Build Advice Components for a basic desktop PC ?

[Pimpom]

Someone has asked me to pick parts and assemble a PC for basic tasks like browsing and emails but will probably also be used for word processing, playing MP3s and movies. I have tentatively selected the following. Are they good enough?

Athlon 3000G
A320 motherboard
8GB 3000 DDR4
240/250 GB NVMe SSD (entry level from a reputed brand)
430/450W PSU (as for SSD)
No discrete gfx card

Or will an i3 system be better for he same outlay?

 

[lvt]

Or will an i3 system be better for he same outlay?

For the tasks you described above, an i3 based system is enough.

And you should add a HDD for files storage (for example 2TB).

 

[Why_Me]

Someone has asked me to pick parts and assemble a PC for basic tasks like browsing and emails but will probably also be used for word processing, playing MP3s and movies. I have tentatively selected the following. Are they good enough?

Athlon 3000G
A320 motherboard
8GB 3000 DDR4
240/250 GB NvME SSD (entry level from a reputed brand)
430/450W PSU (as for SSD)
No discrete gfx card

Or will an i3 system be better for he same outlay?

I'd try to fit a set of 2x8GB of RAM in your build.

 

[Pimpom]

For the tasks you described above, an i3 based system is enough.

Thanks for the reply. The question is which platform is better for the same cost? The intended tasks are not demanding but it's always desirable to have the best bang for the buck

And you should add a HDD for files storage (for example 2TB).

I considered that. But, for the intended usage, I think 80-100GB for C: and the rest of a 240/250GB drive - say 130-150GB - for data will be enough. If not, an HDD could always be added later.

 

[KyaraM]

What is the budget, and did you consider a laptop? Hard to tell you what the besf option is wiyhout knowing what you can spend on it...

 

[Pimpom]

Budget is tight but not rigidly fixed. I'm not in the US and I can get the parts I listed for the equivalent of about US$250 including a cheap cabinet (case), basic keyboard and wireless mouse. It will be nice to keep it at around that figure.

This is not for myself. The prospective owner is a good friend of mine who's fallen on hard times. He has owned laptops before but doesn't want one now. He already has a monitor.

 

[KyaraM]

Budget is tight but not rigidly fixed. I'm not in the US and I can get the parts I listed for the equivalent of about US$250 including a cheap cabinet (case), basic keyboard and wireless mouse. It will be nice to keep it at around that figure.

This is not for myself. The prospective owner is a good friend of mine who's fallen on hard times. He has owned laptops before but doesn't want one now. He already has a monitor.

Hmmm, I see. Yeah, for that money the system should be alright, but I would consider using a 500GB SATA-SSD instead. It's slightly more expensive, but would definitely be enough unless your friend wants to save several hundred movies on it or something. This one is good, I use the 1TB version in my gaming laptop as a secondary drive and it's certainly fast enough for me:
https://www.newegg.com/crucial-mx500-500gb/p/N82E16820156173
Might be worth considering. Also consider that Windows gets messy and bloated over time (unless you want to install Linux, that is), so a few GB more is better.

Hope your friend's situation improves soon!

 

[lvt]

I considered that. But, for the intended usage, I think 80-100GB for C: and the rest of a 240/250GB drive - say 130-150GB - for data will be enough. If not, an HDD could always be added later.

By today's "standard", unless you are using a laptop with no possibility to add parts, it's not recommended to use a single SSD for everything on a desktop.

A small SSD for system disk, and a larger SSD/HDD for storage.