Cheap (R5 1600) AF build

No pics and nothing fancy, just a really cheap upgrade to my mother’s old PC. Originally I was going to get an APU, but I think the way I went was a good deal and I can always upgrade the GPU down the road. The old PC had a newer PSU and SSD, so those and the case were reused. Here is a quick rundown:

$85 Ryzen R5 1600 (YD1600BBAFBOX) - https://www.amazon.com/AMD-Processor-Wraith-Stealth-YD1600BBAFBOX/dp/B07XTQZJ28

$60 ASRock B450M-HDV

$65 16GB Team T-Force 3200MHZ

$20 GT 710 1GB

$230 total upgrade cost

I was going to get a different motherboard, but it would have taken longer to arrive, and honestly I think the cheaper motherboard will be just fine. If I get bored I can add my own VRM heatsinks. I grabbed the RAM a couple of months ago on sale and it works well enough.

The biggest departure from what most people would consider is the GPU. My mother was running an ancient GT 8600 512MB. Given my good experience with the 2400G, I was originally going to either get a 2200G or Athlon 3000G. The Athlon would be a decent deal at $50, but it is hard to find under $60. A 20% price hike kills the value in my eyes. Sale prices for the 2200G weren’t bad, but once I came across the updated version of the R5 1600 for roughly the same price it seemed to be a no-brainer, it just needs a dedicated GPU.

EVGA had a sale on their B-stock hardware plus free shipping, so the GT 710 for $20 shipped was the best deal I could find (grabbed a spare as well). Most used cards that perform substantially better cost so much that I might as well just get an RX 570, but that is way too overkill for a machine that may never play any 3D games. The GT 710 is still much better than the old card, and moving from an i3 2105 + 4GB to this R5 1600AF + 16GB is a massive leap forward.

The old computer originally cost over $650 with Win7. I’ve had my mother running Mint the past few years with no more problems than she had on Win7, and the drive transferred to the new build without issues. Tack on the ~$100 cost of the PSU and SSD upgrade from last year and it’s about half the cost of the computer it replaced.

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