I'm putting together a new PC for my dad, who mainly uses it for Microsoft Office, web browsing, and other basic everyday tasks. He doesn't need a dedicated graphics card, but I'd like the system to remain responsive and useful for several years. My current parts list is an AMD Ryzen 5 8500G, ASUS PRIME B650M-A WiFi II motherboard, Kingston NV3 1TB SSD, 16GB Kingston Fury DDR5-6000 memory, and a Sharkoon Rebel P10 650W power supply. The build costs around €700, which is my preferred maximum, although I could spend roughly €100 more if there's a worthwhile upgrade. Is this a sensible selection, and are there any compatibility, cooling, power supply, or value issues I should address?
3 Answers
The overall parts list looks fine, although DDR5-5200 or DDR5-4800 would also be adequate for an office PC and might save a little money. The Ryzen 5 8600G is another possible use for that budget, but the difference won’t matter much for basic applications. Choose the SSD size based on how much data you plan to move from his old hard drive—1TB is reasonable if he has a lot of files.
For basic Office work and browsing, this build is already more than powerful enough and should last for years. The 8500G’s integrated graphics are perfectly suitable, so you don’t need a dedicated GPU. If the Ryzen 5 8600G is only slightly more expensive where you live, it could be a worthwhile upgrade, but it isn’t necessary for your dad’s workload.
That’s reassuring. I mainly wanted to make sure I wasn’t making an expensive mistake, so I’ll compare the prices of the 8500G and 8600G.
You could reduce the power supply to a good 550W model unless you plan to add a dedicated graphics card later. A 650W unit is more than this system needs. Also check whether the processor includes its stock cooler; if it does, that cooler should be sufficient for normal office use.
He does have quite a lot of old files and general clutter on his current hard drive, so I’m leaning toward keeping the 1TB SSD. If the cheaper power supply and slower RAM are still reliable, I may put those savings toward the 8600G instead.