Help building a mid range PC

Angel_13

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Feb 2, 2016
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Ok so heres the deal, a friend of mine is trying to build a new rig, but GPU prices right now are inflated, so i thought i can build a decent rig with an APU for the mean time (his current PC is dead) and wait until november or so when the GPU prices are lower, and i came up with this build:

AMD Ryzen 5 2400G
Motherboard Asus Prime A320M-K
3000 MHZ 8GB DDR4 RAM
EVGA 650W PSU
Cooler master Masterbox lite 3.1 case

How does this build look like? Also he wants to use it for graphic design on top of gaming, he wants to use the following programs: photoshop, Illustrator, Lightroom, INdesing, Adobe Premiere, After Effects, Blender, Autocard, Rhino3D,SolidWorks, Autodesk Maya.

1) So will he be able to use that stuff before buying the GPU?
2) Will he be able to use those programs after buying a mid range GPU? (1060 or 580)
3) Is the Ryzen 5 HDMI compatible without a dedicated GPU? Thanks in advance
 
Solution
1. yes.
2. yes.
3. yes.

But, I would not do it.
You buy an apu for the excellent integrated graphics.
Once you upgrade with a discrete graphics card you will have wasted the value of the apu.

GPU prices will not go lower unless you are talking the used market.
Prices new will be on a price/performance curve; you will get about what you pay for at any price point.

Next, those apps, as I recall are highly dependent on single thread processor speeds at which intel excels.
Also, some of them can make use of the CUDA core capability of newer nvidia graphics cards.

You should probably look up the minimum and recommended components for those apps.
In particular how much ram is beneficial. Likely more than 8gb.

The psu wattage you...
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2400G 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor ($159.00 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock - B450M PRO4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($82.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($149.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master - MasterBox Lite 3.1 MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($35.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - FOCUS Plus Gold 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($58.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $486.93
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-08-19 13:40 EDT-0400

This is my recommendation.
1. Get a motherboard that overclocks, especially if using onboard GPU.
2. Get 16GB of RAM. The APU loses almost HALF its FPS with only 8GB of RAM. It will also struggle in those programs with 8GB compared to 16GB.
3. Better quality PSU.

This will do what he needs till he buys a dedicated GPU.
 
1. yes.
2. yes.
3. yes.

But, I would not do it.
You buy an apu for the excellent integrated graphics.
Once you upgrade with a discrete graphics card you will have wasted the value of the apu.

GPU prices will not go lower unless you are talking the used market.
Prices new will be on a price/performance curve; you will get about what you pay for at any price point.

Next, those apps, as I recall are highly dependent on single thread processor speeds at which intel excels.
Also, some of them can make use of the CUDA core capability of newer nvidia graphics cards.

You should probably look up the minimum and recommended components for those apps.
In particular how much ram is beneficial. Likely more than 8gb.

The psu wattage you need is mainly determined by the graphics card you will use.
650w will run anything.
But, I would look to a tier 1/2 unit like the 650w Seasonic focus gold.
https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/631048-psu-tier-list-updated/
 
Solution
If buying 16GB RAM means waiting longer to get a GTX1060/RX580 then I'd just get 8GB RAM.

Definitely get a B450 motherboard, (300 series would require a bios update which would require a different CPU). Plus, as mentioned A320 doesn't support overclocking.