• Welcome to TechPowerUp Forums, Guest! Please check out our forum guidelines for info related to our community.

Small Cheap Form factor Case/Build for dad

Joined
Jul 21, 2008
Messages
5,169 (0.90/day)
System Name [Daily Driver]
Processor [Ryzen 7 5800X3D]
Motherboard [Asus TUF GAMING X570-PLUS]
Cooling [be quiet! Dark Rock Slim]
Memory [64GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 3600MHz (16GBx4)]
Video Card(s) [PNY RTX 3070Ti XLR8]
Storage [1TB SN850 NVMe, 4TB 990 Pro NVMe, 2TB 870 EVO SSD, 2TB SA510 SSD]
Display(s) [2x 27" HP X27q at 1440p]
Case [Fractal Meshify-C]
Audio Device(s) [Steelseries Arctis Pro]
Power Supply [CORSAIR RMx 1000]
Mouse [Logitech G Pro Wireless]
Keyboard [Logitech G512 Carbon (GX-Brown)]
Software [Windows 11 64-Bit]
K so my dad has an old build I did back in the 3870 days, and its safe to say that its now outdated and that the PSU fan is starting to sound close to its deathbed. I can build my own system easy for $600, but the budget builds I'm a bit out of my area.

I'm looking to build him something small, quiet, cheap, and strong enough to run 720p youtube videos. He doesnt game, he checks his mail, browses the web, and word processes.

I'd like this build to be reliable, as I'm his computer repair guy and I'll be in the desert for a big chunk of next year.

Note - I prefer newegg for parts, good customer service and generally good prices.

Budget - $150-200
Location - NY, USA

Current parts (you can use them or not) - a DVD-RW drive, and DDR2 RAM (4GB.. i think), OS
 
Joined
May 27, 2009
Messages
3,405 (0.63/day)
Location
Brunswick, GA
System Name Haz0
Processor i7-2700K
Motherboard Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H-B3
Cooling Chicken Stock
Memory 16GB G.Skill Ripshits X 1600MHz
Video Card(s) Sapphire 5850
Storage Kingston 128GB SSD + WD Black 640GB + 2x 1.5TB
Display(s) 24" Acer G245HQ + 19" Lenovo L194
Case Antec NSK-4482 Orangified
Audio Device(s) X-Fi XtremeGamer
Power Supply Corsair TX750W
Software Windows 7: Electric Boogaloo
For a budget that small you're really better off getting used parts off of the B/S/T forum here...but challenge accepted:


$3 over budget and it will do everything required. It will use your 4GB DDR2 (still fine these days) and DVD drive. I looked for a smaller case but that will put it out of budget by at least $20.
 
Joined
Dec 6, 2005
Messages
10,881 (1.63/day)
Location
Manchester, NH
System Name Senile
Processor I7-4790K@4.8 GHz 24/7
Motherboard MSI Z97-G45 Gaming
Cooling Be Quiet Pure Rock Air
Memory 16GB 4x4 G.Skill CAS9 2133 Sniper
Video Card(s) GIGABYTE Vega 64
Storage Samsung EVO 500GB / 8 Different WDs / QNAP TS-253 8GB NAS with 2x10Tb WD Blue
Display(s) 34" LG 34CB88-P 21:9 Curved UltraWide QHD (3440*1440) *FREE_SYNC*
Case Rosewill
Audio Device(s) Onboard + HD HDMI
Power Supply Corsair HX750
Mouse Logitech G5
Keyboard Corsair Strafe RGB & G610 Orion Red
Software Win 10
Budget - $150-200

That's quite a challenge if you're talking all new parts. You might want to look for used here, or on flEabay, perhaps buy an entire system.

^Erk! Soylent beat me too it...
 
Joined
Jul 21, 2008
Messages
5,169 (0.90/day)
System Name [Daily Driver]
Processor [Ryzen 7 5800X3D]
Motherboard [Asus TUF GAMING X570-PLUS]
Cooling [be quiet! Dark Rock Slim]
Memory [64GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 3600MHz (16GBx4)]
Video Card(s) [PNY RTX 3070Ti XLR8]
Storage [1TB SN850 NVMe, 4TB 990 Pro NVMe, 2TB 870 EVO SSD, 2TB SA510 SSD]
Display(s) [2x 27" HP X27q at 1440p]
Case [Fractal Meshify-C]
Audio Device(s) [Steelseries Arctis Pro]
Power Supply [CORSAIR RMx 1000]
Mouse [Logitech G Pro Wireless]
Keyboard [Logitech G512 Carbon (GX-Brown)]
Software [Windows 11 64-Bit]
Wishlist

Stick a 2GB stick of DDR2 I have laying around in there and run windows xp/7 ?
 
Joined
May 27, 2009
Messages
3,405 (0.63/day)
Location
Brunswick, GA
System Name Haz0
Processor i7-2700K
Motherboard Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H-B3
Cooling Chicken Stock
Memory 16GB G.Skill Ripshits X 1600MHz
Video Card(s) Sapphire 5850
Storage Kingston 128GB SSD + WD Black 640GB + 2x 1.5TB
Display(s) 24" Acer G245HQ + 19" Lenovo L194
Case Antec NSK-4482 Orangified
Audio Device(s) X-Fi XtremeGamer
Power Supply Corsair TX750W
Software Windows 7: Electric Boogaloo
Joined
Jul 21, 2008
Messages
5,169 (0.90/day)
System Name [Daily Driver]
Processor [Ryzen 7 5800X3D]
Motherboard [Asus TUF GAMING X570-PLUS]
Cooling [be quiet! Dark Rock Slim]
Memory [64GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 3600MHz (16GBx4)]
Video Card(s) [PNY RTX 3070Ti XLR8]
Storage [1TB SN850 NVMe, 4TB 990 Pro NVMe, 2TB 870 EVO SSD, 2TB SA510 SSD]
Display(s) [2x 27" HP X27q at 1440p]
Case [Fractal Meshify-C]
Audio Device(s) [Steelseries Arctis Pro]
Power Supply [CORSAIR RMx 1000]
Mouse [Logitech G Pro Wireless]
Keyboard [Logitech G512 Carbon (GX-Brown)]
Software [Windows 11 64-Bit]
Joined
Jul 21, 2008
Messages
5,169 (0.90/day)
System Name [Daily Driver]
Processor [Ryzen 7 5800X3D]
Motherboard [Asus TUF GAMING X570-PLUS]
Cooling [be quiet! Dark Rock Slim]
Memory [64GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 3600MHz (16GBx4)]
Video Card(s) [PNY RTX 3070Ti XLR8]
Storage [1TB SN850 NVMe, 4TB 990 Pro NVMe, 2TB 870 EVO SSD, 2TB SA510 SSD]
Display(s) [2x 27" HP X27q at 1440p]
Case [Fractal Meshify-C]
Audio Device(s) [Steelseries Arctis Pro]
Power Supply [CORSAIR RMx 1000]
Mouse [Logitech G Pro Wireless]
Keyboard [Logitech G512 Carbon (GX-Brown)]
Software [Windows 11 64-Bit]
Updated link
 
Joined
May 27, 2009
Messages
3,405 (0.63/day)
Location
Brunswick, GA
System Name Haz0
Processor i7-2700K
Motherboard Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H-B3
Cooling Chicken Stock
Memory 16GB G.Skill Ripshits X 1600MHz
Video Card(s) Sapphire 5850
Storage Kingston 128GB SSD + WD Black 640GB + 2x 1.5TB
Display(s) 24" Acer G245HQ + 19" Lenovo L194
Case Antec NSK-4482 Orangified
Audio Device(s) X-Fi XtremeGamer
Power Supply Corsair TX750W
Software Windows 7: Electric Boogaloo
You don't need the video card if that board has onboard video. It's a misconception that you need a good GPU to play HD videos. The 1TB Sammy in my posting is $3 more but 3x as big and most likely twice as fast.
 
Joined
Jul 21, 2008
Messages
5,169 (0.90/day)
System Name [Daily Driver]
Processor [Ryzen 7 5800X3D]
Motherboard [Asus TUF GAMING X570-PLUS]
Cooling [be quiet! Dark Rock Slim]
Memory [64GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 3600MHz (16GBx4)]
Video Card(s) [PNY RTX 3070Ti XLR8]
Storage [1TB SN850 NVMe, 4TB 990 Pro NVMe, 2TB 870 EVO SSD, 2TB SA510 SSD]
Display(s) [2x 27" HP X27q at 1440p]
Case [Fractal Meshify-C]
Audio Device(s) [Steelseries Arctis Pro]
Power Supply [CORSAIR RMx 1000]
Mouse [Logitech G Pro Wireless]
Keyboard [Logitech G512 Carbon (GX-Brown)]
Software [Windows 11 64-Bit]
You don't need the video card if that board has onboard video. It's a misconception that you need a good GPU to play HD videos. The 1TB Sammy in my posting is $3 more but 3x as big and most likely twice as fast.

I have 0 onboard gpu knowledge but if the low pro gpu isnt necessary than that brings me right near my budget. Updating wishlist. Will probably buy this tonight unless anyone has other concerns
 
Joined
Mar 10, 2010
Messages
11,878 (2.31/day)
Location
Manchester uk
System Name RyzenGtEvo/ Asus strix scar II
Processor Amd R5 5900X/ Intel 8750H
Motherboard Crosshair hero8 impact/Asus
Cooling 360EK extreme rad+ 360$EK slim all push, cpu ek suprim Gpu full cover all EK
Memory Corsair Vengeance Rgb pro 3600cas14 16Gb in four sticks./16Gb/16GB
Video Card(s) Powercolour RX7900XT Reference/Rtx 2060
Storage Silicon power 2TB nvme/8Tb external/1Tb samsung Evo nvme 2Tb sata ssd/1Tb nvme
Display(s) Samsung UAE28"850R 4k freesync.dell shiter
Case Lianli 011 dynamic/strix scar2
Audio Device(s) Xfi creative 7.1 on board ,Yamaha dts av setup, corsair void pro headset
Power Supply corsair 1200Hxi/Asus stock
Mouse Roccat Kova/ Logitech G wireless
Keyboard Roccat Aimo 120
VR HMD Oculus rift
Software Win 10 Pro
Benchmark Scores 8726 vega 3dmark timespy/ laptop Timespy 6506
you could get a moobo from zotac or others using AMD's A350 at under a 100 add case (with psu) and a small hd and your off as its mobo cpu and gpu memory may make it higher then budget by a bit(you indeed could reuse old mem), just a thought.
 
Joined
Nov 25, 2008
Messages
926 (0.17/day)
Location
Akron, OH
System Name Main Rig
Processor Athlon 5350
Motherboard AsRock mITX
Memory 4gb
Storage 120gb Kingston HyperX SSD
Display(s) Samsung Syncmaster 740N
Power Supply Corsair 430 watt
What hardware is currently in your Dad's rig? You said you did a build back in the 3870 days. Does that mean he has a 3870 in his PC? If so, onboard GPU is a big step in the wrong direction. Would he maybe be just fine with a new power supply and maybe a cheap CPU and/or RAM upgrade into the existing motherboard he has?
 
Joined
Nov 25, 2008
Messages
926 (0.17/day)
Location
Akron, OH
System Name Main Rig
Processor Athlon 5350
Motherboard AsRock mITX
Memory 4gb
Storage 120gb Kingston HyperX SSD
Display(s) Samsung Syncmaster 740N
Power Supply Corsair 430 watt
Personally, if my budget was $150 and the only real sore point was a failing power supply and he didn't have a need for any serious amount of storage, the absolute best way to speed up that old PC would be to buy a new power supply and then spend the rest of the money on a 60gb Sandforce SSD or maybe a 96gb Viking SSD and then just keep all the other parts. SSD makes a HUGE difference in the speed of an older PC.
 
Joined
Jul 21, 2008
Messages
5,169 (0.90/day)
System Name [Daily Driver]
Processor [Ryzen 7 5800X3D]
Motherboard [Asus TUF GAMING X570-PLUS]
Cooling [be quiet! Dark Rock Slim]
Memory [64GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 3600MHz (16GBx4)]
Video Card(s) [PNY RTX 3070Ti XLR8]
Storage [1TB SN850 NVMe, 4TB 990 Pro NVMe, 2TB 870 EVO SSD, 2TB SA510 SSD]
Display(s) [2x 27" HP X27q at 1440p]
Case [Fractal Meshify-C]
Audio Device(s) [Steelseries Arctis Pro]
Power Supply [CORSAIR RMx 1000]
Mouse [Logitech G Pro Wireless]
Keyboard [Logitech G512 Carbon (GX-Brown)]
Software [Windows 11 64-Bit]
Personally, if my budget was $150 and the only real sore point was a failing power supply and he didn't have a need for any serious amount of storage, the absolute best way to speed up that old PC would be to buy a new power supply and then spend the rest of the money on a 60gb Sandforce SSD or maybe a 96gb Viking SSD and then just keep all the other parts. SSD makes a HUGE difference in the speed of an older PC.

:slap:

No.. no no no..

I'm not looking for a performance upgrade, the 3870 he has is overkill as is.

And you have some bad info on what SSD's do.
 
Joined
Mar 10, 2010
Messages
11,878 (2.31/day)
Location
Manchester uk
System Name RyzenGtEvo/ Asus strix scar II
Processor Amd R5 5900X/ Intel 8750H
Motherboard Crosshair hero8 impact/Asus
Cooling 360EK extreme rad+ 360$EK slim all push, cpu ek suprim Gpu full cover all EK
Memory Corsair Vengeance Rgb pro 3600cas14 16Gb in four sticks./16Gb/16GB
Video Card(s) Powercolour RX7900XT Reference/Rtx 2060
Storage Silicon power 2TB nvme/8Tb external/1Tb samsung Evo nvme 2Tb sata ssd/1Tb nvme
Display(s) Samsung UAE28"850R 4k freesync.dell shiter
Case Lianli 011 dynamic/strix scar2
Audio Device(s) Xfi creative 7.1 on board ,Yamaha dts av setup, corsair void pro headset
Power Supply corsair 1200Hxi/Asus stock
Mouse Roccat Kova/ Logitech G wireless
Keyboard Roccat Aimo 120
VR HMD Oculus rift
Software Win 10 Pro
Benchmark Scores 8726 vega 3dmark timespy/ laptop Timespy 6506
No.. no no no..

I'm not looking for a performance upgrade, the 3870 he has is overkill as is.

And you have some bad info on what SSD's do.

no he dosnt.

after reading that he bettered my sugestion given your dads use

id add a massive low rpm cooler to his list:D

you can truly wake up an ol p4 with 4gig and an ssd;)
 
Joined
Jul 21, 2008
Messages
5,169 (0.90/day)
System Name [Daily Driver]
Processor [Ryzen 7 5800X3D]
Motherboard [Asus TUF GAMING X570-PLUS]
Cooling [be quiet! Dark Rock Slim]
Memory [64GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 3600MHz (16GBx4)]
Video Card(s) [PNY RTX 3070Ti XLR8]
Storage [1TB SN850 NVMe, 4TB 990 Pro NVMe, 2TB 870 EVO SSD, 2TB SA510 SSD]
Display(s) [2x 27" HP X27q at 1440p]
Case [Fractal Meshify-C]
Audio Device(s) [Steelseries Arctis Pro]
Power Supply [CORSAIR RMx 1000]
Mouse [Logitech G Pro Wireless]
Keyboard [Logitech G512 Carbon (GX-Brown)]
Software [Windows 11 64-Bit]
no he dosnt.

after reading that he bettered my sugestion given your dads use

id add a massive low rpm cooler to his list:D

you can truly wake up an ol p4 with 4gig and an ssd;)

All an SSD does is speed up access times, and not even in a hugely noticeable way over decent HD's.
 
Joined
Apr 5, 2005
Messages
6,770 (0.98/day)
Location
Republic of Asia (a.k.a Irvine), CA
System Name ---
Processor FX 8350 @ 4.00 Ghz with 1.28v
Motherboard Gigabyte 990FX-UD3 v4.0, Hacked Bios F4.x
Cooling Silenx 4 pipe Tower cooler + 2 x Cougar 120mm fan, 3 x 120mm, 1 x 200 mm Red LED fan
Memory Kingston HyperX DDR3 1866 16GB + Patriot Memory DDR3 1866 16GB
Video Card(s) Asus R9 290 OC @ GPU - 1050, MEM - 1300
Storage Inland 256GB PCIe NVMe SSD for OS, WDC Black - 2TB + 1TB Storage, Inland 480GB SSD - Games
Display(s) 3 x 1080P LCDs - Acer 25" + Acer 23" + HP 23"
Case AeroCool XPredator X3
Audio Device(s) Built-in Realtek
Power Supply Corsair HX1000 Modular
Software Windows 10 Pro 64 bit
still the question stands, whats the current config of your dad's system, may be it is still good, need few polishing touches to make it shine.
 
Joined
Jul 21, 2008
Messages
5,169 (0.90/day)
System Name [Daily Driver]
Processor [Ryzen 7 5800X3D]
Motherboard [Asus TUF GAMING X570-PLUS]
Cooling [be quiet! Dark Rock Slim]
Memory [64GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 3600MHz (16GBx4)]
Video Card(s) [PNY RTX 3070Ti XLR8]
Storage [1TB SN850 NVMe, 4TB 990 Pro NVMe, 2TB 870 EVO SSD, 2TB SA510 SSD]
Display(s) [2x 27" HP X27q at 1440p]
Case [Fractal Meshify-C]
Audio Device(s) [Steelseries Arctis Pro]
Power Supply [CORSAIR RMx 1000]
Mouse [Logitech G Pro Wireless]
Keyboard [Logitech G512 Carbon (GX-Brown)]
Software [Windows 11 64-Bit]
still the question stands, whats the current config of your dad's system, may be it is still good, need few polishing touches to make it shine.

Not what I'm looking to do..... ffs... all I need is an opinion on my wishlist, this is why I dont ask on this forum people cant do simple yay or nay. Instead its NO GET AN SSD AND A QUADRUPLE CORE SUPER COMPUTER.
 
Joined
Dec 27, 2007
Messages
8,518 (1.43/day)
Location
Kansas City
System Name The Dove Box Rev 3.0
Processor i7 8700k @ 4.7GHz
Motherboard Asus Maximus X APEX
Cooling Custom water loop
Memory 16GB 3600 MHz DDR4
Video Card(s) 2x MSI 780 Ti's in SLI
Storage 500GB Samsung 850 PCIe SSD, 4TB
Display(s) 27" Asus 144Hz
Case Enermax Fulmo GT
Audio Device(s) ON BOARD FTW
Power Supply Corsair 1200W
Keyboard Logitech G510
Software Win 10 64x
With this low of a budget I'd look to prebuilt systems. Typically the pricing will match the self built systems at that price range.
 
Joined
Nov 25, 2008
Messages
926 (0.17/day)
Location
Akron, OH
System Name Main Rig
Processor Athlon 5350
Motherboard AsRock mITX
Memory 4gb
Storage 120gb Kingston HyperX SSD
Display(s) Samsung Syncmaster 740N
Power Supply Corsair 430 watt
:slap:

No.. no no no..

I'm not looking for a performance upgrade, the 3870 he has is overkill as is.

And you have some bad info on what SSD's do.


I own five SSDs and have installed a half dozen others. I know exactly what they are capable of. What you are underestimating is the perceived performance improvement that an SSD has on a PC. Noobs and neophytes are totally blown away by the fact that their PC boots in 15 seconds instead of 90. What that translates into is a happy user. The last thing you want to do is spend your father's money on "upgrades" that don't produce a visible impact on performance. To that extent, an SSD is the way to go based on your budget.
 
Joined
Apr 5, 2005
Messages
6,770 (0.98/day)
Location
Republic of Asia (a.k.a Irvine), CA
System Name ---
Processor FX 8350 @ 4.00 Ghz with 1.28v
Motherboard Gigabyte 990FX-UD3 v4.0, Hacked Bios F4.x
Cooling Silenx 4 pipe Tower cooler + 2 x Cougar 120mm fan, 3 x 120mm, 1 x 200 mm Red LED fan
Memory Kingston HyperX DDR3 1866 16GB + Patriot Memory DDR3 1866 16GB
Video Card(s) Asus R9 290 OC @ GPU - 1050, MEM - 1300
Storage Inland 256GB PCIe NVMe SSD for OS, WDC Black - 2TB + 1TB Storage, Inland 480GB SSD - Games
Display(s) 3 x 1080P LCDs - Acer 25" + Acer 23" + HP 23"
Case AeroCool XPredator X3
Audio Device(s) Built-in Realtek
Power Supply Corsair HX1000 Modular
Software Windows 10 Pro 64 bit
Not what I'm looking to do..... ffs... all I need is an opinion on my wishlist, this is why I dont ask on this forum people cant do simple yay or nay. Instead its NO GET AN SSD AND A QUADRUPLE CORE SUPER COMPUTER.

All I am trying to do is help a fellow member, since you already decided you 'want' to build a system (not a need), my answer is the parts you posted looks good.
 
Joined
Nov 25, 2008
Messages
926 (0.17/day)
Location
Akron, OH
System Name Main Rig
Processor Athlon 5350
Motherboard AsRock mITX
Memory 4gb
Storage 120gb Kingston HyperX SSD
Display(s) Samsung Syncmaster 740N
Power Supply Corsair 430 watt
All I am trying to do is help a fellow member, since you already decided you 'want' to build a system (not a need), my answer is the parts you posted looks good.

Same here--your parts selection is fine. Just suggesting an alternative that you may not have considered that fits in your budget. 60gb Sandforce SSD is only $90 and 96gb SSD can be had for $100--both well under your budget, including a replacement power supply.
 
Top