Question Best bang-for-the-buck BUILD for a NON-gamer?

E922 · Feb 19, 2025

Hi everyone,

Currently have a ten year old 4th gen Intel i5-4430, Asus Z87 mobo, 32GB DDR3, 1TB Samsung SATA SSD, 3 monitors, running Win 10. It's stable and fairly fast for MY use case.

1. USAGE: multi-task Office apps, Zoom, music streaming, and Brave browser with 40-80 tabs open (the main memory hog, despite my setting it to suspend unused tabs).
2. BUDGET: $300-400 preferred, $500 tops
3-4. Purchase LOCATION: the US
5. BRAND Pref: none. Have always used Intel, but did get an AMD laptop last fall that I've been happy with.
6. CARRY-OVER components: Would LIKE to use my SSD, case (Thermaltake V2) and PSU (Antec VP-450), and my 3 monitors.
7. OVERCLOCKING: nope. In fact, I might be interested in UNDER-clocking if it could result in a more stable and cooler, less power-consuming system. (Haven't researched that yet.)
8. RESOLUTION: all 1080p or less. Zero interest in 4K.
9. WHEN: hopefully sooner rather than later, due to looming trade war with China likely driving up prices.
10. SOFTWARE: only Win 11...my only motivation for upgrading is that my current hardware is incompatible with Win 11 and that evil Microsoft October deadline is looming (I have researched the workarounds but they all seem a bit precarious and MS seems to find ways to defeat them, so I'd rather not bother with playing whack-a-mole.)

"Future proofing" is not a concern as I hope to keep my next build for 10 years or however long it takes Microsoft to pull Win 12 out of its backside and again coerce users to upgrade.

Best Microcenter deals I've seen so far are:

$300 = AMD Ryzen 5 7600X, ASUS B650M-A Prime AX II, G.Skill 16GB DDR5 6000
$370 = AMD Ryzen 7 7700X, Gigabyte B650 Gaming X AX v2, G.Skill Flare X5 Series 32GB DDR5-6000

vs

$280 = Intel Core i7-12700K, MSI Z790-P Pro WiFi DDR4, G.Skill Ripjaws V 16GB DDR4-3200
$400 = Intel Core i9-12900K, ASUS Z790-V Prime AX DDR5, G.Skill Ripjaws S5 32GB Kit DDR5 6000

My questions:

Is the old "AMD better for gaming, Intel better for productivity" adage still true?
As a non-gamer, would I see any noticeable difference between DDR5 vs DDR4?
Which systems above would have the lowest cooling and power needs? (I was hoping to continue using my 10 year old Antec VP-450 power supply; if this is a terrible idea please yell.)
An increase in general snappiness (boot times, apps opening & closing, tons of open browser tabs not mushrooming the memory load) would be nice to have, though what I currently have isn't bad or anything.
Would I honestly see any significant improvement going from a SATA SSD to a NVMe one? (Other than the reduction in wires.)

If you have better suggestions, I'm all ears. (Am not interested in "Bee Link" type micro-PC desktops, however.)

Many thanks in advance!

fralexandr · Feb 19, 2025

Of the microcenter deals I like the 12700k one for the price/performance, though it could do with some RAM. My second choice would be the 7700x.

fralexandr · Feb 19, 2025

Note: this question appears to be crossposted on Tomshardware, where they recommend a new PSU, based on age.

FYI, the Antec VP450W may not support some of the newer low power states. If you wish to use the VP450, you may need to disable them in the bios. I think any power states beyond C7 won't be supported, so C8-C10?

There is a non-zero risk to reusing the PSU, considering it is 10 years old. Parts like the capacitors and fan bearings do wear. The VP450 could work fine for another several years, or it could die. For what it's worth, my Corsair VX450 is still working and is ~17 years old.

DAPUNISHER · Feb 20, 2025

Replace the PSU, it's time.

AMD is better at everything now, aside from some specific workloads. The 7700X bundle is the best deal. Add a $35 cooler and it'll run cool and quiet.

SATA SSD will be fine.

blckgrffn · Feb 20, 2025

DAPUNISHER said:
Replace the PSU, it's time.

AMD is better at everything now, aside from some specific workloads. The 7700X bundle is the best deal. Add a $35 cooler and it'll run cool and quiet.

SATA SSD will be fine.

I'd just say that if you are not going to replace the CPU down the road, like 99% of the people, I'd lean the Intel route because I like the board better and I think a stock 12700K is a very solid CPU and $20 gets a decent HS or another 16GB of ram. $280 is a lot of computer for a pretty reasonable "in this economy" price.

Very close, though.

Also, PSU's are China products so buy a new one now too, IMO.

manly · Feb 20, 2025

Welcome to the forums!

Desktop web browsers will eventually consume all system RAM if you open up enough tabs. Yes technically they can be configured to "unload" background tabs but this doesn't truly work in the long run, from what I've seen (Chrome and Firefox).
Mobile browsers are different, because (from day one) they can and will evict tabs to free up limited memory. IIRC the OG iPhone had 256 MB of RAM, so it had to be this way. (Actually it had 128 MB LOL.)

NVMe is cheap enough now that unless you have a SATA SSD on hand already, NVMe is the easy choice.

I also like to use tech as long as possible (i.e. ten years), and am not much of a mid-cycle upgrader. With such a long window, I'd personally rule out a few "last gen" options: DDR4, SATA SSD or reusing an old 450W PSU.

E922 · Feb 26, 2025

blckgrffn said:
I'd just say that if you are not going to replace the CPU down the road, like 99% of the people, I'd lean the Intel route because I like the board better and I think a stock 12700K is a very solid CPU and $20 gets a decent HS or another 16GB of ram. $280 is a lot of computer for a pretty reasonable "in this economy" price.

Very close, though.

Also, PSU's are China products so buy a new one now too, IMO.

Originally I was hoping to continue using the case and PSU, but now I'm planning to just start over from scratch and turn my current rig into a Linux media PC in a different room.

The user reviews for the Gigabyte mobos in those AMD bundles at Microcenter are a bit scary, which is another reason I'm leaning towards the Intel bundle.

Is there a price-to-performance PSU you'd recommend for non-gaming use that would work for either the Intel or AMD 7700 bundle?

blckgrffn · Feb 26, 2025

I am a big fan of the RMx PSUs atm, whenever I want a PC to last a long time, that is what I use.

The MSI PSUs in that range evidently use the same OEM as the RMx.

There is this deal as well:

750W Cooler Master MWE Gold 750 V2 Full Modular 80+ Gold Power Supply $75 + Free Shipping

Amazon [amazon.com] has 750W Cooler Master MWE Gold 750 V2 Full Modular 80+ Gold Power Supply on sale for $89.99 - $15 off when you clip the coupon = $74.99. Shipping is free.

slickdeals.net

On the motherboard front, I am building the 9700x with the cheaper board this weekend, I read those reviews and its sounds like, frankly, idiots. There were so many people buying these bundles and mountains of these boards at the store that I bet they are selling these 3 or 5 to 1 over the Intel bundles.

That said, I think either the 12700K or 12900K DDR5 bundles are solid, for absolute value I am leanings towards the 12700K board combo. The performance difference is going to be something like 10% but you are upgrading so far its like upgrading 700% or 710%, I doubt you'd ever know.

manly · Feb 26, 2025

Toughpower GF3 750W is $83 at Newegg:

https://www.newegg.com/thermaltake-toughpower-gf3-series-ps-tpd-0750fnfagu-4-750-w/p/N82E16817153439

DAPUNISHER · Feb 27, 2025

blckgrffn said:
I'd just say that if you are not going to replace the CPU down the road, like 99% of the people, I'd lean the Intel route because I like the board better and I think a stock 12700K is a very solid CPU and $20 gets a decent HS or another 16GB of ram. $280 is a lot of computer for a pretty reasonable "in this economy" price.

That's a strong argument. I do have a different perspective influenced by recent events though.

1. Intel is in deep financial trouble and politics aside, no one knows where the lifeline will come from. Or if it will, short of vulture capitalist picking it apart.

2. Intel has given up on 8-10th gen already. Microsoft has removed them from windows 11 compatibility. How much longer before 12th gen support gets axed and it has to be a linux box whether you want it to be or not? Or go unsupported which is also unsavory. Their stuff has aged like milk since 7th gen.

3.We are talking retail/DIY. And the primary reason fewer Intel users upgrade is because of the e-waste nature of the tick tock cycle. Hence why flagship CPUs hold their value so well. AM4 users have indeed upgraded over the last 8 years. As it is the most ubiquitous and popular retail platform ever, making that 99% stat, 100% fake news.

People can build whatever they want. I simply provide feedback to weigh or ignore. I wouldn't touch Intel for anything approaching real money. Plus DDR4 holds back performance and LGA 1700 is cursed. 💀

AM5 is worth every penny. I looked up that V2 board. Most complaints are either old i.e.old bios. Obvious ram compatibility issues / straight up PICNIC. Every Gigabyte board I am using has similar ratings. They are all rock solid and reliable. Lemons happen. If you get one return it.

igor_kavinski · Feb 28, 2025

Spend a little more: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/Z2v3yW

You get the latest CPU architecture (runs cooler due to better IHS and full AVX-512 support). Faster RAM.

manly · Feb 28, 2025

igor_kavinski said:
Spend a little more: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/Z2v3yW

You get the latest CPU architecture (runs cooler due to better IHS and full AVX-512 support). Faster RAM.

Seems tough, given the stated budget of < $500.
What does AVX-512 do for general office use?

I do agree with you that if you're buying once every ten years, size up the budget a bit more. Skip AM4/LGA 1700/DDR4 at this point in time.

JackMDS · Feb 28, 2025

Or you can get Rofus download Win 11 24H2 iso from Microsoft.

Put with Rufus the ISO on a USB Flash Drive.

Do in-place upgrade, and keep happily using the current computer for the next few years.

Ken g6 · Feb 28, 2025

I was in a similar situation. My old Skylake was running fine, except the RAM couldn't boot full-speed anymore and I was starting to need more RAM anyway. I have several old video cards laying around I could use, so I got the cheapest decent AM5 chip I could find, the 8400F, which requires discrete graphics. (I do not recommend the 8500G; it's a very different mobile-based architecture. All the other AM5 chips I see on PCPP look fine.)

As far as underclocking, I simply turned off PBO (Precision Boost Overdrive) in the BIOS. With a cheap Thermalright tower cooler it's running 41C doing Handbrake right now.

I figure a few years in the future when Zen 6 chips go on sale cheap used I might pick up something better and plug it right into my existing motherboard.

igor_kavinski · Feb 28, 2025

manly said:
What does AVX-512 do for general office use?

Download latest stable Chromium binaries (64-bit and 32-bit)

Download latest stable Chromium binaries for Windows, Mac, Linux, BSD and Android (64-bit and 32-bit)

chromium.woolyss.com

You CAN HAS AVX-512 in a browser

manly · Feb 28, 2025

igor_kavinski said:
Download latest stable Chromium binaries (64-bit and 32-bit)

Download latest stable Chromium binaries for Windows, Mac, Linux, BSD and Android (64-bit and 32-bit)

chromium.woolyss.com

You CAN HAS AVX-512 in a browser

View attachment 118428

what does that mean. Lower thermals if you have 16 Pornhub windows playing concurrently?

igor_kavinski · Feb 28, 2025

manly said:
what does that mean.

Possibly better performance in Google sheets and Excel online

Should also help in improving searches for pages that load up a data set and then allow you to search it as you type. An example that comes to mind is the Humble Bundle library search (if you are a long time regular buyer of those bundles, you will have thousands of items in there).

Besides, having full width AVX-512 for a rainy day is better than not having it at all.

Question Best bang-for-the-buck BUILD for a NON-gamer?

E922

Junior Member

fralexandr

Platinum Member

fralexandr

Platinum Member

DAPUNISHER

Super Moderator CPU Forum Mod and Elite Member

blckgrffn

Diamond Member

manly

Lifer

E922

Junior Member

blckgrffn

Diamond Member

750W Cooler Master MWE Gold 750 V2 Full Modular 80+ Gold Power Supply $75 + Free Shipping

manly

Lifer

DAPUNISHER

Super Moderator CPU Forum Mod and Elite Member

igor_kavinski

Lifer

manly

Lifer

JackMDS

Elite Member

Ken g6

Programming Moderator, Elite Member

igor_kavinski

Lifer

Download latest stable Chromium binaries (64-bit and 32-bit)

manly

Lifer

Download latest stable Chromium binaries (64-bit and 32-bit)

igor_kavinski

Lifer

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