Budget office build advice

OZONE

OZONE

OZONE

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12 Jul 2020
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I am in the process of building a PC for my dad who is an architect. He currently has an old Dell laptop which he uses for Autocad, MS Office and heavy multitasking (think Chrome with 20 tabs open). As you can imagine, his laptop is awfully slow and grinds to a halt with so many applications open.

This is the preliminary build I have lined up but I would be open to any suggestions. The lower the price the better really.

CPU - Ryzen 3100? Or Ryzen 3600?
Cooler - Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler
MOBO - MSI B450 Gaming Plus MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard
RAM - Kingston HyperX Fury 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory
SSD - Western Digital Blue 500 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Case - GameMax Silent ATX Mid Tower Case
PSU - be quiet! System Power 9 500 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply
GPU - Probably a used GTX 960 or 970 - gaming is not a concern.

At this point I am not sure which MOBO or CPU to go for.

Is the Ryzen 3100 quick enough for daily usage and multitasking?

I've seen some Micro ATX boards for £60. Would those suffice, or should I stick to my current selection?
 
OZONE said:
I am in the process of building a PC for my dad who is an architect. He currently has an old Dell laptop which he uses for Autocad, MS Office and heavy multitasking (think Chrome with 20 tabs open). As you can imagine, his laptop is awfully slow and grinds to a halt with so many applications open.

This is the preliminary build I have lined up but I would be open to any suggestions. The lower the price the better really.

CPU - Ryzen 3100? Or Ryzen 3600?
Cooler - Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler
MOBO - MSI B450 Gaming Plus MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard
RAM - Kingston HyperX Fury 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory
SSD - Western Digital Blue 500 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Case - GameMax Silent ATX Mid Tower Case
PSU - be quiet! System Power 9 500 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply
GPU - Probably a used GTX 960 or 970 - gaming is not a concern.

At this point I am not sure which MOBO or CPU to go for.

Is the Ryzen 3100 quick enough for daily usage and multitasking?

I've seen some Micro ATX boards for £60. Would those suffice, or should I stick to my current selection?
Click to expand...

Why not a new laptop with Ryzen 7 4700U-series CPU?


Ryzen 5 3600 is better than Ryzen 3 3100.
GTX 960 and GTX 970 are very old graphics cards, you need something modern and cheap.
 
thedandyp said:
In regards to the motherboard, would you have ANY reason to be upgrading the cpu in the next couple of years?
Click to expand...
Nope.

4K8KW10 said:
Why not a new laptop with Ryzen 7 4700U-series CPU?


Ryzen 5 3600 is better than Ryzen 3 3100.
GTX 960 and GTX 970 are very old graphics cards, you need something modern and cheap.
Click to expand...
What would you suggest as an alternative? I'm not looking to spend too much on a GPU, and a powerhouse GPU isn't necessary for my dad's work. I would consider £70-80 my limit.
 
Coolermaster 212 is brand overpriced.
Arctic Freezer 34 is cheaper and also comes with acoustically very good fan.
 
OZONE said:
He currently has an old Dell laptop which he uses for Autocad, MS Office and heavy multitasking (think Chrome with 20 tabs open).
Click to expand...

Only 20 tabs? :)

How seriously does he use Autocad? If he's a serious user - unlikely given your comments - any add-on GPU should be a Quadro card, not Geforce, as these are officially supported.

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £582.45 (includes shipping: £12.60)
​


He might also consider an Intel NUC.

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £544.87 (includes shipping: £15.90)​
​



And he should get a Dell Ultrasharp monitor.

You should discuss with him to what extent this is a business purchase as he may be able to recover the VAT and depreciate the PC quite rapidly. Both may allow for an increased budget.
 
His AutoCAD is 2d work only so I figured a simple GPU would have sufficed. His current laptop has awful integrated graphics, and hasn't hindered his work this far.

I've found a RX 570 for a great deal. Worth it over the GTX 970?
 
RX 570 is about 20% faster FPS than the 970 - but like you said, if he's fine on integrated, what's the point of spending more? :p

I'd stick with the 970 or similar (or less), for the fact Nvidia drivers are better and more stable + it uses about 50w less at load than the RX 570.
 
Sparx said:
RX 570 is about 20% faster FPS than the 970 - but like you said, if he's fine on integrated, what's the point of spending more? :p

I'd stick with the 970 or similar (or less), for the fact Nvidia drivers are better and more stable + it uses about 50w less at load than the RX 570.
Click to expand...
970 it is then.
 
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