PC for Father's Day

[Queen Chrysalis]

I was looking to build my dad a new computer for father's day as he is still using an i3 3240 and regularly complains that his work-related software runs very poorly on it. 

This is the parts list I decided on.  I already own that GPU, and the CPU is available for $149 at microcenter, so the price is about $70 less than listed.  

https://pcpartpicker.com/user/spitty84/saved/#view=dBN8K8

What do you guys think about using this 8 year old GPU?  He doesn't play games or do any 3D design.

[Crunchy Dragon]

If the GPU is only around to run a display, then it should be fine.

 

Get the CPU and motherboard at Micro Center at the same time and save $30 on your board.

[Guest]

Looks good,

[Princess Luna]

Oh yes great build, I love mATX ones ^^

 

However I believe that  you can cheap up a lot specially because he won't be gaming then really there is no need to worry so much with memory, for common desktop usage a cheaper 2400mhz memory will work just fine with no noticeable difference in responsiveness of the system.

 

Same thing with M.2 drive, it's really not a thing worth considering, you'll have more than enough space for a common 2,5 inch SSD, and I believe price for price unless he will store so much data you could go with a single 480gb SSD SanDisk G26 ditching the HDD as well for more easy to use system that will remain much fast and responsive.

 

Also I feel that the Ryzen 5 2400G is the best solution all around, you'll have a more than capable graphics processing chip that is very well stable for nowadays software (more than an old HD model) while this 4 cores / 8 threads CPU does outperform the old i3 by a very expressive margin.

[Liquid_Z]

The GPU itself is fine for what the intended use for the card is. PC Mag says this about the card:

Quote

The 6570 will function just as well as the 6450 for driving a general-purpose or home theater PC, but it dangles in front of you the possibility of some gaming that you don't convincingly see with the less-expensive card. It's an imperfect choice, but a tolerable compromise if money is an object.

Full review here: https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2385799,00.asp

One thing that might need to be clarified is whether the GPU you have was recently purchased new, or is used and with 8 years of use. There's a chance that perhaps you might need to get another one in the coming years. There's no firm number on how long a GPU can last. Some forum users here say to expect up to the warranty length of the card. Other say 5 years, some say 10 and a few say 15 years. There's really no way to know when that card will kick the bucket. Best you can do is cross your fingers.

 

Hope that kind of helps!

[Queen Chrysalis]

1 minute ago, Princess Cadence said:

Oh yes great build, I love mATX ones ^^

 

However I believe that  you can cheap up a lot specially because he won't be gaming then really there is no need to worry so much with memory, for common desktop usage a cheaper 2400mhz memory will work just fine with no noticeable difference in responsiveness of the system.

 

Same thing with M.2 drive, it's really not a thing worth considering, you'll have more than enough space for a common 2,5 inch SSD, and I believe price for price unless he will store so much data you could go with a single 480gb SSD SanDisk G26 for more easy to use system that will remain much fast and responsive.

 

Also I feel that the Ryzen 5 2400G is the best solution all around, you'll have a more than capable graphics processing chip that is very well stable for nowadays software while this 4 cores / 8 threads CPU does outperform the old i3 by a very expressive margin.

Thanks cadence.  I wanted to go with a six core as the work he does when he is home involves a lot of multi-tasking, but the rest of that sounds like a good idea.

[Jurrunio]

Oh my, the most garbage of B350 motherboards in here. No overclocking eh?

[Queen Chrysalis]

Just now, Jurrunio said:

Oh my, the most garbage of B350 motherboards in here. No overclocking eh?

Probably not.  Got a better rec at price point?

[VEXICUS]

29 minutes ago, Queen Chrysalis said:

I was looking to build my dad a new computer for father's day as he is still using an i3 3240 and regularly complains that his work-related software runs very poorly on it. 

This is the parts list I decided on.  I already own that GPU, and the CPU is available for $149 at microcenter, so the price is about $70 less than listed.  

https://pcpartpicker.com/user/spitty84/saved/#view=dBN8K8

What do you guys think about using this 8 year old GPU?  He doesn't play games or do any 3D design.

Something like this should be way better....

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2400G 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($162.79 @ OutletPC) 
Motherboard: ASRock - AB350M Pro4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($74.39 @ OutletPC) 
Memory: ADATA - XPG GAMMIX D10 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2666 Memory  ($79.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Crucial - MX500 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($69.99 @ Adorama) 
Storage: Seagate - Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($59.79 @ OutletPC) 
Case: Cooler Master - MasterBox Q300L MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($38.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G3 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($53.98 @ Newegg) 
Total: $539.92
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-05-08 10:59 EDT-0400

[Queen Chrysalis]

14 minutes ago, vexicus365 said:

Something like this should be way better....

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2400G 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($162.79 @ OutletPC) 
Motherboard: ASRock - AB350M Pro4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($74.39 @ OutletPC) 
Memory: ADATA - XPG GAMMIX D10 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2666 Memory  ($79.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Crucial - MX500 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($69.99 @ Adorama) 
Storage: Seagate - Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($59.79 @ OutletPC) 
Case: Cooler Master - MasterBox Q300L MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($38.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G3 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($53.98 @ Newegg) 
Total: $539.92
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-05-08 10:59 EDT-0400

Again, I gave preference to the 1600 for its improved multicore performance, I wanted to use 16GB of RAM for heavy multitasking, 128GB on the SSD is more than enough for vital system applications, 3TB of HDD space seemed preferable for mass video/file storage considering it was only $10 more, and the MB lite was chosen because the computer is below his desk so top facing USBs was a plus.

[Jurrunio]

18 minutes ago, Queen Chrysalis said:

Probably not.  Got a better rec at price point?

 

ASRock AB350M will be my choice. I'd rather have the Pro4 if possible, but that extra price tho...

[brob]

29 minutes ago, Queen Chrysalis said:

Thanks cadence.  I wanted to go with a six core as the work he does when he is home involves a lot of multi-tasking, but the rest of that sounds like a good idea.

Multitasking is a very general term that is often misused. Unless one is executing cpu intensive tasks like cpu renders, running Prime95, etc. that are multi-threaded, having more cores is not going to contribute that much. In fact depending on the actual programs running, a higher speed lower core-count cpu may be better.