Wife's new light gaming & videoconferencing PC

Harnser

Harnser

Harnser

Associate
Joined
24 Oct 2014
Posts
390
Location
South coast
After 6 months of stuttering videoconferencing on her laptop, my wife wants a PC that will Zoom with ease, do office work, and give a better gaming experience. She games for a couple of hours every weekend.

She plays
  • LOTRO (struggles on her laptop)
  • Sims 3 (plays okay on her laptop)
  • Puzzle games (absolutely no problem on the laptop!)
And maybe wants to play:
  • Hogwarts Legacy (a game with requirements in a completely different league)
I'm aiming for a value build that will last for 3-4+ years.

The computer will be left on 24/7 (so power consumption matters - does AMD still idle at twice Intel's power draw?).

CPU: Intel Core i5-9400F 2.9 GHz 6-Core Processor
Motherboard: Asus PRIME H310M-A R2.0 Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory
Storage: Crucial BX500 480 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (already bought)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda Compute 1 TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER 4 GB Phoenix OC Video Card
Case: Fractal Design Core 1100 MicroATX Mini Tower Case
Power Supply: be quiet! System Power 9 500 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply
Operating System: Windows 10
Total: £591 inc SSD. Plus case fans etc, which I have lying around.

I find choosing a MOBO hit and miss, and picked one which was cheap and had a good star-rating.

Any recommendations of what to keep or change?
Anything that's overkill or underwhelming?

Budget is what it takes, but she needs monitor/keyboard/mouse/webcam etc so below £600-£650. If it goes lower, great - she wants a lot of other Christmas presents :D

Edit: An AMD alternative
CPU: AMD Ryzen 3 3100 3.6 GHz Quad-Core Processor
Motherboard: ASRock A320M-HDV R4.0 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard
Reduces the Total to £538
 
Last edited:
No conflicts i can see, the both cpu,s May need the bios updated on the motherboard to work

1660 super is a far better gpu if it fits in budget.

3100 v 9400f is really 4 v 6 cores , 6 cores will have longevity.
 
Thanks for the feedback, I've updated the parts.

Just had conversation with wife about where her PC's going, and there's no cabling in that room. Looks like I need a MOBO that has WiFi support. Is onboard more reliable than a USB WiFi adapter? As an adapter is much cheaper than the jump up to WiFi MOBOs.
 
Harnser said:
Thanks for the feedback, I've updated the parts.

Just had conversation with wife about where her PC's going, and there's no cabling in that room. Looks like I need a MOBO that has WiFi support. Is onboard more reliable than a USB WiFi adapter? As an adapter is much cheaper than the jump up to WiFi MOBOs.
Click to expand...

Onboard wifi is no more reliable get what suits your budget, but a pcie wifi card is another option.
 
Harnser said:
CPU: Intel Core i5-9400F 2.9 GHz 6-Core Processor
Click to expand...

Why 9th gen?

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £218.48 (includes shipping: £10.50)
​

For a full system

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £610.58 (includes shipping: £11.70)​
​
 
Harnser said:
Thanks for the feedback, I've updated the parts.

Just had conversation with wife about where her PC's going, and there's no cabling in that room. Looks like I need a MOBO that has WiFi support. Is onboard more reliable than a USB WiFi adapter? As an adapter is much cheaper than the jump up to WiFi MOBOs.
Click to expand...

I know its more expensive but get the pure power 11 500 watt gold rated psu not the bronze rated 9 as it more effecient as your ruunning 24/7
 
dfour said:
I know its more expensive but get the pure power 11 500 watt gold rated psu not the bronze rated 9 as it more effecient as your ruunning 24/7
Click to expand...
Sorry for the confusion @dfour - I've updated it at PCPP but not in the original post. Also gone with the (semi)modular one as I hate untidy builds.
 
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