Reasonable non gaming PC

[jamiewakeham]

Hi - my last PC (bought here way back in in 2008) is finally coming to the end of its useful life. It was a bit of a PC of Theseus, but I don't think I'm going to persuade that 1st Gen Core i7 to run Win11 smoothly!

I'm not a serious gamer. This is an office machine that will need to handle many open applications (often multiple browsers with many tabs, several MS office applications and various other bits and bobs). I also do some work as a guidebook author, and that needs Photoshop stitching and InDesign to run smoothly - my InDesign files frequently run to several GB.

I intend to run this for at least a decade, so I've aimed to over spec for longevity. The last one managed 17 years...

Budget is flexible, but ideally not much over £1000.

How's this? Thanks for any feedback!

Case
FRACTAL POP SILENT CASE TG (BLACK)
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 7700X Eight Core CPU (4.5GHz-5.4GHz/40MB CACHE/AM5)
Motherboard
ASUS® PRIME B650-PLUS (AM5, DDR5, PCIe 4.0)
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR5 6000MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
2GB MSI GEFORCE 710 - DVI, HDMI, VGA
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (3500 MB/R, 3100 MB/W)
1st Storage Drive
960GB KINGSTON A400 2.5" SSD, SATA 6 Gb (500MB/R, 450MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W RM SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
CORSAIR H60x RGB ELITE HIGH PERFORMANCE CPU COOLER
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
ONBOARD 2.5Gbe LAN PORT
Wireless Network Card
NONE OR ONBOARD Wi-Fi (MOTHERBOARD DEPENDENT)
USB/Thunderbolt Options
4 PORT (4 x TYPE A) USB 3.0 PCI-E CARD + STANDARD USB PORTS
Operating System
Windows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10/11 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Google Chrome™
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 5 to 7 working days
Price: £1,076.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-pc/VPpfRE2tu2/

 

[sck451]

I'm not 100% certain I'd recommend a full tower PC for a system like this, but you could look at something like the following. It uses AMD's excellent integrated graphics rather than a discrete card, but very little you do will be GPU-accelerated anyway (InDesign has no acceleration on Windows, and Photoshop's is relatively limited). This is a much better choice than the ancient and hopeless 710.

Then it's just otherwise an all-round better PC, that can be easily upgraded in the future should you decide you need more. And it's just £18 more than your build.

Case
FRACTAL POP SILENT CASE TG (BLACK)
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 8600G Six Core CPU (4.35GHz-5.0GHz/22MB CACHE/AM5)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B650-PLUS WIFI (AM5, DDR5, PCIe 4.0, Wi-Fi 6)
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR5 6000MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
INTEGRATED GRAPHICS ACCELERATOR (GPU)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB SOLIDIGM P44 PRO GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 7000MB/sR, 4700MB/sW)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB SOLIDIGM P41+ GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 4125MB/sR, 3325MB/sW)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W RMe SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
PCS FrostFlow 150 Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
ONBOARD 2.5Gbe LAN PORT
Wireless Network Card
NONE OR ONBOARD Wi-Fi (MOTHERBOARD DEPENDENT)
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10/11 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 5 to 7 working days
Price: £1,094.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-pc/XkgzDEeVta/

 

[jamiewakeham]

Thanks for the reply!

In general, I think I've made the right decision by committing to DDR5 RAM - I did look at DDR4 builds but if I want this to be easy to keep current then I think I need to be on the most modern RAM standard.

Graphics: I'm happy to save the £43 here if it's not a necessity. If it's not of any huge help for PS and InDesign, then I agree there's probably no need. My limited time gaming is in the stone age - think Portal 2 or Quake 3...
(I could pull the ancient GTX 970 out of my old PC, but I have a suspicion that it's not going to add anything to the Ryzen onboard graphics and will just pull needless power from the PSU?)

Motherboard: what's the gain from the gaming version of the B650? Is it the third M2 port? If that's all, then I might as well save the £50-odd, as I doubt I'll ever need three M2 drives? I'm using ethernet so I'll not need any wifi, if that's part of the calculation.

Processor: the 8600G seems to be a £63 saving over the 7700X. Honestly I don't have a good feeling for how to pick between processors... am I just overkilling it for my needs with Ryzen 7 series?
(I'm currently running all this on an i7 930 (!) so I'm clearly not too demanding, but it does struggle a bit and I'd like to ensure that things remain snappy for a long time to come. However if the best way to do this is to go lower on the processor for now, and then pick up a faster one in a few years, then that's a reasonable course.)

Drives: I see you've specced a faster boot drive - makes sense. And you've put the storage drive in an M2 slot and not a SATA - is that worthwhile? Fine by me if so.

Cooling: I suspect I don't need too much as I won't be driving this CPU hard. I do care about noise... I assumed a lower powered liquid cooler might be the way forward?

 

[sck451]

Thanks for the reply!

In general, I think I've made the right decision by committing to DDR5 RAM - I did look at DDR4 builds but if I want this to be easy to keep current then I think I need to be on the most modern RAM standard.

Graphics: I'm happy to save the £43 here if it's not a necessity. If it's not of any huge help for PS and InDesign, then I agree there's probably no need. My limited time gaming is in the stone age - think Portal 2 or Quake 3...
(I could pull the ancient GTX 970 out of my old PC, but I have a suspicion that it's not going to add anything to the Ryzen onboard graphics and will just pull needless power from the PSU?)

The 710 is the worst option you could choose. I think the 8600G's onboard graphics will be your best bet

Motherboard: what's the gain from the gaming version of the B650? Is it the third M2 port? If that's all, then I might as well save the £50-odd, as I doubt I'll ever need three M2 drives? I'm using ethernet so I'll not need any wifi, if that's part of the calculation.

It's just the quality of the board. Is it enough to use the Prime? Yes, probably, but it's not just features: it's also build quality.

Processor: the 8600G seems to be a £63 saving over the 7700X. Honestly I don't have a good feeling for how to pick between processors... am I just overkilling it for my needs with Ryzen 7 series?

No, it's just that they're different things. The 8600G has the built-in graphics. Ideally I'd choose the 8700G (a Ryzen 7 product for what little it's worth). You want the one with built-in graphics (also known as an APU) because they're better for someone not fitting a dedicated graphics card.

(I'm currently running all this on an i7 930 (!) so I'm clearly not too demanding, but it does struggle a bit and I'd like to ensure that things remain snappy for a long time to come. However if the best way to do this is to go lower on the processor for now, and then pick up a faster one in a few years, then that's a reasonable course.)

Wow! That's a venerable creature. It's a reasonably choice, but it's not actually a downgrade. Probably most tasks are single-threaded, so a six-core won't be significantly worse than the eight-core, and you can of course upgrade should you need to.

Drives: I see you've specced a faster boot drive - makes sense. And you've put the storage drive in an M2 slot and not a SATA - is that worthwhile? Fine by me if so.

Well the difference in price is negligible, while the speed is significantly different. So you might as well get the better one (I've also suggested going for 2TB rather than 1TB.)

Cooling: I suspect I don't need too much as I won't be driving this CPU hard. I do care about noise... I assumed a lower powered liquid cooler might be the way forward?

A cheap liquid cooler will be less reliable and noisier than a cheapish air cooler. I know which I'd prefer!

 

[jamiewakeham]

No, it's just that they're different things. The 8600G has the built-in graphics. Ideally I'd choose the 8700G (a Ryzen 7 product for what little it's worth). You want the one with built-in graphics (also known as an APU) because they're better for someone not fitting a dedicated graphics card.

Great - I'm happy with this plan. I'd got myself convinced that you need a separate GPU (and had read that onboard graphics on some of the Ryzen processors wasn't up to much) but actually the dedicated onboard graphics of the G processors looks like it'll be plenty for my needs. Thanks for steering me in the right direction!

It's shame that PCS don't seem to offer the 8700G. That's tilting me slightly towards buying the parts and doing the build myself...

It's just the quality of the board. Is it enough to use the Prime? Yes, probably, but it's not just features: it's also build quality.

Oh - fine! I'll happily pay more for this if it'll contribute to longevity. That tactic worked last time round

A cheap liquid cooler will be less reliable and noisier than a cheapish air cooler. I know which I'd prefer!

Ah, is that the way it works? I assumed liquid would be better and quieter! In fact, both the 8600G and 8700G seem to come with a stock coolers included... do I even need to worry about upgrading them for my use case..?