Mom and Mother in law budget build

[Juan71287]

Hi all. Thanks for stopping by and helping if you can .

My mother in laws computer is... well... very old. It’s like a Dell business work station that I upgraded with some ram and better HDD. It’s been 2 years since I did this and frankly, it’s time for new everything. I also decided to make my mother one identical to it so there’s no jealousy involved

Looking to see if anyone can help me with a good budget list of components for maybe a mini ITX if that’s the cheapest one. There will be no gaming on these computers it’s only going to be for Facebook YouTube all the Microsoft applications and of course mirroring to work environment computers. I am looking for something cheap that could last a few years. I YouTube some things and this is what I came up with; if anyone can give me better ideas for cheaper and equally good I am available to listen and appreciate all the hard work offered here .

Please keep in mind I don’t know a lot about what Mobo are good for just regular computer usage and none game playing, so the suggestions below may hit you like I’m looking for a gaming budget build. I am not. But I mean, if that’s the only way I don’t mind looking for cheap parts on eBay and such.

Also, Intel VS AMD, I don’t know. I know AMD is cheaper but I have no clue if all the application also work on AMD?

CPU: inter or AMD?
Motherboard: Asrock AB350 GAMING-ITX/ac OR Gigabyte AB350N-Gaming WIFI AM4 B350 Mini ITX
Ram: 8gb or 16gb if I find cheap on eBay or something
Case: Geeek A30 MINI-ITX CASE OR Minicase E-W60
PSU: Wanted to use a pico PSU but will that give me enough power? 120 watts?
HDD: I’ll use any I have laying around. Might be an ssd since I want it to los as quickly as possible.

I found these budget builds online and wanted to get your opinion on what would be best?

$366 cost
Ryzen 3 2200g
Elite + 2400mhz ram
Sandisk 120gb ssd
Gigabyte ab350n-Gaming wifi
Inwin chopin

$430 cost
Ryzen 2200g
- Asrock AB350 GAMING-ITX/ac
- 16gb HyperX Fury 2133mhz
- Gigabyte RX 560 Gaming OC 4gb
- SanDisk 240 SSD Plus
- Cooler Master Elite 110
- Seasonic M12II Bronze 520w PSU
- Cooler Master ML12 Pro
- Noctua NF-F12 PWM Fan

$470 cost
Ryzen 3 2200G Quad-Core Processor + GPU (APU) -
Gigabyte AB350N-Gaming WIFI AM4 B350 Mini ITX Motherboard -
Team T-Force Vulcan 8GB (2x4GB) DDR4 3000 Memory -
SanDisk SSD PLUS 240GB Solid State Drive -
Thermaltake Core V1 Black Mini ITX Case -
Corsair CX (2017) 550W 80+ Bronze ATX PSU

 

[don256us]

I had to look up picoPSU but I found this old article and it looks like a valid option.
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article601-page1.html

Now, of course, you'll want more power in your PSU that you'll use. You'll probably want the PSU to hover around 75-80% of it's max load. So depending on what gear you select, you can then determin your wattage. My quick look shows that you can easily get up to 230 watts in a picoPSU.

I like the idea of a cheap and small SSD for these builds. What it lacks in CPU will be gained by the SSD. They will think that you're a genius.

 

[caddi daddi]

4 gigs of ram will be more than enough.
I use a 120 gig ssd for the os and a 1 tb hdd for storage on builds like this and pont the documents, downloads, pictures and videos folders onto the hdd.
I built my mother on like this but in a display case, looks awesome and she likes to show it off but it's soooooooooo weak.........

also, I have her on a linux os, zorin 12, so microsofts updates don't borjk it and make me have to reimage it, I set it up with pale moon for a browser and turn off all updating so it never changes on her.

 

[trents]

Save yourself the time and trouble. You won't be able to beat this price for these features:

https://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-IdeaC...=1538409453&sr=1-3&keywords=ryzen+desktop+ssd

 

[EarthDog]

Save yourself the time and trouble. You won't be able to beat this price for these features:

https://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-IdeaC...=1538409453&sr=1-3&keywords=ryzen+desktop+ssd

exactly.

At that budget, go Dell, hp, etc.... no point in DIY here, really.

 

[caddi daddi]

yea, that's the way to go, select the 250 gig ssd and paint that project finished!!!!

 

[Juan71287]

Save yourself the time and trouble. You won't be able to beat this price for these features:

https://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-IdeaC...=1538409453&sr=1-3&keywords=ryzen+desktop+ssd

exactly.

At that budget, go Dell, hp, etc.... no point in DIY here, really.

Thanks for all the help everyone. I appreciate it.

This build needs to have RAM added, and after adding it, its cost $459.00. This is almost the same price as the above:
$470 cost
Ryzen 3 2200G Quad-Core Processor + GPU (APU) -
Gigabyte AB350N-Gaming WIFI AM4 B350 Mini ITX Motherboard -
Team T-Force Vulcan 8GB (2x4GB) DDR4 3000 Memory -
SanDisk SSD PLUS 240GB Solid State Drive -
Thermaltake Core V1 Black Mini ITX Case -
Corsair CX (2017) 550W 80+ Bronze ATX PSU

Would this build be better now or in the long run? I dont mind the extra $30 plus I dont mind the hassle of building it since I will enjoy it!

 

[caddi daddi]

I'd vote yes.

 

[don256us]

The linked machine is over $500 with the cheapest RAM option and SSD option. If you opt for no hard drive then you also get no OS. Adding those on your own removes the advantage of the pre-built in my opinion.

I would probably build in this case but I would say that the choice is really yours to make. The warranty on the pre-built is not readily apparent. Amazon offers a 30 Dead on arrival warranty but the link to the manufacture warranty is itself DOA. If you like to build machines, this this would be a good project and if you don't, buy the pre-built.

 

[EarthDog]

I'd still go prebuilt. This way if something breaks, I'm not on the hook to help replace the thing. Also, tech support. Prebuilts one simply has to call, DIY, YOU are the tech support. Building and selling rigs for years and helping family with PCs has taken me off the cliff on that stuff these days.

 

[trents]

Here's a prebuilt deal for under $400 that has RAM: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod..._-DesktopComputers-_-83101687-S0C&ignorebbr=1

 

[don256us]

Switch that to an SSD and for $420 you got a nice deal.
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16883101369

 

[Juan71287]

You people are way too amazing!!!! Thanks all.

 

[Juan71287]

Thanks so much all. What if I take another approach. Since this PC is for older people who will only YouTube and stuff, can I use old 2015 parts like i5 44xx and z97 Mobo off eBay for cheaper price and still be good for a few more years?

 

[trents]

Thanks so much all. What if I take another approach. Since this PC is for older people who will only YouTube and stuff, can I use old 2015 parts like i5 44xx and z97 Mobo off eBay for cheaper price and still be good for a few more years?

No reason that wouldn't work but there would be the question of reliability of used parts which ( with fourth generation Intel) is not much cheaper than the current stuff. To really save any money you would have to go back earlier than fourth generation, maybe second generation or even socket 775. And then you are getting back to "long in the tooth and slow" which is why you are wanting to upgrade the old folks stuff anyway.

I get the feeling you just want to build these systems yourself as a labor of love rather than buy a prebuilt system since there is really no economic advantage of doing it yourself.

 

[Juan71287]

Lol. That’s exactly what I want to do . I know they would be happy that way. But I also want to save as much as I can. Honestly, I am stuck right now on finding an m-itx at a decent price in conjunction with the Ryzen 5 2400g. You think a Ryzen 3 2200g be OK as well? I am scavenging eBay to find the lowest price available.

I always have issues deciding. I found that m-atx are cheaper than m-itx, and I understand why, just soo annoying lol. I keep going back to wanting this PC to last at least 2-years without slowing down and causing them issues. I mean, they are used to super slow boot times, insane sounds, like a darned wind turbine, and back to slowness and sometimes not even working. But I want to make them something better than that .

Hope no one minds all my questions and devolución of information .

 

[trents]

If you want to dramatically improve their boot times then you definitely want to give them something with an SSD/m.2 SATA or NVME. Almost any modern desktop class CPU will do in the scenario you present since your old folks don't do CPU intensive tasks. Seems like you are obsessing over all this and splitting hairs in your decision making. Step back and look at the big picture and get on with it. You have enough info already that you probably won't make a bad decision. By now it's just making a choice between several good alternatives, none of which is clearly superior to the others. Which ever way you go your old folks won't be able to tell the difference anyway.

 

[EarthDog]

Just buy a Dell. Seriously.

 

[Janus67]

Agreed on just getting a prebuilt Dell. Their support is fine enough and means that if something's wrong you aren't spending hours/days troubleshooting it and dealing with vendor/manufacturers rma systems.

 

[Lupus42]

I found out a long time ago, for low end builds, I can't beat Dell's pricing. They have way to much quantity purchase discount for me to come close. No matter how hard I look. For High End builds, DIY all the way. If your re-using a lot of old parts you have lying around, then it might be worth comparing the DIY with Dell's finished setup, but in general I'd go with a pre-built for what you said you looking for.