Why are you going with the i5 though? It's absolute overkill for web browsing and office stuff. Or did I miss something in your post that explains the choice?
this post was submitted on 09 Jul 2024
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I agree with this. Could easily save $200 buying some older and lower spec components. CPU choice is probably because of the iGPU, but there are other cheaper CPUs with iGPU. I don't think the use case is going to require more computing power in the future, so I don't know if future proofing is really necessary. If the use case changes some few years from now, you need to buy new components regardless of your choices today. Save some money now and put it towards a future upgrade.
16GB DDR4 is enough. That's about $40 off. SSD is pointlessly big for the use case. 250GB might be enough, but even 512GB would be a bit cheaper.
CPU could be downgraded to something a couple generations older. Motherboard can also be downgraded, unless that one has some important features. That saves at least $150 total.
PSU is a complicated question. Cheaper would be enough, but you might lose money over time in your electricity bill. That's kind of difficult to calculate.
That's basically what I was thinking. Maybe something like an i3 12100 would be a good choice, but that is also almost overkill. I'm personally using an 10100f, and that's not just fine for web browsing, but also gaming.
The PSU is also overkill I guess, but going with a quality PSU is a great idea nonetheless. But something like a 400W unit may be better suited for this built, since a PSU is going to be less efficient when it's just getting utilized about 20%. Even 400W may be too much.
Should be good. 32 GB seems like a lot of RAM. DDR4 should be fine for a long time still. Even my "gaming" PC is plenty happy with DDR4 and I don't plan to change for a while.
I don't have specific recs for other parts, but I think monitor, speakers, keyboard, and mouse will be more critical components to pick carefully with your wife.
She already got the ducky one3 gossamer pink.
The peripherals I can handle but some of the compatibility stuff is over my head but I do my best. The RAM is pretty cheap so I figures why not blast it
By the time you want to upgrade anything, something else unexpected will be obsolete and you'll have to upgrade the motherboard anyway.
DDR4 it is!
Are you getting a black psu? It might not look great in that case, depending on how well you can hide it.
I got a white corsair rmx750 and it came with nice white cables too.
With no gpu, the cables will probably be well hidden, but add a gpu and the black cables will stand out.
This is a good point. Black PSU and motherboard might stand out too much in that light, white-ish case.
The 600 and 32GB seem like overkill unless you're future-proofing. I have a pretty solid data crunching and gaming rig (6800XT and 5900X with AIO, lighting, fans, and quite a few peripherals drawing USB power) running on 550 with 32.
Your screenshot is saying 258W est draw. Without a GPU, I'd expext 350W is more than fine. Big ballpark to play in, get those colours and cables good. 32 will help the IGPU maybe in gaming, but 16 (as 2× 8 DDR4) should be plenty. Don't forget to make sure the BIOS has them running at their proper speed! (Easy to Google)
Oh, and money saved, spend on CPU or consider 16 on a 450 with a lower end dedicated GPU. Otherwise, spend it on quality of life peripherals like wireless charger, nice mouse/keyboard or monitor, nice headphones or speakers.