Cheap Low End Processor

[Macimoar]

I’m planning a low end budget build for a friend. He wants something small and cheap. Pc will be used for web browsing, video streaming, and OpenOffice probably 

I was looking at some intel NUCs and they look perfect, but I’m not sure which one to get. 

I was looking at one with an Intel Celeron N3050 processor, would that be powerful enough for that workload? I’m worried it will not be able to handle video playback very well

[emosun]

Yeah that cpu isn't going to quite be able to handle video playback on youtube.

I recently had to chuck a 2009 netbook that was about on par simply becuase the cpu was too slow for web browsing these days.

[emosun]

essentially a Q6600 from over 10 years ago is over 3x the speed and you can probably find a q6600 for free somewhere.

[Macimoar]

So you would recommend I do a cheap, but more traditional pc build instead?

[Ground]

I think a Sandy Bridge i3/i5 Dell might be a fairly good idea; a NUC comes with no RAM nor storage, and an optiplex with i5 2400, 8 GB DDR3 and SSD can be had for <200$ or sometimes even less...

[Biggerboot]

2 hours ago, Macimoar said:

I’m planning a low end budget build for a friend. He wants something small and cheap. Pc will be used for web browsing, video streaming, and OpenOffice probably 

I was looking at some intel NUCs and they look perfect, but I’m not sure which one to get. 

I was looking at one with an Intel Celeron N3050 processor, would that be powerful enough for that workload? I’m worried it will not be able to handle video playback very well

I have a little experience with NUCs.  The best reason to go that route is the form factor.  I have one (not an official intel one, it's made by ECS) that runs a celeron 847 and linux.  I kinda use it for the same thing, minus word processing.  It runs off an external power supply.

They're not really best performance per dollar, but it may depend on the deal you can find.  N3050 in particular may even feel a little sluggish for streaming, even just watching streams (you may need to tweak around to get Twitch working well).  Most of the time you should be fine watching vids, but programs may take a while to start. 

You can actually go back a few gens to get a similar solution, like a motherboard with the 1037u processor and get a bit more horsepower at the cost of power draw.  I think the J1x00 celerons are also popular. 

Otherwise, if you want the absolute cheapest system you can build that is still usable, go for a core 2 duo or core 2 quad.  They're dirt cheap, so is DDR2 RAM.  You may even be able to find mini itx boards.

If you want something with 'a bit' more muscle, in the US there's the option to go for pre build refurbs like Dell Oplitplex.  You can land a SB i5 system for $100.  The other two options I mentioned above may be do-able for $50, not including the case/psu/storage.  So It's really hard to argue against this option if you're in the US.