Building a Mom's PC

i was tasked with the job of building my Mum a new Computer. since i am a gamer i know my way around “top off the line” Products but not the lower tiers one.

and since i watch a lot of the L1T youtube channel i thought what a great opportunity for trying out this forum.

its a PC for a mum so it doesnt need much. just opening emails and browsing the web. but it should do that for a long time. there is no real budget. just my conviction arts about which parts she realy need and how much is to spend.
i would go for a good powersupply since that doenst need much upgrading for the future. same for the case. but for the other parts i am pretty clue less.

so i would appreciate some recommendations for a CPU.

key points:
-no old parts
-webbrowsing PC
-no real budget.

if i missied key informations i am sorry. and please Excuse my bad englisch. i am not a native speaker

greatings from germany.

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Welcome to the forum!

Probably best going with an Ryzen 3 2200G, 8GB RAM, and a cheaper A320/B350/B450 motherboard.

If you went with a 300 series chipset motherboard, make sure it supports some sort of USB BIOS Flashing utility, so you can update to a BIOS with 2nd Gen Ryzen support.

AMD have promised support for AM4 until 2020, so as long as the motherboard manufacturer keeps providing BIOS updates, there will be more upgrade options in the future, if it’s needed.

The i3-8100 would also be a good option, but it’s a little bit more expensive.

7 Likes

Moin!
For the typical office use/webbrowsing, the Ryzen APUs will save you the hassle of getting a GPU.

So arround the 2200G I came up with this:
https://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/3xhpFt

Part Price (€) Note
Ryzen 2200G 103 CPU and GPU for little money
ASRock AB350M-HDV 63 Cheap mainboard with display outs
Kingston Fury 4GB 2666 45 RAM, maybe go for 8?
WD Blue 250GB 2.5" 57 Having an SSD is important
CoolerMaster MasterBox E300L 35
bequiet PurePower 10CM 400W 64
LG GH24NSB0 16 Better have one. Can´t be sure with parents.

Total: <400€

Will check Reichelt, Conrad and Mindfactory for cheaper options.

Mindfactory build:
https://www.mindfactory.de/shopping_cart.php/basket_action/load_basket_extern/id/cef9fd22118c848348383956885ec1db5e8b7fe393df643ec57

2 Likes

I would buy her a cheap laptop. Otherwise you’re going to be supporting the thing for the rest of your life. Laptops also have obvious advantages in being portable and having a built-in UPS.

ChromeOS makes a lot of sense for this purpose too. It’s bulletproof. She will NEVER have her computer destroyed by a virus she got from downloading a cute kitty screensaver.

Actually unless she needs to do a lot of word processing or whatever, I wouldn’t buy her a laptop at all. I’d get her an iPad. The cheaper one.

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everybody was right, this is a great forum. thanks a lot for the very quick answers.

i dont like the laptop solution since its not going to move. she has a desk with enough room for having a full pc. and spending money on features like protabele that i dont need. doesnt sound right. and uprading a laptop is very hard.

i was looking at the Amd APUs aswell but wasnt sure if she needs a GPU at all.

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Probably not. I only got my mother a new GPU when the old one died after serving for 10ish years.
Current one is an R5 230 4GB because that helps a little when she edits videos once in a full moon.

Intel NUC is perfect for this use case, you just buy SSD and ram and it’s plug and play.

https://simplynuc.com/8i3bek-kit/

2 Likes

Laptops work fine in one place, and she has the option of moving it if she wants to do so. Can be nice to take it outside on the deck with a cup of coffee or whatever.

I’m of the firm opinion that the vast majority of people should not have desktop computers. Your mom example is the archetypical reason why this is so.

2 Likes

my mum would never move the PC. and comparing a cheap laptop against a cheap desktop the user experience is always better on the desktop.

she can move her keyboard where she wants to have it and have a bigger screen. and a lot of other reason.

i see your point and i would make the same if i would talk to a modern person. but she isnt.

Can always plug a monitor, keyboard, and mouse into a laptop. But you do what you think is best.

if she has a lot of things pluged in to the laptop. she never would move it out of fear not going to know what to plug in where.

and you say thats stupid. i know it is. but not going try to change her.
i try to find the right thing for her and not the normal right thing.

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i dont want to seem rude. i appreciate your help. and i if i seem rude. its lost in translation and text

As MazeFrame said, she probably won’t need a dedicated GPU. The iGPU on the 2200G is fine for web browsing and video playback, even light gaming.

I agree with the aforementioned APU or NUC ideas.

A few years ago I pieced together a computer for my own parents and it is still working perfectly for them to this day.

Intel i3 4160
ASRock H97 ITX
8 GB RAM
1 TB WD Blue (or Seagate Barracuda?)
In Win BP655

No problems with social media, online videos, basic office applications, or anything.

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I’m extremely happy with my Ryzen 2400G build. I went Mini-ITX and have a tiny little cube as my workstation, complete with Bluetooth and Wifi. I speced with with 32Gb of RAM, which is overkill for a casual use PC, but my entire build still came in at around $700, which is a great price/performance ratio for a fresh build.

In terms of video output, your mom’s computer doesn’t need much. Onboard video will be sufficient for video playback and browsing, and even some light gaming.

The only consideration you need to account for in terms of video is output ports. The Ryzen 2400G has an HDMI port, and can handle 4k@30hz without issue. If she has multiple monitors or a monitor only with DisplayPort inputs, you’ll need a dedicated card.

If she’s got a single 1080p monitor with HDMI, onboard will be perfectly sufficient.

I’ve also got an Intel NUC (by way of a System76 Meerkat) and it’s a good system. The only drawbacks is that it’s not very upgradable, but that’s really not a problem given how cheap they are.

Mini-ITX on Ryzen is where I personally aim now for that kind of build. It’s still veyr small, but doesn’t miss out on the opportunity to toss in a couple bulky drives for storage, and toss in a PCI card for expansion if the need arises.

at the moment she is using a iMac so we are need a new monitor anyway.
but thanks for the tip going to look out for the ports.
1080p should be fine for her

1 Like

Welcome to the forum!

votes for athlon 200ge + a320 motherboard

Just throwing this out as an option.

UDOO X86 ULTRA https://shop.udoo.org/eu/x86.html

Add the M.2 storage, wi-fi module and metal case. You can mount on the back of a monitor and leave it on 24/7. Totally silent.

Supports Windows 10, Linux or Android.

I have one that acts as a HTPC.

I agree with others that the baked in eGPU in the CPU while be way enough for your mom. But maybe I would recommend to take a case like the InWin Chopin. Cute little case that would take no space and would be great aesthetically (I know it’s not the #1 priority but I like beautiful thing. I’m a sucker for that). If you don’t want a NUC but still would prefer smallness with up-gradablelity. And I would go all in for a m.2 SSD. It gonna be small, reliable, fast, and less cable and I don’t suspect your mom need a lot of storage so a 128 GB would all fine.

460 euros

  • InWin Chopin (included 150W power supply)
  • Ryzen 3 220G
  • ASRock B450
  • G.Skill 8GB (2x4GB) DDR4-2400
  • WD Blue 250GB M.2 SATA SSD

https://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/HjJ4J8

1 Like