Intel i7 12700kf vs AMD Ryzen 5 7600 in 2024

[gwwak]

Parents' old pc broke down. It had a i5 6600 that was a hand me down when I upgraded to a Ryzen 9 5950x.

Use case is media consumption and web browsing. They don't game, but I'll toss in an old gpu for display purposes. Don't need anything else besides a cooler unless it is ddr5 ram.

Pricing for the 12700 and the 7600 are pretty close and maybe slightly in favor of the 12700 due to a sale at my local computer store.

Alternative option 1: Dust off an old i7 930 machine and give it to them. They can use it until Windows 10 end of life next year and then revaluate options at that time.

Alternate option 2: hand me down the 5950x option. I'll build a new Ryzen 7000 / 9000 system.

Alternate option 3: buy a used Ryzen 5 5600x off a friend and a cheap am4 motherboard.

[_I_]

r5 7600 has an igpu, thats more than enough for media center

[Tonepoet]

L.O.L. A 12700kf for a web browsing media consumption machine? That's like using a chain saw to cut a stick of butter. Who are you? Tim the Toolman Taylor?

Buy them an N100 mini pc. It should be a bit better than an a 7400f, which basically puts them back on track to where they were in terms of performance. Maybe a little less, but not extremely so. However, it has a mere 6 watt T.D.P. so over time, it'll save them money on their electric bill and the processor is on the windows 11 supported list, plus it'll actually come with a legitimate copy of Windows 11. It's smaller and it will run silent because it's passively cooled, meaning no fan hum to distract from the video.

For the cost of a self-built AM4 system, you might even be able to buy them a pair so dad can watch sports on Disney plus while mom's on facebook gossiping with her friends.

For similar reasons, if you were to build an AM4 system, you'd pick a processor with integrated vega graphics.

Save the discrete graphics cards for the game players who need the performance and aren't so concerned about the electric bills.

[gwwak]

The gpu I got is an old GTX 1050 that I got for free. I have a lot of spare parts lying around.

[Iron Knights]

Run an old PC, Win 10 will be ok for a long time.
Win 7 is the most secure still, but 10 will do.
You can always have an AV on it, but the mind is the best AV "software".

[Tonepoet]

Originally posted by gwwak:

The gpu I got is an old GTX 1050 that I got for free. I have a lot of spare parts lying around.

I'm not so sure it really matters if you have a free G.P.U. or not. Integrated graphics makes more sense for the given application.

A core i7 980x consumes 105.7 watts at idle[www.anandtech.com]. The idle power consumption of a GTX 1050 is another 35 watts, allegedly.

Assuming a typical electrical cost of 14 cents per kilowat hour and 4 hours of usage per day, they're spending $28.84 per year to run the free system.

The typical P.C. upgrade cycle is somewhere around 6 years[www.statista.com], so if they run that system for a full 6 years, they'll end up spending $173.04, and that's assuming the power bill doesn't go up.

Under the same conditions, it only costs $1.23 to run a full 6 watts annually, so over the course of six years they spend 7.38 cents using an N100, and that's assuming it's always under full load (it won't be).

The GMTec Desktop Mini P.C.[www.amazon.com] only costs $149 presently, so the total cost of the system will only be $156 over the same span of time.

Simply put, in the long run it will be cheaper for the family to give them a new N100 mini P.C. than it will be to give them the free spare parts you have.

[Crashed]

Originally posted by Iron Knights:

Run an old PC, Win 10 will be ok for a long time.
Win 7 is the most secure still, but 10 will do.
You can always have an AV on it, but the mind is the best AV "software".

How is 7 more secure?

[gwwak]

Turns out only the power supply broke. I had a spare PSU so I shoved it into the i5 6600 system and it is working again. Luckily the old power supply didn't take anything else with it when it died.