Office PC for the old man - up to £500

[t-rex]

The old man was about to drop around £500 in a popular catalogue-based retailer, so I had to intervene. Mainly used for word processing, internet use, and whatever else he gets up to. Gaming-wise, he's only into solitaire, so no real need for dedicated GPU. Must have 2TB of storage for whatever stuff he can't possibly get rid of, and space for an optical drive (probably re-use his old one). No peripherals or OS required. I can build. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. My attempt is below. Possibly a bit of overkill, but it would be useful for me for when I visit to have something with a bit of grunt for software development.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x Asrock A320M-HDV A320 (Socket AM4) DDR4 Micro ATX Motherboard= £49.99
• 1 x Team Group Vulcan T-Force 8GB (2x4GB) DDR4 PC4-19200C14 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit - Grey (TLGD48G2400= £94.99
• 1 x Samsung 250GB 850 EVO SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 32 Layer 3D V-NAND Solid State Drive (MZ-75E250B/EU)= £89.99
• 1 x AMD Ryzen 3 Quad Core 1200 3.40GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail= £89.99
• 1 x Corsair Carbide Series 88R Micro-ATX Case - Black (CC-9011086-WW)= £49.99
• 1 x Super Flower Platinum King 450W 80 Plus Platinum Power Supply - Black= £64.99
• 1 x Seagate 2TB BarraCuda Internal Hard Drive (ST2000DM006)= £56.99

Total: £508.63 (includes shipping: £11.70)​

​

 

[tamzzy]

My attempt is below.

won't run. ryzen has no integrated gpu, hence will need a dedicated gpu.

my advice would be to wait for a month or so, when the new ryzen APUs are available

 

[t-rex]

won't run. ryzen has no integrated gpu, hence will need a dedicated gpu.
my advice would be to wait for a month or so, when the new ryzen APUs are available

Hmmm. Good thing I checked. Not sure if he can wait that long though, his current machine is on the ropes. I think I have an AMD 6450 somewhere I can put in. Would that be sufficient?

 

[tamzzy]

intel build:

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x Team Group Vulcan T-Force 8GB (2x4GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black/Grey (TLGD4= £99.95
• 1 x EVGA 450BT 450W 80 Plus Bronze Power Supply= £37.99
• 1 x Crucial MX300 275GB SSD SATA 6Gbps 3D Nand 7mm Solid State Drive (CT275MX300SSD1)= £85.99
• 1 x Seagate 2TB BarraCuda Internal Hard Drive (ST2000DM006)= £56.99
• 1 x Intel Core i3-8100 3.6GHz (Coffee Lake) Socket LGA1151 Processor - Retail= £98.99
• 1 x Asus Prime Z370-P Intel Z370 (Socket 1151) DDR4 ATX Motherboard= £109.99
• 1 x Kolink Victory ATX Midi Tower Gaming Case - Black= £19.99

Total: £522.19 (includes shipping: £12.30)​

​

ryzen build:

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x Team Group Vulcan T-Force 8GB (2x4GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black/Grey (TLGD4= £99.95
• 1 x EVGA 450BT 450W 80 Plus Bronze Power Supply= £37.99
• 1 x Crucial MX300 275GB SSD SATA 6Gbps 3D Nand 7mm Solid State Drive (CT275MX300SSD1)= £85.99
• 1 x Seagate 2TB BarraCuda Internal Hard Drive (ST2000DM006)= £56.99
• 1 x AMD Ryzen 3 Quad Core 1200 3.40GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail= £89.99
• 1 x Asrock AB350M AMD B350 (Socket AM4) DDR4 Micro ATX Motherboard= £70.99
• 1 x MSI GeForce GT 710 SILENT "Low Profile" 2048MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card= £29.99
• 1 x Aerocool CS101 Micro ATX Case - Black= £26.99

Total: £511.18 (includes shipping: £12.30)​

​

unfortunately mobo, gpu and case for ryzen build oos at ocuk

out of the 2, specs, and considering that you don't require any dedicated gpu (or cuda cores), i'd probably say that the intel build is better

 

[mistersprinkles]

The RYZEN APUs are out now. Just FYI.

 

[4K8KW10]

Yes, and if so, then....

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x AMD Ryzen 5 2400G VEGA Graphics AM4 CPU w/ Wraith Stealth Cooler= £149.99
• 1 x Asrock AB350M AMD B350 (Socket AM4) DDR4 Micro ATX Motherboard= £63.95
• 1 x Team Group Dark T-Force 8GB (2x4GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black/Grey (TDGED48= £99.95
• 1 x Samsung 960 EVO Polaris 250GB M.2 2280 PCI-e 3.0 x4 NVMe Solid State Drive= £128.99
• 1 x Toshiba 2TB P300 Performance Hard Drive (HDWD120UZSVA)= £56.99
• 1 x Corsair Carbide Series 88R Micro-ATX Case - Black (CC-9011086-WW)= £49.99
• 1 x EVGA 450BT 450W 80 Plus Bronze Power Supply= £37.99

Total: £599.55 (includes shipping: £11.70)

​

 

[EsaT]

1 x AMD Ryzen 5 2400G VEGA Graphics AM4 CPU w/ Wraith Stealth Cooler= £149.99

• 1 x Asrock AB350M AMD B350 (Socket AM4) DDR4 Micro ATX Motherboard= £63.95

No good without any display connector in motherboard...

This would be better for actually getting image into monitor:
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/asus...am4-ddr4-micro-atx-motherboard-mb-69l-as.html

Though there are also more budget motherboards with display outputs:
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/asro...am4-ddr4-micro-atx-motherboard-mb-156-ak.html
Those with DVI output are apparently limited to max 1920x1200 resolution.
I guess they use only single link DVI.

 

[Quartz]

Look at the intel nuc boxes. just add ram and m2 drive.

my basket at overclockers uk:

• 1 x Intel NUC NUC7i3BNK Core i3-7100U "Baby Canyon" Kaby Lake Micro PC= £299.99
• 1 x Samsung 960 EVO Polaris 250GB M.2 2280 PCI-e 3.0 x4 NVMe Solid State Drive= £128.99
• 1 x Kingston HyperX Impact Black Series 8GB 2400MHZ DDR4 CL14 SODIMM (Kit of 1) (HX424S14IB/8)= £72.98

Total: £517.86 (includes shipping: £15.90)​

​

Add an external USB 3 or network HDD and USB optical drive if required.

 

[4K8KW10]

No good without any display connector in motherboard...

This would be better for actually getting image into monitor:
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/asus...am4-ddr4-micro-atx-motherboard-mb-69l-as.html

Though there are also more budget motherboards with display outputs:
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/asro...am4-ddr4-micro-atx-motherboard-mb-156-ak.html
Those with DVI output are apparently limited to max 1920x1200 resolution.
I guess they use only single link DVI.

Yes, sorry, pressed the wrong add in basket button

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x EVGA 450BT 450W 80 Plus Bronze Power Supply= £37.99
• 1 x Corsair Carbide Series 88R Micro-ATX Case - Black (CC-9011086-WW)= £49.99
• 1 x Toshiba 2TB P300 Performance Hard Drive (HDWD120UZSVA)= £56.99
• 1 x Hynix SL308 120GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (HFS120G32TND-N1A0A)= £49.99
• 1 x Team Group Dark T-Force 8GB (2x4GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black/Grey (TDGED48= £99.95
• 1 x Asus Prime B350M-A AMD B350 (Socket AM4) DDR4 Micro ATX Motherboard= £71.99
• 1 x AMD Ryzen 5 2400G VEGA Graphics AM4 CPU w/ Wraith Stealth Cooler= £149.99

Total: £528.59 (includes shipping: £11.70)​

​

 

[Quartz]

I've just spotted a NUC with an internal drive bay and a cheaper M2 drive:

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x Kingston HyperX Impact Black Series 8GB 2400MHZ DDR4 CL14 SODIMM (Kit of 1) (HX424S14IB/8)= £72.98
• 1 x Intel NUC NUC7i3BNH Core i3-7100U "Baby Canyon" Kaby Lake Micro PC= £299.99
• 1 x Seagate 2TB BarraCuda 2.5" Internal Hard Drive - PC and PS4 (ST2000LM015)= £71.99
• 1 x Samsung PM961 Polaris 256GB M.2-2280 PCI-e 3.0 x 4 NVMe Solid State Drive= £98.99

Total: £559.85 (includes shipping: £15.90)​

​

 

[t-rex]

Thanks for the suggestions. I went with the i3 8100 in the end, since he doesn't need a GPU. My sister has a spare GTX460 anyway in case he needs it.