Question Can you help me decide on system components?

[sofalinux]

My wife wants a computer for a home work station. Hopefully to have a work-at-home job.I built my pc 20 years ago and did a few upgrades since. I am no longer able to grasp all the details about whats what when it comes to building a pc.
I think Intel I5 is the basic work station now days. But it sure is pricey. I used to always look to Intel and AMD but now I see that there a many other brands that are much more affordable. But I don't know how to find something similar to I5 in work stationability. So this is my desire for a CPU. I would want a motherboard the has onboard graphics and sound and 3 or 4 USB ports. I would want 8 gig of ram with room to double that if needed. A standard ATX case is OK.
Can you guys guide me to the starting line.
I have always bought mt stuff at Best Buy but I think they are a rip off now days.
Recommendations please.

 

[punkncat]

What is your budget and what country are you shopping in?

Do you have peripherals like monitor, keyboard, mouse?
How many monitors with what connections and resolution?

Are there any specific requirements or programs that will be used on the machine?

Are you looking at prebuilt or build yourself?

 

[Lafong]

I think Intel I5 is the basic work station now days. ............... I used to always look to Intel and AMD but now I see that there a many other brands that are much more affordable. .......................I would want a motherboard the has onboard graphics and sound and 3 or 4 USB ports. I would want 8 gig of ram with room to double that if needed. A standard ATX case is OK.............I have always bought mt stuff at Best Buy but I think they are a rip off now days.

An i3 may well be strong enough depending on required tasks.

For practical purposes, Intel and AMD are still the only CPU brands.

Integrated graphics, sound, 8 GB RAM, and 4 USB ports are available on nearly any low and mid level system, i3 or i5. AMD has a few CPUs with integrated video as well. 16 GB RAM is becoming a near-standard even on lower end PCs.

First decision is probably will you build it or buy it pre-built. And maybe will you buy only face to face or are you willing to buy online. Costco is a pretty good source and has a good return policy the last I heard. Newegg and Amazon are typical online sources.

You can get a Dell for 600 or less that may well be fine.

Avoid spinning hard drives if you can.

Get a semi-accurate grasp on your storage requirements. Pre-builts will abuse you on price if you step up in drive capacity...or RAM for that matter.

No need to get Windows 11 unless forced. No need to get Pro version of Windows for most people.

I've NEVER had more than 8 GB of RAM and no regrets yet. I will get 16 when I rebuild.

Not a wide difference amongst the pre-built manufacturers. Customer service can be an issue and none are exemplary.

Standard supplied cooler may be adequate depending on your requirements.

Give as much detail as possible on what it will be used for.

 

[punkncat]

^For W10 one of the main reasons I like the Pro version is that you can actually disable Cortana, among other things. I also like to use it for RDC within the home network to perform system maint from one location.

 

[sofalinux]

I'm in Michigan, USA. I will assemble the components myself. My biggest cost concern is the CPU and MB. I would hope to spend less than $150 on the CPU and I think that $100 MB is very easy to do. I will stick with 8 gig RAM for now. I have a monitor with HDMI connection. I can come up with a SATA drive and a keyboard and mouse. I prefer Linux but the wife is demanding Windows. I don't know much about what is available windows-wise.
Is online shopping for PC stuff safe?
Need more info? Just ask. I will be here.
Thanks for your help.

 

[Lafong]

Storage requirements? Windows itself takes under 30 gb.

What 3 or 4 software packages will be most often used?

A micro ATX board should be OK for you.

What is capacity of your SATA drive?

You need:

prices shown are on estimates of a decent low to mid level PC off the top of my head.

case; 50

power supply; 80

motherboard; 110

CPU

RAM 8 gb; 50

cooler if not included with CPU. 30

SSD if at all possible; small one; 256 GB; 50

That's in the mid 300s without a CPU. Circa 500 with?

Does that revolt you?

Tough to beat a pre-built if budget is tight; you would have all new parts and a warranty.

Online shopping is generally safe from certain sources. Typically cheaper than Best Buy. Standard sources would be Newegg and Amazon, direct. Not from their resellers. Microcenter is a good parts source that may have a store near you. I think they will assemble too.

 

[sofalinux]

$300 + CPU not too bad. But I'm still confused about VPUs. Do I need Intel or AMD or something off brand. I was looking at Ryzen a while back. I used AMD in the past and other than the cost was happy with them. I think a Ryzen 5 is way more than adequete with 6 cores.

 

[Lafong]

VPU.

What dat?

Integrated video? Most Intel CPUs have built in video. Fewer but some AMD CPUs do also.

 

[Why_Me]

I'm in Michigan, USA. I will assemble the components myself. My biggest cost concern is the CPU and MB. I would hope to spend less than $150 on the CPU and I think that $100 MB is very easy to do. I will stick with 8 gig RAM for now. I have a monitor with HDMI connection. I can come up with a SATA drive and a keyboard and mouse. I prefer Linux but the wife is demanding Windows. I don't know much about what is available windows-wise.
Is online shopping for PC stuff safe?
Need more info? Just ask. I will be here.
Thanks for your help.

https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16813162048
ASRock B660M PRO RS $119.99

https://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/B660M Pro RS/

https://www.newegg.com/intel-core-i3-12100-core-i3-12th-gen/p/N82E16819118370
Intel Core i3-12100 $129.98

https://ark.intel.com/content/www/u...12100-processor-12m-cache-up-to-4-30-ghz.html

https://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Vengeance-3200MHz-Desktop-Memory/dp/B0143UM4TC
Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3200MHz 16GB (2x8GB) CL16 $64.99

https://www.newegg.com/team-group-1tb-cx2/p/N82E16820331561
Team Group CX2 2.5" 1TB SATA III 3D NAND Internal SSD $68.99 Save: $20.00 (22%)

 

[Karadjgne]

First, history.
Motherboards haven't used inboard graphics in over 10 years, so any cpu will need to either have an igpu built in, or paired a cheapo gpu such as a GT1030. With Intel, all the standard designation and K designation cpus have igpu, only the F designation does not. They are also pretty bad. With Amd, none of the Ryzen cpus have an igpu, only the A series APU does, and it's equitable to a GT1030.

It's still only Amd and Intel, the 'other brands' are 3rd party pre-built vendors. Dell, Lenovo and HP are the largest consumer grade, ibuypower and CyberpowerPC are the largest custom ordered.

So Amd has the best graphics ability by a long shot, but the cpu power is a little wanting unless you get the higher tier APU's. Intel has a much wider selection of cpus, all of which pretty much match the stronger than APU Ryzens, but the graphics are pretty abysmal in comparison.

So budget concerns aside, what area is the job going to rely on more, graphics or computing power.
Someone building websites, using Photoshop, YouTube, PowerPoint etc would be better with Amd APU, someone using Excel, Word, billing or legal documents, etc would be better with Intel.

 

[Karadjgne]

^For W10 one of the main reasons I like the Pro version is that you can actually disable Cortana, among other things. I also like to use it for RDC within the home network to perform system maint from one location.

Winaero Tweaker, little known program that's really nothing more than a UI listing just about all the various hidden and/or layers deep menus of switches in Windows. Allows for turning off Cortana, Windows updates, Windows Store, dark/light themes and a ton of other such switches. Makes all that infinitely easier, everything is easily findable.