PC Build: Budget around $1,200

Greetings,

I’m looking for some hardware recommendations for a build around the $2667 mark. It’s just for basic office work, browsing, and the occasional movie night—nothing heavy, no high-end gaming or intense software. I’m a bit out of the loop on current market prices, so I'm wondering if this budget can also cover a decent new monitor.

Appreciate the help...

What kind of games are you actually planning on playing, and what sort of monitor size do you think would fit your setup best?

Dana Morgan19 said:Hey everyone,

Looking for some build advice for around $2667. Just basic office stuff, browsing, maybe some movies—nothing heavy like high-end gaming or pro software. Not sure what current prices look like or if I can squeeze a decent new monitor into this budget.

Thanks for the help...

1 x ASUS ROG Motherboard ATX Retail
1 x Kingston 8GB 2400MHz DDR4 Non-ECC CL17 DIMM 1Rx8, EAN: '740617259643
1 x MSI Aero GTX1050Ti 4GB 128bit GDDR5
1 x EVGA 450W 80+ Bronze Power Supply
1 x Cooler Master Case, USB3.0
1 x AMD Ryzen 5 6C/12T 1600 (3.4/3.6GHz Boost,19MB,65W,AM4) box
1 x SSD 2.5" - 240GB PNY, CS900 SATA3
1 x HDD Dell Latitude 1TB, 64MB, 7200rpm, High-Performance
1 x AOC IPS 27" i2790VQ, VGA, DP, HDMI, audio
Total: $2605
Future

Thumbs Up for Robert Rodriguez2's

Personally, I'd swap out that suggested SSD for this one—fits the budget better.

Also, if gaming isn't really the priority here, just grab a GT 1030 and put that extra cash toward a higher-end monitor instead.

https://www.amazon.com/example-ssd-link

A GT 1030? Honestly... if you aren't building this strictly for gaming, I’d say just throw in an AMD Ryzen 5 2400G instead. You could probably use what you save to pick up a much nicer monitor and maybe beef up the rest of the build a bit too.

Look, if "office apps" just means running Microsoft Office and a web browser—which seems to be the case here—you could honestly just grab a Pentium Gold for like $40 and call it a day. Or, you could build a much cheaper setup around an AMD Ryzen 3 2200G and pocket the extra cash. Honestly, take that saved money and go crazy on a high-end monitor instead. This is it.Honestly, that figure isn't even that crazy when you consider it’s a 32" display with 1440p resolution. It's actually pretty solid.

That’s exactly why I was asking for clarification regarding his gaming setup and monitor size. A 32" screen isn't necessarily the right fit for everyone. He’ll definitely need Adobe, especially since he mentioned watching movies too.

Yeah, you're right. An AMD Ryzen 3 2200G or even an AMD Ryzen 5 2400G is a solid way to go, especially if you pair it with a decent 31.5" AOC monitor later on.

I’m running a 31.5" myself just for movies and it's great. Honestly, going back to a smaller screen feels wrong now—plus, 1440p looks killer when you're watching 4K content.

Thanks for the advice and the apologies, I was out of the loop for a few days.

So, the only heavy lifting this build will actually see is running Adobe or Adobe Premiere Pro. It’s not meant to be my primary editing workstation, though I’d probably throw in some extra RAM just to be safe, along with a CPU that won't take an eternity to render. I'll also be doing some light audio work—nothing too intense.
Everything else is basically just Microsoft Office and a web browser. As for gaming, we can pretty much ignore that or just keep it at a bare minimum.
Basically... if you think I can cut costs further, I'm all ears. Thanks for the input.🙂

That large monitor sounds fine to me, assuming it's decent. Thanks.

I put together a build that offers solid future-proofing, especially regarding your work.

The AMD Ryzen 5 2400 handles multitasking well and should perform decently in Adobe Premiere Pro.
Having 16GB of RAM is a smart move for Adobe since 8GB is the bare minimum.
It includes an SSD with a 5-year warranty and a 2TB hard drive.


That’s $1875 plus that monitor

https://www.amazon.com/search?q=Q3279VWF
$564
=$2439

Micro Center should be able to assemble this for free, including a BIOS update on the motherboard to ensure it accepts the AMD Ryzen 5 2400G.
I checked the motherboard's specs—it supports the 2400G and 3200MHz memory.

You're getting a powerful PC. You can always slap a dedicated GPU in later if you need to, but for light gaming or running programs that utilize OpenGL, the Vega graphics on the AMD Ryzen 5 2400G should be plenty.

You could build it much cheaper:
Go with 8GB of RAM instead of 16GB and pick slower RAM.
Use a 1TB HDD instead of 2TB.
Swap the AMD Ryzen 5 2400G for an AMD Ryzen 3 2200G (similar, but lacks HT and has weaker graphics; for the long haul, the 2400G is way better because of HT).
Pick a cheaper motherboard and case.
You could save over $333 there if necessary, but I think this setup is fine. Personally, I'd cut costs on the case or maybe the RAM first—it's not a disaster to grab 2x4GB now and just add another 2x4GB later since the motherboard has 4 slots.

I’d honestly just go with a board that has a decent heatsink; there isn't much of a price difference anyway.

Keep in mind that the last two options require an ATX case—something like a Corsair ATX (since the Z1 neo looks way too unprofessional for an office setup).

Timothy Kim60 said:I’d just grab a board with a VRM cooler; honestly, the price difference isn't even worth worrying about.

https://www.newegg.com/asrock-b450m-pro4/p/N82E168131442/
https://www.newegg.com/msi-b450m-mortars-series/p/N82E168131442/
https://www.newegg.com/gigabyte-b450-gaming-x/p/N82E168131442/

The last two would need an ATX case—maybe something like a Corsair ATX (since the Z1 Neo looks too cheap for an office setup).

Yeah, a VRM cooler is a good call.

I went with the ASUS because the motherboard's support page claims it handles 3200MHz RAM speeds for both AMD Ryzen and AMD Ryzen APU, whereas this Gaming 3 one says 3200MHz for AMD Ryzen but only 2400MHz for the AMD Ryzen APU.

wiredotter14 said:Sure, a VRM cooler helps.

I went with the ASUS because the motherboard support page explicitly states it handles 3200MHz RAM speeds for both AMD Ryzen and AMD Ryzen APUs. Meanwhile, this Gaming 3 board only lists 3200MHz for standard AMD Ryzen and caps the AMD Ryzen APU at 2400MHz.

Fine. Is this build decent enough:

AMD Ryzen 5 2400G
Intel Core i5 240GB SSD
G.Skill TridentZ 2x8GB DDR4 3200MHz
Fortron Hexa 85+ 450W, 80+ Bronze, ATX (is Bronze rating sufficient to avoid headaches?🙂)
Seagate BarraCuda 2TB
Corsair Carbide Series 88R (could swap for any Corsair ATX case if needed for compatibility)

+ which motherboard should I grab? Doesn't matter much if the price gap is under $100. $67 Thanks.

That includes the case and the monitor from the link for about $533, free shipping from both shops. A steal.😁

I suppose I’d go with an M.2 SSD, if only to get rid of one of those extra cables. Your power supply seems fine to me enough.

Not 100% sure about the motherboard.
An X370 would work, though personally I’d aim for a better B350 model if possible.

Bronze rating is fine. It hits over 85% efficiency, and since this whole build is only pulling about 100-130W under load, it doesn't really matter much.
You could grab a Corsair CX550 instead. You don't need more wattage, it might just be slightly higher quality, but there isn't a massive difference and both come with a 5-year warranty.
Unfortunately, Newegg is out of stock on the CX450M or CX550M—the modular ones—so you'd be stuck with more cable clutter.

Linus Tech Tips might have more insight; he was digging into those B350 boards recently.

Ryan Hayes82, that Intel Core i5 from Newegg is an M.2 (SATA) drive.

wiredotter14 said:Yeah, having a VRM cooler is definitely a plus.

I went with the ASUS because the motherboard's support page explicitly states it handles 3200MHz RAM speeds for both AMD Ryzen and AMD Ryzen APU. In contrast, this Gaming 3 board lists 3200MHz for standard Ryzen, but drops down to 2400MHz for the AMD Ryzen APU.

I didn't realize there was such a gap in RAM support between the APU and the standard Ryzen chips, and I didn't catch that detail on the link provided either. 🤷

Regardless, even if there is a difference, I suspect it’ll all level out once you start tweaking things in the BIOS. Honestly, there isn't much price difference between 2666MHz and 3000MHz kits—you can often find 3200MHz kits for the same price anyway, so it's a wash.

Regarding the boards—does it matter to you if the PC footprint is smaller (using an mATX board and a compact case), or are you indifferent? If you want a smaller build, grab that ASRock B350M Pro4. If you prefer ATX, go with the Gigabyte or the MSI Tomahawk based on what's currently available and priced well on Newegg. You could certainly spend more, but there's really no reason to; I highly doubt you'll ever need Crossfire/SLI (running dual GPUs) for your use case, nor will you be pushing future 8-core models through extreme overclocking.

G.Skill Aegis 16GB (2x8) DDR4 3000MHz

Seagate Barracuda 2TB
Gigabyte GA-AX370-Gaming 3
EVGA 450W, 80+ Bronze, ATX
Zalman R1 Midi-Tower ATX case, black, no PSU
ADATA SX7000NP PCI Express 3.0 256GB
AMD Ryzen 5 2400G
~$1.75 - Newegg

Here’s what the ASRock support page says:

Supports DDR4 3200+ (OC) (AMD Ryzen CPU) / 2400 (A-series APU)

But on the ASUS X370TKE page that crimsonstag84 posted, it says:
* Support for higher than DDR4 2667 MHz may vary by CPU

Sure, things probably settle down eventually, but I’d rather go with the one claiming 3000+MHz support right out of the box—or at least the one that doesn't explicitly say it won't work.

I’d suggest this one:

https://www.newegg.com/amd-motherboards...rtar&results=2

It has a VRM heatsink, the support page doesn't make a distinction between APU and CPU, and most importantly, Linus Tech Tips used it in a review and everything was fine; it ran at 3200MHz (2x8GB).

Or a slightly pricier ASUS:

https://www.newegg.com/amd-motherboards...ime&results=81

I'm not entirely sure, though I did put together a list based on what you guys suggested. For instance, that Corsair case looks a bit more my style, and I prefer the placement of those external ports.
So, please take one more look at this. I'm hoping I haven't botched anything here. Thanks for the help.

👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

If you’re looking for dead silence or planning to push your CPU or GPU via overclocking, just grab this cooler.

The stock cooler gets the job done. You can do some light overclocking with it, sure, but expect it to get pretty loud.