Building a sub-$1000 family PC - i5 or Ryzen1600?

[Todd33]

Gigabyte GA-AB350
Ryzen 1600

or

MSI B250 LGA 1151
i5-7500

with:
EVGA 1050Ti
EVGA B1 500 Bronze
Corsair Spec-02 mid tower
Corsair Vengeance 16GB or whatever works
Seagate Barracuda 3TB
Win 10 OEM
Some DVD-RW

I'm looking to spend $850-$900. The monitor is 1080P and gaming is not the focus.

Thoughts?

 

[RaistlinZ]

If not for gaming, I'd think the multi-core Ryzen would be better.

Plus, the Ryzen motherboard seems to have better connectivity: 6 USB 3.1 & 2 USB 2.0 compared to 4 USB 3.1 & 2 USB 2.0 on the Intel board. It also has DVI-D + HDMI, comapred to DVI-D + VGA on the Intel board.

The Ryzen setup would cost $50.00 more, but I think the value is there. The only other concern would be the maturity of the chipset.

 

[Iron Woode]

Gigabyte GA-AB350
Ryzen 1600

or

MSI B250 LGA 1151
i5-7500

with:
EVGA 1050Ti
EVGA B1 500 Bronze
Corsair Spec-02 mid tower
Corsair Vengeance 16GB or whatever works
Seagate Barracuda 3TB
Win 10 OEM
Some DVD-RW

I'm looking to spend $850-$900. The monitor is 1080P and gaming is not the focus.

Thoughts?

be aware 3TB boot drives require UEFI OS installs or you will end up with a 2.2 TB main drive.

A 2TB drive would be easier and cheaper.

 

[giantpandaman2]

6 core 12 thread vs. 4 core 4 thread?

No brainer: 1600.

Even taking games into account: that 1050 will be maxed out by either CPU so it doesn't matter. Only moving to a 1080 or beyond does the CPU start limiting the GPU. By the time you move up to a higher end graphics card the games will probably start knowing what to do with all the extra cores and threads.

 

[Todd33]

6 core 12 thread vs. 4 core 4 thread?

No brainer: 1600.

Even taking games into account: that 1050 will be maxed out by either CPU so it doesn't matter. Only moving to a 1080 or beyond does the CPU start limiting the GPU. By the time you move up to a higher end graphics card the games will probably start knowing what to do with all the extra cores and threads.

I was more worried about how immature the AM4 chipset was and how I've read reports of it not playing nice with Nvidia GPUs. So Intel would be safer, just less exciting.

be aware 3TB boot drives require UEFI OS installs or you will end up with a 2.2 TB main drive.

A 2TB drive would be easier and cheaper.

Good advice, thanks.

 

[daveybrat]

I'd go with the Ryzen cpu and an RX 460 4GB card instead of the GTX 1050ti. Cheaper too:

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202227&ignorebbr=1

 

[lehtv]

I'm looking to spend $850-$900. The monitor is 1080P and gaming is not the focus

What is the focus?

 

[Todd33]

What is the focus?

Family computer,little of everything. Some gaming, some video editing, mostly Chrome

 

[lehtv]

I'd go with:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 1400 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($169.00 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock AB350M Pro4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($82.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 Memory ($57.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Crucial MX300 275GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($90.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($89.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB SSC GAMING ACX 3.0 Video Card ($149.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Define Mini C MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($74.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: BitFenix Whisper M 450W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($76.50 @ Newegg)

Total: $792

And then change the CPU to the Ryzen 5 1600 and memory to 2x8GB, if you want, for a total of $900. For basic use, a hexacore and 16GB seems a bit overkill. It may or may not last longer without needing an upgrade... depends on how important it is that there's no compromise in video editing performance (especially output rendering speed), and how likely you think it is that the graphics card is going to need upgrading in the future as gaming requirements increase. Of course, the CPU can be upgraded later too.

I tried to emphasize the quality of the case and power supply. These two are likely to last a very long time... The Whisper power supply is backed by 7 year warranty, uses Japanese caps and outputs very good quality power. See AT review

 

[Ken g6]

At that price range I'd at least consider an RX 470 for $20 more. Or wait to see where RX 570's come in.

 

[lehtv]

RX 470 is 25% faster, but uses about 80% more power at load. RX 470 is still pretty efficient though at about 120-130W, there's basically no concern with noise output or PSU requirements, and the impact on electricity bills is something like $1-5 more per year. Definitely worth considering.

 

[Valantar]

Should be some decent deals to be had on RX 470s now that the 570 is out, no? Either way, considering the added power draw is negligible in any non-awful case and for any PSU worth connecting to >$20 worth of components, I'd say it wins hands down against the 1050Ti.

 

[sm625]

Having a SSD is more important than those two CPU choices. And the 1050ti will probably end up being weak. A RX470 will ensure that you are at least able to play any new game that comes out in the next few years. Cant say that for sure about a 1050 ti.

 

[vailr]

I'd go with:
"""
Case: Fractal Design Define Mini C MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($74.99 @ NCIX US)
"""

If there's a preference for front facing USB 3.0 ports (instead of top side):
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147166