- Dec 19, 2008
- 653
- 176
- 116
Hi all,
So just revisiting what the market is doing after about a year, seems pretty awful still. CPU/APU market still just horrible. GPU market even worse than it was when this started. Other components are not horrible, some have gone up, but not completely ridiculous. It seems building your own basic PC these days is a minimum $500~600 endevour for anything even remotely decent without cutting major corners. Even looking at pre-builts (sadly) the lowest they clock in at is in the $500~700 range and have even worse basic hardware to work with inside with really shoddy PSU's, bad RAM, low end motherboards, etc. Seems a self-built low budget system with quality components will run $600 basically (stressing good components but entry budget level, so not total trash but obviously entry level).
CPU vs APU; getting a basic CPU is almost a waste of money. It seems the low end entry budget CPUs meant for low end builds are just as expensive as mid-tier CPUs, so it's pointless to do anything other than at the very least a mid-tier CPU. The APU is inflated for obvious reasons, some double what they should be with worse CPU performance than a basic mid-tier CPU and the integrated GPU component performing pretty low tier for a rather high inflation mark up (despite any stand alone GPU to purchase just to even show a display is going to run $100+ or more for literally next to the lowest end performing options, like 710/730 chipsets, or equivalent).
In my mind, I figured it should be possible to get a $50~100 CPU/APU, $50~80 motherboard, $80 RAM, $70 SSD, $50 or less PSU, in a $50 case and basically have a working low end desktop that is far better than a similar costing laptop, for basic workstation purposes (running productivity software, web browser software, displaying media and content, nothing intensive, zero gaming). But that's just not the case. Basic AMD APU's are double what they should be. Entry Ryzen CPUs are double or more what they should be. It just seems pointless to even look at anything right now.
Are there any decent low end hardware options that are not grossly inflated? Intel or AMD?
Very best,
So just revisiting what the market is doing after about a year, seems pretty awful still. CPU/APU market still just horrible. GPU market even worse than it was when this started. Other components are not horrible, some have gone up, but not completely ridiculous. It seems building your own basic PC these days is a minimum $500~600 endevour for anything even remotely decent without cutting major corners. Even looking at pre-builts (sadly) the lowest they clock in at is in the $500~700 range and have even worse basic hardware to work with inside with really shoddy PSU's, bad RAM, low end motherboards, etc. Seems a self-built low budget system with quality components will run $600 basically (stressing good components but entry budget level, so not total trash but obviously entry level).
CPU vs APU; getting a basic CPU is almost a waste of money. It seems the low end entry budget CPUs meant for low end builds are just as expensive as mid-tier CPUs, so it's pointless to do anything other than at the very least a mid-tier CPU. The APU is inflated for obvious reasons, some double what they should be with worse CPU performance than a basic mid-tier CPU and the integrated GPU component performing pretty low tier for a rather high inflation mark up (despite any stand alone GPU to purchase just to even show a display is going to run $100+ or more for literally next to the lowest end performing options, like 710/730 chipsets, or equivalent).
In my mind, I figured it should be possible to get a $50~100 CPU/APU, $50~80 motherboard, $80 RAM, $70 SSD, $50 or less PSU, in a $50 case and basically have a working low end desktop that is far better than a similar costing laptop, for basic workstation purposes (running productivity software, web browser software, displaying media and content, nothing intensive, zero gaming). But that's just not the case. Basic AMD APU's are double what they should be. Entry Ryzen CPUs are double or more what they should be. It just seems pointless to even look at anything right now.
Are there any decent low end hardware options that are not grossly inflated? Intel or AMD?
Very best,