Cheap Ryzen APU build

[OnionRings]

Budget is 500$ MAX, can't go over, looking to throw together an entry level ryzen APU build for my brother in law to see if it can beat out the prices of the pre builts we had found, the only future expandibility it needs is a PSU that can support a 1060 6GB because if he enjoys pc enough then he will want to upgrade to a better GPU once prices stabilize, but for now he just needs a simple build. Also, the mobo must be raven ridge because we do NOT have another cpu to bios update.

[OnionRings]

Here's what I came up with so far, the cheapest parts that aren't the worst, thoughts? https://pcpartpicker.com/list/zwZr7W The motherboard gives the whole bios warning but a review on amazon said his came ready to use with his 2200g, should I chance that?

[VEXICUS]

1 minute ago, OnionRings said:

Here's what I came up with so far, the cheapest parts that aren't the worst, thoughts? https://pcpartpicker.com/list/zwZr7W The motherboard gives the whole bios warning but a review on amazon said his came ready to use with his 2200g, should I chance that?

Well...thats a crappy motherboard that uhv chosen....

That board has many cases of faulty vrms

[SupaKomputa]

$500 max : A B350 micro-atx motherboard, 8gb ram, 128gb ssd, 2tb hdd, 1050ti

PSU : One GPU - 400 - 500 watts, 2 gpu 600-800 watt.

Quote

want to upgrade to a better GPU once prices stabilize

Not in the near future it won't

Quote

the mobo must be raven ridge because we do NOT have another cpu to bios update

Raven Ridge is the codename of the CPU not the mobo.

You may want 400 series motherboard.

But i think you can ask for the seller to update the bios first before shipping, all current amd mobo support raven ridge.

[OnionRings]

2 minutes ago, vexicus365 said:

Well...thats a crappy motherboard that uhv chosen....

That board has many cases of faulty vrms

Any suggestions then friend?

 

2 minutes ago, SupaKomputa said:

$500 max : A B350 micro-atx motherboard, 8gb ram, 128gb ssd, 2tb hdd, 1050ti

PSU : One GPU - 400 - 500 watts, 2 gpu 600-800 watt.

Not in the near future it won't

Raven Ridge is the codename of the CPU not the mobo.

You may want 400 series motherboard.

But i think you can ask for the seller to update the bios first before shipping, all current amd mobo support raven ridge.

I know prices wont stabilize anytime soon, he will be using the APU for quite a while, and I know the mobo isn't called raven ridge, I just meant one that would support RR out of the box.

[Bananasplit_00]

for the BIOS update you can get the AMD Bootklit for free, so that should be no problem. anyway here is what i came up with:

 

PCPartPicker part list: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/FWCtJ8
Price breakdown by merchant: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/FWCtJ8/by_merchant/

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2400G 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($167.21 @ OutletPC) 
Motherboard: ASRock - AB350M-HDV Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($61.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Memory: G.Skill - Aegis 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  ($87.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Samsung - 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($99.99 @ Samsung) 
Case: DIYPC - MA01-R MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($19.63 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: Corsair - CX (2017) 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($49.89 @ OutletPC) 
Total: $486.70
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-03-15 14:12 EDT-0400

[seon123]

1 minute ago, OnionRings said:

Here's what I came up with so far, the cheapest parts that aren't the worst, thoughts? https://pcpartpicker.com/list/zwZr7W The motherboard gives the whole bios warning but a review on amazon said his came ready to use with his 2200g, should I chance that?

The motherboard is quite crap, and doesn't have heatsinks on the SoC VRM. The iGPU draws from the SoC VRM, so get one that isn't total crap, and that has heatsinks. The SoC VRM is above the CPU. 

APUs are heavily impacted by both frequency and how many channels are in use. There's a Ripjaws V 2x4GB Kit at a decent kit available for like $15 more. 

Consider swapping the HDD for a decent 250GB SSD (the MX500 and SL308 are among the cheaper ones that are decent), or for a 1TB 7200RPM HDD with ≥64MB cache. 

Case is personal preference, but that wouldn't be my choice. Unsure if the G21 is still available for $40 after rebate. If so, that would be my choice. Got a decent review by Gamersnexus.

The PSU is quite crap and overpriced by a lot. The CX450M is a much better PSU, and is available for $27 after rebate. A system with a 1060 should draw about 200W when overclocked. 

[OnionRings]

2 minutes ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

for the BIOS update you can get the AMD Bootklit for free, so that should be no problem. anyway here is what i came up with:

 

PCPartPicker part list: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/FWCtJ8
Price breakdown by merchant: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/FWCtJ8/by_merchant/

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2400G 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($167.21 @ OutletPC) 
Motherboard: ASRock - AB350M-HDV Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($61.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Memory: G.Skill - Aegis 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  ($87.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Samsung - 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($99.99 @ Samsung) 
Case: DIYPC - MA01-R MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($19.63 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: Corsair - CX (2017) 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($49.89 @ OutletPC) 
Total: $486.70
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-03-15 14:12 EDT-0400

Only thing I'd change is the APU to 2200g, he should be fine with just the quad core variant as he wont do any multi tasking, the SSD isn't needed, he said hes ok with longer loading to save some cash and is possibly willing to upgrade later, and the case seems a bit bad, the one review said it was hard to build in so I'd spend a little extra there to make the building a bit easier.

[VEXICUS]

14 minutes ago, OnionRings said:

Budget is 500$ MAX, can't go over, looking to throw together an entry level ryzen APU build for my brother in law to see if it can beat out the prices of the pre builts we had found, the only future expandibility it needs is a PSU that can support a 1060 6GB because if he enjoys pc enough then he will want to upgrade to a better GPU once prices stabilize, but for now he just needs a simple build. Also, the mobo must be raven ridge because we do NOT have another cpu to bios update.

THIS IS POSSIBLY A BETTER BUILD

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2400G 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($167.21 @ OutletPC) 
Motherboard: ASRock - AB350M Pro4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($74.39 @ OutletPC) 
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  ($93.99 @ Newegg Business) 
Storage: Seagate - Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($59.79 @ OutletPC) 
Case: Cooler Master - MasterBox Lite 5 ATX Mid Tower Case  ($36.99 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: Cooler Master - MasterWatt 550W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($39.49 @ Newegg) 
Total: $471.86
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-03-15 14:15 EDT-0400

 

REASONS FOR MY PART SELECTION

BETTER APU

SOLID MOBO

FASTER RAM (these zen apus r benefitted by faster dual channel memory)

MORE STORAGE

SEXY CASE

BETTER PSU

[Bananasplit_00]

Just now, OnionRings said:

Only thing I'd change is the APU to 2200g, he should be fine with just the quad core variant as he wont do any multi tasking, the SSD isn't needed, he said hes ok with longer loading to save some cash and is possibly willing to upgrade later, and the case seems a bit bad, the one review said it was hard to build in so I'd spend a little extra there to make the building a bit easier.

but WHY cut those things when the budget is $500?.. what are you going to put the money in? more RAM? you could get a cheaper SSD and a nicer case i guess? if you are going to spend $500 why not get the best you can for the money?

[matus177]

I would personally go for something like https://pcpartpicker.com/list/

 

PCPartPicker part list: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/PtB4Cb
Price breakdown by merchant: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/PtB4Cb/by_merchant/

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2400G 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($167.21 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock - AB350M Pro4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($74.39 @ OutletPC)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-3200 Memory  ($103.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Kingston - A400 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($44.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($46.49 @ OutletPC)
Case: Rosewill - FBM-01 MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($24.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair - CXM (2015) 450W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($26.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $488.95
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-03-15 14:20 EDT-0400

[Bananasplit_00]

Just now, vexicus365 said:

THIS IS POSSIBLY A BETTER BUILD

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2400G 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($167.21 @ OutletPC) 
Motherboard: ASRock - AB350M Pro4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($74.39 @ OutletPC) 
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  ($93.99 @ Newegg Business) 
Storage: Seagate - Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($59.79 @ OutletPC) 
Case: Cooler Master - MasterBox Lite 5 ATX Mid Tower Case  ($36.99 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: Cooler Master - MasterWatt 550W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($39.49 @ Newegg) 
Total: $471.86
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-03-15 14:15 EDT-0400

 

REASONS FOR MY PART SELECTION

BETTER APU

SOLID MOBO

FASTER RAM (these zen apus r benefitted by faster dual channel memory)

MORE STORAGE

SEXY CASE

BETTER PSU

replace PSU with the 450W CX, MasterWatt are worse, replace 2TB HDD with SSD beccause its easier to add bulk storage than a boot drive

[OnionRings]

4 minutes ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

but WHY cut those things when the budget is $500?.. what are you going to put the money in? more RAM? you could get a cheaper SSD and a nicer case i guess? if you are going to spend $500 why not get the best you can for the money?

Fair point, I should mention my brother in law wants to stay as cheap as possible. He said no more than 500 but I have a feeling he wants to go even less than that. Question, how much faster is the APU on the 2400g? I don't mean the CPU itself, just the APU, is it really worth an almost 70$ price increase?

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/n8k8KB

 

[OnionRings]

Ram change https://pcpartpicker.com/list/dBHr7W

[SupaKomputa]

2 minutes ago, OnionRings said:

Only thing I'd change is the APU to 2200g, he should be fine with just the quad core variant as he wont do any multi tasking, the SSD isn't needed, he said hes ok with longer loading to save some cash and is possibly willing to upgrade later, and the case seems a bit bad, the one review said it was hard to build in so I'd spend a little extra there to make the building a bit easier.

You should add the ssd, not only for loading games, but for the whole system to be zippy. HDD would bottleneck even when you just browsing webpages. Why would you have a new shining system but sitting on an old slow drive? A nice ssd only cost $50.

[OnionRings]

1 minute ago, SupaKomputa said:

You should add the ssd, not only for loading games, but for the whole system to be zippy. HDD would bottleneck even when you just browsing webpages. Why would you have a new shining system but sitting on an old slow drive? A nice ssd only cost $50.

Its all about size really, a cheap ssd would cost too much and he wouldn't get enough space to hold all his games.

[Bananasplit_00]

1 minute ago, OnionRings said:

Fair point, I should mention my brother in law wants to stay as cheap as possible. He said no more than 500 but I have a feeling he wants to go even less than that. Question, how much faster is the APU on the 2400g? I don't mean the CPU itself, just the APU, is it really worth an almost 70$ price increase?

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/n8k8KB

 

id say its worth it, and as i have said a load of times, its easier to add bulk storage than a boot drive so get the boot drive first so you dont have to either reinstall or do some cloning stuff which can fail and have you have to reinstall anyway. getting an SSD first is always my suggestion, lots of people have no use for 1TB of storage at least not to begin with and its extremely easy to add if needed. no need to use the expensive fancy sammy one i picked out, i just picked it because it fit nicely. 

 

 

[OnionRings]

Just now, Bananasplit_00 said:

id say its worth it, and as i have said a load of times, its easier to add bulk storage than a boot drive so get the boot drive first so you dont have to either reinstall or do some cloning stuff which can fail and have you have to reinstall anyway. getting an SSD first is always my suggestion, lots of people have no use for 1TB of storage at least not to begin with and its extremely easy to add if needed. no need to use the expensive fancy sammy one i picked out, i just picked it because it fit nicely. 

 

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/DnhBP3

[seon123]

1 minute ago, OnionRings said:

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/DnhBP3

The 850 Evo has no place in the world at that price, as even the replacement, the 860 Evo costs $5 less. For a budget build, the MX300/MX500 or the SL308 should be fine. 

[Bananasplit_00]

4 minutes ago, OnionRings said:

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/DnhBP3

PCPartPicker part list: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/cZCtJ8
Price breakdown by merchant: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/cZCtJ8/by_merchant/

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2400G 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($167.21 @ OutletPC) 
Motherboard: ASRock - AB350M Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($59.99 @ Newegg) 
Memory: G.Skill - Aegis 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  ($87.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Silicon Power - Slim S55 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($62.99 @ Amazon) 
Case: Cougar - MX330 ATX Mid Tower Case  ($24.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Power Supply: Corsair - CX (2017) 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($48.89 @ OutletPC) 
Total: $452.06
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-03-15 14:34 EDT-0400

 

id probably rather go for something like this instead

[SupaKomputa]

Just now, Bananasplit_00 said:

id say its worth it, and as i have said a load of times, its easier to add bulk storage than a boot drive so get the boot drive first so you dont have to either reinstall or do some cloning stuff which can fail and have you have to reinstall anyway. getting an SSD first is always my suggestion, lots of people have no use for 1TB of storage at least not to begin with and its extremely easy to add if needed. no need to use the expensive fancy sammy one i picked out, i just picked it because it fit nicely. 

Agree, ssd shuold be a standard for new builds. Use hdd for extra space, but windows and all should reside in ssd as it will boost the responsiveness for the whole system.

[Herman Mcpootis]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2400G 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($167.21 @ OutletPC) 
Motherboard: MSI - B350 TOMAHAWK ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($64.99 @ Newegg) 
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  ($93.99 @ Newegg Business) 
Storage: Crucial - MX500 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($79.99 @ B&H) 
Case: Rosewill - GRAM ATX Mid Tower Case  ($24.99 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: Corsair - CXM (2015) 450W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($26.99 @ Newegg) 
Total: $458.16
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-03-15 22:22 EDT-0400