[SOLVED] New computer - need advice

[FabioT]

Hi everybody, for the very first time I'm trying to assemble my own PC. Usage would mainly be work/ home-office, should be able to stream/ show videos in good quality and so on but basically no gaming. Budget around 5-600$ max.

Browsing the internet for components I got pretty confused, the more I deep dive in the matter the more questions arise, so I thought it might be better to ask for advice to a community that knows what it's talking about I'll start with some general questions:

As a CPU I was looking at an AMD Ryzen 5 2400G . Now, this comes with an integrated graphic card if I'm not mistaken. Does that mean I can avoid buying a graphic card at all or should I still look for a dedicated (cheap) graphic card? From what I understood it also comes with a cooler, do I need to buy a "proper" one?

For the drive, I found the Samsung MZ-76E500 860 EVO which is a 500 gb SSD. I don't need more space than that. I read something about m.2 SSDs, is it worth it going for one?

What mainboard can you suggest (Wifi support is needed)?

Any other things I should consider? Thanks a lot in advance for helping me out!

 

[PC Tailor]

Usage would mainly be work/ home-office, should be able to stream/ show videos in good quality

As a CPU I was looking at an AMD Ryzen 5 2400G . Now, this comes with an integrated graphic card if I'm not mistaken

If that's your main usage, the 2400G will be plenty, it's a good integrated GPU, if you wanted to do higher level gaming then you would want a good discrete GPU, but not for the usage you've described above.

I read something about m.2 SSDs, is it worth it going for one?

Only if it's cheaper or you don't want to cable the drive up, for your usage (and most peoples) there will be no benefit going from a standard 2.5 SATA III SSD and an M2 (remember there are 2 types of M2 interface, SATA and PCIe)

You could consider:
PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2400G 3.6 GHz Quad-Core Processor ($118.40 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: MSI B450M GAMING PLUS Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($95.69 @ OutletPC)
Memory: Team T-FORCE VULCAN Z 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($64.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Intel 660p Series 512 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($59.99 @ B&H)
Case: Fractal Design Focus G ATX Mid Tower Case ($55.88 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair CX (2017) 450 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($53.88 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($99.89 @ OutletPC)
Total: $548.72
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-09-19 08:36 EDT-0400

You can always half the price of the RAM if 8GB total is sufficient for your needs.

 

[FabioT]

If that's your main usage, the 2400G will be plenty, it's a good integrated GPU, if you wanted to do higher level gaming then you would want a good discrete GPU, but not for the usage you've described above.


Only if it's cheaper or you don't want to cable the drive up, for your usage (and most peoples) there will be no benefit going from a standard 2.5 SATA III SSD and an M2 (remember there are 2 types of M2 interface, SATA and PCIe)

You could consider:
PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2400G 3.6 GHz Quad-Core Processor ($118.40 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: MSI B450M GAMING PLUS Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($95.69 @ OutletPC)
Memory: Team T-FORCE VULCAN Z 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($64.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Intel 660p Series 512 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($59.99 @ B&H)
Case: Fractal Design Focus G ATX Mid Tower Case ($55.88 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair CX (2017) 450 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($53.88 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($99.89 @ OutletPC)
Total: $548.72
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-09-19 08:36 EDT-0400

You can always half the price of the RAM if 8GB total is sufficient for your needs.

Thanks a lot for your answer, that's very helpful! So you would say I don't need any dedicated cooler, do I?
Regarding the RAM: I indeed would have assumed 8 gb are enough for my usage - would I anyhow benefit from having 16gb?

Thanks
Fabio

 

[Mynamejheff]

if no overclocking there isnt rea

Thanks a lot for your answer, that's very helpful! So you would say I don't need any dedicated cooler, do I?
Regarding the RAM: I indeed would have assumed 8 gb are enough for my usage - would I anyhow benefit from having 16gb?

Thanks
Fabio

if no overclocking there is nothing wrong with amd s cooler.

 

[PC Tailor]

Thanks a lot for your answer, that's very helpful! So you would say I don't need any dedicated cooler, do I?
Regarding the RAM: I indeed would have assumed 8 gb are enough for my usage - would I anyhow benefit from having 16gb?

Thanks
Fabio

You only benefit from 16GB if your application uses more than 8GB in effect. There is a common misconception that more RAM = more Speed, which isn't directly true. The RAM can be considered the kitchen cupboard holding your ingredients ready to cook with, so you don't have to go to the shops every time you need a new ingredient.

However if what your doing only needs the cupboard to be half full, doubling the size of the cupboard won't make you make the meal any faster. You'll just have more empty cupboard space.

However if it does use a lot of space, the increased cupboard size allows you to store more ingredients so you don't have to travel to the shop again. Yay cooking references!

So at the basis of it, if the applications you will be running don't need much RAM, having 16GB instead of 8GB will just add another 8GB to sit idle and do nothing. If however your applications DO need more than 8GB, then 16GB is better as it will allow the RAM to get all information ready quicker.

 

[FabioT]

You only benefit from 16GB if your application uses more than 8GB in effect. There is a common misconception that more RAM = more Speed, which isn't directly true. The RAM can be considered the kitchen cupboard holding your ingredients ready to cook with, so you don't have to go to the shops every time you need a new ingredient.

However if what your doing only needs the cupboard to be half full, doubling the size of the cupboard won't make you make the meal any faster. You'll just have more empty cupboard space.

However if it does use a lot of space, the increased cupboard size allows you to store more ingredients so you don't have to travel to the shop again. Yay cooking references!

So at the basis of it, if the applications you will be running don't need much RAM, having 16GB instead of 8GB will just add another 8GB to sit idle and do nothing. If however your applications DO need more than 8GB, then 16GB is better as it will allow the RAM to get all information ready quicker.

The cooking reference will stick to my mind for quite some time. Thanks for taking the time to explain all that!

I think I'm slowly getting it, just have another couple of noob questions:

• If the motherboard says it supports USB 3.1 or even 3.2, does it mean I need to find a case which has 3.1 / 3.2 usb ports? Most of them seem to indicate only 3.0 . Probably doesn't change anything but I prefer to ask...
• How do I know if the mother board has Wifi/ Bluetooth?
• With this configuration (i.e. the ones you basically selected for my usage) does it make sense to go for a micro ATX case?

Cheers
Fabio

 

[PC Tailor]

If the motherboard says it supports USB 3.1 or even 3.2, does it mean I need to find a case which has 3.1 / 3.2 usb ports? Most of them seem to indicate only 3.0 . Probably doesn't change anything but I prefer to ask...

Well USB 3.1 Gen 1 and USB 3.0 are effectively the same thing.
And USB 3.1 Gen 2 is now also USB 3.2 Gen 2. So depends on the gen, but technically speaking they're kind of all the same thing.

Wheneve they release a new USB generation, they absorb the previous one and rebrand them effectively.

Specification	Previous Term	Technical Term	Marketing Term
USB 3.2	N/A	USB 3.2 Gen 2x2	SuperSpeed USB 20Gbps
USB 3.1	USB 3.1 Gen 2	USB 3.2 Gen 2	SuperSpeed USB 10Gbps
USB 3.0	USB 3.1 Gen 1	USB 3.2 Gen 1	SuperSpeed USB

How do I know if the mother board has Wifi/ Bluetooth?

Either the motherboard will have WIFI at the end of it's name, or it will stipulate it in the spec sheet. For example the MSI B450M Gaming Plus (linked in previous post) does NOT have WiFi or Bluetooth as you will see in the "Detail" section here: https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/B450M-GAMING-PLUS/Specification

If it omits it, it doesn't have it.
If it has it, it will state it in LAN or in a Wireless category usually.

With this configuration (i.e. the ones you basically selected for my usage) does it make sense to go for a micro ATX case?

You can, depends what space you have, and what cooling you want. Obviously typically ATX cases will have better cooling (if set up correctly) and more compatibility with cards/coolers. If you go smaller cases, you'll also need to make sure components like the GPU fit in the case too.

 

[FabioT]

Very clear answer, PC Tailor. You are being extremely helpful! I'm currently finalizing my choices basing on this information. However, when choosing the RAM there seems to be different possibilities in terms of MHz. How do I know which one should I choose?

 

[PC Tailor]

Very clear answer, PC Tailor. You are being extremely helpful! I'm currently finalizing my choices basing on this information. However, when choosing the RAM there seems to be different possibilities in terms of MHz. How do I know which one should I choose?

This can often depend on the processor. In intel systems the RAM speed often has less relevance, however in later Ryzen systems, it does.

I would say you want at least 3000MHz to maximise the benefit of a Ryzen CPU, if it was third gen Ryzen then definitely 3200.

To put it simply, in Intel, you won't see much difference between RAM above 2666 (or so).

In latest Ryzen you can see a noticeable difference between different RAM speeds and it utilises higher RAM speeds very well.