web and downloading music. He doesn't need 6 cores. Period. 

 

As for 4Gb of RAM, same thing. I use it daily, and it's perfectly fine for basic tasks like he listed. 

[Herman Mcpootis]

5 minutes ago, dizmo said:

Are you kidding me? He's browsing the web and downloading music. He doesn't need 6 cores. Period. 

 

As for 4Gb of RAM, same thing. I use it daily, and it's perfectly fine for basic tasks like he listed. 

2400G is a quad core with HT

[shea99]

I know pc building is great and all but im shocked that no one has recommend that you just get a pre built pc. This seems extremley overkill for what they want tbh. Also 4gb RAM is fine for there purposes and the builds look fine so far, but i would save the hassle and buy something pre bought especially for that budget

[dizmo]

28 minutes ago, herman mcpootis said:

2400G is a quad core with HT

Haha, ah I saw Ryzen 5 and assumed 6. Still, for the price increase it's a little much for browsing the web.

[brob]

While 4GB may be necessary to meet budget, it really is only just adequate for light browsing. Anything heavier is likely going to be too much. Check the numbers for Chrome with 4GB around 2:10. 

 

[johnukguy]

On 3/5/2018 at 8:40 AM, dizmo said:

Are you kidding me? He's browsing the web and downloading music. He doesn't need 6 cores. Period. 

 

As for 4Gb of RAM, same thing. I use it daily, and it's perfectly fine for basic tasks like he listed. 

4Gb of RAM nowadays is just not enough. It only takes four or five open Chrome tabs to hit the wall and the system will start using the Page FIle and slowing down. See the video linked by another poster below. It's also not just about the number of cores but value for money. The 2200G is just not that good value in comparison to the 2400G and I can guarantee that the OP will regret going with it and only 4Gb of RAM within a couple of months of building the system. So no, I'm not kidding at all.

[dizmo]

33 minutes ago, johnukguy said:

4Gb of RAM nowadays is just not enough. It only takes four or five open Chrome tabs to hit the wall and the system will start using the Page FIle and slowing down. See the video linked by another poster below. It's also not just about the number of cores but value for money. The 2200G is just not that good value in comparison to the 2400G and I can guarantee that the OP will regret going with it and only 4Gb of RAM within a couple of months of building the system. So no, I'm not kidding at all.

I don't need to watch a video. I have 4GB of RAM, and I have no problem having 15 plus tabs open.

You know what's not good value? Buying performance that you'll never use.

[johnukguy]

2 minutes ago, dizmo said:

I don't need to watch a video. I have 4GB of RAM, and I have no problem having 15 plus tabs open.

You know what's not good value? Buying performance that you'll never use.

Good for you. Now let's return to people who actually have a clue.

[dizmo]

20 minutes ago, johnukguy said:

Good for you. Now let's return to people who actually have a clue.

Yeah, cuz browsing the internet really needs those extra four threads...dno how those people with i5s survived all these years!

Or how any workstation performs at all!

Fucking dolt