Building a low and work system

Rhysjones106

Honorable
Jan 2, 2017
43
0
10,530
Looking at building a low end work rig for university work, I have a gaming rig that I don't want to use for uni work so am planning to build a cheapish pc that I can work on and am not sure what cpu to use. Looking at Pentium or i3 probably if any of you have opinions I could really use them cheers.
 
Solution
I'd go with:

CPU: Intel Pentium G4560 2x 3.50GHz So.1151 BOX (64 €)
CPU Cooler: Be quiet! Shadow Rock slim (39 €)
Motherboard:Gigabyte GA-B250M-D3H (77 €)
Memory: 8GB Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4-2133 DIMM CL13 Dual Kit (71 €)
Storage: Samsung - 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (90 €)
Case: Fractal Design Define R5 (90 €)
Power Supply: 500 Watt be quiet! Pure Power 10 CM Modular 80+ Silver (66 €)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SUM: 497 €

This would be silent and elegant build, ready for future update, If you choose to upgrade someday. It looks like coffee lake will support LGA 1151 after all, so you are looking at 6 core / 12 threats update potential.
How does this look. Do you want to get everything at the cheapest places, or all at one vendor?

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 1400 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (£146.96 @ More Computers)
Motherboard: Asus - PRIME A320M-K Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard (£57.71 @ More Computers)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-3200 Memory (£86.70 @ Alza)
Storage: Samsung - 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£85.49 @ Novatech)
Case: NZXT - S340 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (£62.39 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: Corsair - CXM 450W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£48.48 @ Ebuyer)
Total: £487.73
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-07-25 16:38 BST+0100
 


You need to add GPU to this build, Ryzen does not have IGP.
 


i3 is not worth buying, buy Pentium G4560 instead it's basically i3 costing only 64 €. You will save 50-60 € and get nearly the same performance.

https://www.techspot.com/review/1325-intel-pentium-g4560/
 
I'd go with:

CPU: Intel Pentium G4560 2x 3.50GHz So.1151 BOX (64 €)
CPU Cooler: Be quiet! Shadow Rock slim (39 €)
Motherboard:Gigabyte GA-B250M-D3H (77 €)
Memory: 8GB Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4-2133 DIMM CL13 Dual Kit (71 €)
Storage: Samsung - 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (90 €)
Case: Fractal Design Define R5 (90 €)
Power Supply: 500 Watt be quiet! Pure Power 10 CM Modular 80+ Silver (66 €)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SUM: 497 €

This would be silent and elegant build, ready for future update, If you choose to upgrade someday. It looks like coffee lake will support LGA 1151 after all, so you are looking at 6 core / 12 threats update potential.
 
Solution


Same number of cores/threats, only slightly higher CPU frequency on i3, which will give you 3-5 % performance advantage at best for 40-50 % price premium. Nothing between g4560 and i5 7400 is worth buying dollar/performance wise.