pc for non gaming stuff

[OneStop^]

like watching twitch or office stuff etc.

Asus PRIME A320M-K AMD AM4 DDR4 Micro ATX
AMD Athlon™ 3000G processor
Crucial Basics 8 GB 2666 MHz DDR4 CL19 CB8GU2666
Adata 240 GB Ultimate SU630 ASU630SS-240GQ-R 2.5" SATA 3.0 SSD
high power 400w psu
i can use my old case.


i try to avoid second hand market but if u have cheaper suggestions i'd like to hear.

[Illusion of Progress]

Even old and lower performance hardware can often handle "general use" at least as a baseline. I have a Core 2 based PC and a laptop with a Core i3 U CPU (which is actually slower than the Core 2 system) paired with an IGP and both have handled general use and video viewing/streaming rather fine in my experience. As long as you ensure it has an SSD (both of mine do) and enough RAM (former has 8 GB and latter has 16 GB) and the CPU and GPU sort of won't matter a whole lot for most "general use" tasks, at least that has been my experience. However, I quote general use as it's such a broad term, and I don't know what specific software will be involved in your workflow and if it benefits from more of a certain type of hardware (say, more CPU), or rather, will be detrimental if lacking it. So I don't want to just "anything is fine" is you use a certain productivity software that may greatly benefit from a faster CPU. Do keep in mind if Windows 11 is an option you want to keep open, it'll need fairly newer stuff.

Anyway, is the hardware you're listing something you are looking at? Something you already have? I'm not sure.

List what case you already have so recommendations can be made around that (size/form factor would be necessary information).

[OneStop^]

max workload would be around 10 ms office files and 3 tabs of chrome running same time so i just assumed 4 thread cpu is enough and 3000g is cheapest i could find.
i m gonna build it from scratch. dont have any parts yet.

[Illusion of Progress]

Not too familiar with what Microsoft Office needs, and I presume its demands vary wildly depending on what you do with it anyway, but you seem to know what you need. Modern browsers can be relatively high on RAM needs depending on the contents of said tabs.

So that is hardware you're considering? Yeah, quad cores are still fine if you know what you're using doesn't take advantage of high parallelization. The CPU you listed is a dual core though (it has SMT so it has four threads though). It's Zen based, not Zen 2, despite the model number, so it's a bit slow these days. It'd handle basic use fine though if you have a stricter budget; just be aware that a much faster Ryzen 3 or Core i3 are within reaching distance of its price. Between the two, if you do consider changing to one, a Core i3 from the 10th generation will give you a better CPU whereas the Ryzen 3 is slightly worse at the cost of a better IGP. I'm not sure how you prefer to balance it but just mentioning that for consideration.

Using an IGP is fine and I actually recommend that when you don't need much GPU power. When doing so, I would generally consider getting two modules of RAM (even if you stay with 8 GB but I'd go with 16 GB if you do this) as dual channel will help with IGP performance a lot. You might not "need" it, but it's one of those things I'd do with a system using an IGP especially. Ram speed matters a lot for them too but I'm not sure how fast Zen/Zen+ actually handle, and it's probably not "necessary" anyway.

Are you interested in Windows 11 later? If so, you will want Coffee Lake (Intel 8th generation) or Zen 2 (Ryzen 3000 series but NOT counting "G" suffix models) or newer. Microsoft has put out word that these are going to be requirements (they're making like one or two exceptions for a single mobile Intel 7th generation and a Xeon CPU or something but those aside) and installation and Windows Update isn't going to work right on unsupported hardware. People will probably find ways around it but I'd just avoid the hassle now if you think you'll be potentially interested in it. Windows 10 is supported until late-ish 2025 if not.

But in short if you think a dual core with extra threads and 8 GB is enough for your uses and you don't care about Windows 11, what you listed is fine (I can't comment on the SSD though and I don't know what a "high power" 400W PSU is).

[r.linder]

Better off buying a used dell optiplex or something of that nature, probably be a lot cheaper

[emoticorpse]

how much did you calculate the build to cost you?

[Illusion of Progress]

Originally posted by Escorve:

Better off buying a used dell optiplex or something of that nature, probably be a lot cheaper

I thought the same, but OP mentioned wanting to avoid the used market, as well as already having a case, so i thought (at least if you were to compare a situation with similar specifications) that it would end up being too much more costly.

[OneStop^]

Originally posted by Escorve:

Better off buying a used dell optiplex or something of that nature, probably be a lot cheaper

i ll check that too but not willing to delve in second hand market.

AMD athlon 3000g around 50 usd, while the cheapest i3 10100 is around 140, ryzen 2200g is around 120. There is also ryzen 3 1200 with 70 usd mark but doesnt have igpu. Intel mobos (even the old ones) are somewhat pricier than amd ones.

Also i dont intend to upgrade this later, so it doesnt have to be futureproof or something. Win 10 would be sufficent.

[OneStop^]

Originally posted by emoticorpse:

how much did you calculate the build to cost you?

under 300 usd.

[Illusion of Progress]

If that is your budget and the prices of CPUs are as you outlined and you want something new, then if what you listed fits within your budget, it's probably going to be the best you can get unless you change your mind on the used options (which I'm not necessarily suggesting you do). I'd wait for second opinions on if the SSD is fine as apparently some basic ones are really awful, but that aside, that's "good enough" hardware for general use. Just make sure 8 GB is enough for your workflow.

[emoticorpse]

Originally posted by OneStop^:

Originally posted by emoticorpse:

how much did you calculate the build to cost you?

under 300 usd.

oh ok. I can't see it cheaper than that. At least you're saving money by recycling the case. What old parts did you have in the case?

[OneStop^]

Originally posted by Illusion of Progress:

If that is your budget and the prices of CPUs are as you outlined and you want something new, then if what you listed fits within your budget, it's probably going to be the best you can get unless you change your mind on the used options (which I'm not necessarily suggesting you do). I'd wait for second opinions on if the SSD is fine as apparently some basic ones are really awful, but that aside, that's "good enough" hardware for general use. Just make sure 8 GB is enough for your workflow.

Thanks for the help. Too bad we cannot even afford an i3 in 3rd world.

[OneStop^]

Originally posted by emoticorpse:

Originally posted by OneStop^:

under 300 usd.

oh ok. I can't see it cheaper than that. At least you're saving money by recycling the case. What old parts did you have in the case?

Just fans.

[emoticorpse]

Originally posted by OneStop^:

Originally posted by emoticorpse:

oh ok. I can't see it cheaper than that. At least you're saving money by recycling the case. What old parts did you have in the case?

Just fans. :skyelaugh:

must have had good airflow

[Talby]

If you don't *need* windows, the raspberry pi 400 running linux is a much cheaper alternative... it's about $120[www.newegg.com] in my region - you can get a "desktop" image with chromium installed with minimal effort

the web based MS office runs great in linux btw, I literally just did a visio diagram on my linux workstation yesterday

[dOBER]

How about something like a mini pc if you dont want to upgrade. They are cheap as hell.
For 300 you get something like
Gigabyte Brix Pro GB-BSRE-1505. This ryzen has a vega 8 and if you want to you could even play light games on it. If not there lots of nuc/mini pcs below this price.