Question remarks on a build

[daggs1]

Greetings,

I was asked to provide a build for my father in law, they don't use the computer for much more than browsing and stuff.
the current build lasted 10 years and is really old.
they asked for something that can work fast and last as much as possible.
with the budget they gave me I came up with this:

• AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D 3.0GHz AM4 - Box
• AMD Ryzen Wraith Stealth
• Gigabyte B550M DS3H (rev. 1.7) AM4, AMD B550, DDR4
• G.Skill Ripjaws V 2x16GB 3200Mhz DDR4 CL16 Kit
• Sapphire Radeon RX 550 PULSE 4GB GDDR5
• Western Digital Black SN770 1TB M.2 2280 PCIe NVMe SSDמק
• Corsair CX650 650W 80 PLUS Bronze ATX 12cm Fan
• Antec NX200M RGB Micro ATX Mini Tower

the intel based builds are too expensive for what they need so I went with AMD
I've checked and all the parts support each other but just in case I've missed anything, is there any compat issues with this build?

Thanks

 

[Brainonska511]

What country are you buying in? What's your budget?

Why the 5700x3D? I would consider a 5600
Instead. Maybe even look at an AM5 platform with the base model Zen 4/Ryzen 7xxx, to five the potential for a future upgrade. Or even an 8xxx series and you can skip the dedicated GPU altogether.

Consider putting the whole build in PCPartPicker to check compatibility and prices.

Edit:
Here is a basic Ryzen 5 8500G build, $625 before OS: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/2FbRmD (no GPU required)

For AM4, here are some things to consider:
-This would be pretty close to what you have listed:
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/MQcgMV $726 without OS
-This one is a little bit less if you went with an Intel ARC card instead of the 550: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/dytLmD
-You could save $50-$75 if you swapped to the Ryzen 5 5600 instead of the X3D model.

 

[daggs1]

Greetings,

here is the updated list: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/27NTkJ following your suggestion (prior to the edit).
I'm buying from a local store in my town as they provide a complete warranty for the setup (I don't want to handle hw issues).
the list is missing the psu's cost, the cpu comes as tray and not box (hence the hsf) and the ram is this: https://www.kingston.com/en/memory/search?partid=KVR48U40BD8-32 (couldn't find it in the list)
I'm rather rusty when it comes to the specs building, haven't done it in years so I've appreciate suggestion for cheaper replacements like for the cpu for example) that can last long

 

[Brainonska511]

Don't get a single sticks of RAM. Find a kit that is 2 sticks, and ideally, DDR5-6000. I don't think you need to go with 64 GB of RAM off the bat, unless you're doing some heavy video editing. 32 GB (as 2x16GB) should be fine and will save you a bit of cash.

The 620 board is probably fine. The key with motherboard selection is just to ensure it has the features you want (eg, ports, NVME slots, PCIe support (at least 4.0), onboard I/O, wifi or no wifi, and CPU support).

Cases are very dealer's choice. Can't say how well the Antec you selected will cool though for airflow. For midrange/budget, the Corsair 4000D is usually good choice. LianLi and Fractal also have a few midtower ATX cases in the $65-$100 range that also have good airflow.

 

[mikeymikec]

PSU is overpowered, for that spec you could easily go with a decent 450W with plenty of headroom (at this end I normally go with Be Quiet).

I personally consider Gigabyte to be do not buy under virtually any circumstances, partly because of their "blame everyone but themselves" tactic for their exploding power supplies, and partly because their boards had a lot of problems in the era of the capacitor plague (ie. they were using cheap capacitors).

 

[manly]

Unless I was buying a Lenovo pre-built (or similar), I wouldn't go below a 500W PSU. PSUs are most efficient at around 50% of full load.

Ryzen 7000 also has iGPU, and it'll be plenty for the intended use cases. I'd skip the dGPU entirely unless you had a hand-me-down to throw in, and I wouldn't even bother with Ryzen 8000G APU.

Will the local store go out and get whatever parts you specify? That's a bit unusual; most retailers procure from a fixed list for various reasons.

 

[mikeymikec]

Unless I was buying a Lenovo pre-built (or similar), I wouldn't go below a 500W PSU. PSUs are most efficient at around 50% of full load.

OP:

they don't use the computer for much more than browsing and stuff.

(looking at the updated spec in post #3) So that'll be about 50-100W 99% of the time. Topping out at maybe 150W occasionally.

I agree with dumping the dGPU unless the OP had checked that the iGPU they were considering wasn't enough for that one game that their father in law plays and the dGPU is.

 

[manly]

OP:


(looking at the updated spec in post #3) So that'll be about 50-100W 99% of the time. Topping out at maybe 150W occasionally.

I agree with dumping the dGPU unless the OP had checked that the iGPU they were considering wasn't enough for that one game that their father in law plays and the dGPU is.

It's fine to recommend only what the OP needs, and calculating peak power draw sounds useful. In practice, can you recommend a decent 450W PSU? It seems to me that you can find some viable options at 500W/550W, but there aren't many in 2024.

For 450W, you're left with a few no-name brands on Amazon. I'm assuming that OP wants a build with some reliability/quality.

It's not really about budget, because you can spend $40 and get a Thermaltake unit with 5 year warranty (this is probably why OP went with a 650W Bronze PSU to begin with):
Amazon - Thermaltake Smart 500W 80+ White Certified PSU

Note the 430W model is OOS on Amazon U.S., and the 600W model is $2 extra LOL.

 

[mikeymikec]

Reading a review of a BQ System Power PSU suggests they're 220-240V only, so if the OP is American then my recommendation is largely irrelevant.

 

[daggs1]

Don't get a single sticks of RAM. Find a kit that is 2 sticks, and ideally, DDR5-6000. I don't think you need to go with 64 GB of RAM off the bat, unless you're doing some heavy video editing. 32 GB (as 2x16GB) should be fine and will save you a bit of cash.

The 620 board is probably fine. The key with motherboard selection is just to ensure it has the features you want (eg, ports, NVME slots, PCIe support (at least 4.0), onboard I/O, wifi or no wifi, and CPU support).

Cases are very dealer's choice. Can't say how well the Antec you selected will cool though for airflow. For midrange/budget, the Corsair 4000D is usually good choice. LianLi and Fractal also have a few midtower ATX cases in the $65-$100 range that also have good airflow.

will do with the sticks, dropping from 64 to 32 might allow me to go with the 6000 but that means I need to make sure the cpu supports such speed or OC the mem profile, I'm no sure it is wise/needed for the requirements, remember, I'm aiming for the long run, not running anything heavy, that is why I went with the 64 rather than the 32.
I use antec cases and I'm satisfied, so I think it will suffice for them.

PSU is overpowered, for that spec you could easily go with a decent 450W with plenty of headroom (at this end I normally go with Be Quiet).

I personally consider Gigabyte to be do not buy under virtually any circumstances, partly because of their "blame everyone but themselves" tactic for their exploding power supplies, and partly because their boards had a lot of problems in the era of the capacitor plague (ie. they were using cheap capacitors).

now that's funny, the store's online configurator is missing parts, how this: https://www.fsplifestyle.com/en/product/HYPER80plusPRO450W.html will fare?
I use seasonic which are good but I'm not sure if 500w is too much

Unless I was buying a Lenovo pre-built (or similar), I wouldn't go below a 500W PSU. PSUs are most efficient at around 50% of full load.

Ryzen 7000 also has iGPU, and it'll be plenty for the intended use cases. I'd skip the dGPU entirely unless you had a hand-me-down to throw in, and I wouldn't even bother with Ryzen 8000G APU.

Will the local store go out and get whatever parts you specify? That's a bit unusual; most retailers procure from a fixed list for various reasons.

they have a configurator that will allow me to build a machine, I can build it up there and send it to the store for assembly.
where I live, prebuilt desktop can be seen in workplaces rather that at homes.

OP:


(looking at the updated spec in post #3) So that'll be about 50-100W 99% of the time. Topping out at maybe 150W occasionally.

I agree with dumping the dGPU unless the OP had checked that the iGPU they were considering wasn't enough for that one game that their father in law plays and the dGPU is.

the main reason for dGPU was because the initial selected CPU didn't had a iGPU.
ideally, iGPU is what they need best but a iGPU shares the system's RAM and I did saw that there are some rather mundane programs that start to require gpus with 1GB of vram, they get less system ram eventually.

Reading a review of a BQ System Power PSU suggests they're 220-240V only, so if the OP is American then my recommendation is largely irrelevant.

American or not, I want a safe margin, 450w-500w seems like a good margin.
my kid's desktop has a 500w psu and they don't use anything power hungry

 

[mikeymikec]

now that's funny, the store's online configurator is missing parts, how this: https://www.fsplifestyle.com/en/product/HYPER80plusPRO450W.html will fare?
I use seasonic which are good but I'm not sure if 500w is too much

I could only find one review for this product which was auto-translated from Russian:

FSP Hyper 80+ Pro 650 Вт (H3-650): обзор. Очень надёжен, но шумноват - Страница 6 из 6 - OCClub

Будучи ещё школьником, помнится пытался я из двух поганых блоков питания слепить один сносный. Естественно, закончилось всё кончиной обоих «китайцев», // FSP Hyper 80+ Pro 650 Вт (H3-650): обзор. Очень надёжен, но шумноват // 650W, 80 PLUS, ATX, FSP, FSP H3-650, FSP Hyper 80+ Pro, Hyper 80+ Pro...

occlub.ru

The highlights are:

Not even bronze 80+ certification
Relatively noisy
No-name capacitors

So it doesn't sound great IMO.

500W "too much" - I don't know how much you know about power supplies, but having more wattage than you need isn't going to cause a problem per se. Higher wattage PSUs tend to be less efficient at the lower end of usage, but that's about it. When I mentioned "overkill", I simply meant that you won't ever need a 650W PSU for that setup no matter how old and steadily increasingly inefficient the PSU gets. If a manufacturer I have good reason to trust offered me two models of PSU in the same product line and one was $2 cheaper for 650W, I wouldn't be concerned about going for the 650W.

the main reason for dGPU was because the initial selected CPU didn't had a iGPU.
ideally, iGPU is what they need best but a iGPU shares the system's RAM and I did saw that there are some rather mundane programs that start to require gpus with 1GB of vram, they get less system ram eventually.

I'm not 100% sure what you mean here. Yes, having an iGPU means that system RAM is not as available to the system (its request time is shared between integrated graphics and general system use), but unless you're planning on really taxing that system then I highly doubt this is going to ever be noticeable. You've spec'd a system with 32GB RAM which is basically tonnes of RAM unless its primary user insists on having 100+ browser tabs open all the time (IMO 16GB would be completely adequate in the long term unless there's some unusual usage intended). What does "I did saw that there are some rather mundane programs that start to require gpus with 1GB of vram, they get less system ram eventually" mean?

 

[Brainonska511]

will do with the sticks, dropping from 64 to 32 might allow me to go with the 6000 but that means I need to make sure the cpu supports such speed or OC the mem profile, I'm no sure it is wise/needed for the requirements, remember, I'm aiming for the long run, not running anything heavy, that is why I went with the 64 rather than the 32.

The board should support the XMP/DOCP profile, per the PCPartPicker page. "Official support" for the Ryzen 5 7700 is DDR5-5200 for 2 sticks, but people are routinely without issue using DDR5-6000. It is generally as simple as clicking one button in the BIOS (XMP or DOCP to on).

I just don't think you need 64GB of RAM for such a basic system. 16-32GB is almost certainly going to be more than sufficient for the described usage over the next decade. Hell, when I first built my Alder Lake system, it had 16GB of DDR4 and it was fine for playing games. And my wife's Ryzen system (since upgrade from a R5 2600 to a R5 5600X) still has its original 16GB of DDR4-3000 from late 2019, and she has not had any issues with dozens of Chrome tabs or games either.

 

[daggs1]

I could only find one review for this product which was auto-translated from Russian:

FSP Hyper 80+ Pro 650 Вт (H3-650): обзор. Очень надёжен, но шумноват - Страница 6 из 6 - OCClub

Будучи ещё школьником, помнится пытался я из двух поганых блоков питания слепить один сносный. Естественно, закончилось всё кончиной обоих «китайцев», // FSP Hyper 80+ Pro 650 Вт (H3-650): обзор. Очень надёжен, но шумноват // 650W, 80 PLUS, ATX, FSP, FSP H3-650, FSP Hyper 80+ Pro, Hyper 80+ Pro...

occlub.ru

The highlights are:

Not even bronze 80+ certification
Relatively noisy
No-name capacitors

So it doesn't sound great IMO.

500W "too much" - I don't know how much you know about power supplies, but having more wattage than you need isn't going to cause a problem per se. Higher wattage PSUs tend to be less efficient at the lower end of usage, but that's about it. When I mentioned "overkill", I simply meant that you won't ever need a 650W PSU for that setup no matter how old and steadily increasingly inefficient the PSU gets. If a manufacturer I have good reason to trust offered me two models of PSU in the same product line and one was $2 cheaper for 650W, I wouldn't be concerned about going for the 650W.



I'm not 100% sure what you mean here. Yes, having an iGPU means that system RAM is not as available to the system (its request time is shared between integrated graphics and general system use), but unless you're planning on really taxing that system then I highly doubt this is going to ever be noticeable. You've spec'd a system with 32GB RAM which is basically tonnes of RAM unless its primary user insists on having 100+ browser tabs open all the time (IMO 16GB would be completely adequate in the long term unless there's some unusual usage intended). What does "I did saw that there are some rather mundane programs that start to require gpus with 1GB of vram, they get less system ram eventually" mean?

thanks for the PSU wattage explanation, I'll go with the seasonic, this one: https://seasonic.com/s12iii/

as for the ram, I don't remember which program it was, but I was surprised that such program requires 1GB of vram.
I know for a fact that they use a lot of browser tabs open, frankly, I don't use windows so I don't know how it fares with ram. I do remember that windows likes a lot of ram.
I'll stay with the 2x16

The board should support the XMP/DOCP profile, per the PCPartPicker page. "Official support" for the Ryzen 5 7700 is DDR5-5200 for 2 sticks, but people are routinely without issue using DDR5-6000. It is generally as simple as clicking one button in the BIOS (XMP or DOCP to on).

I just don't think you need 64GB of RAM for such a basic system. 16-32GB is almost certainly going to be more than sufficient for the described usage over the next decade. Hell, when I first built my Alder Lake system, it had 16GB of DDR4 and it was fine for playing games. And my wife's Ryzen system (since upgrade from a R5 2600 to a R5 5600X) still has its original 16GB of DDR4-3000 from late 2019, and she has not had any issues with dozens of Chrome tabs or games either.

my current setup supports 3.2GHz ram out of the box, the previous one started to cause issues when I defined xmp to 3GHz.
that is why I'm not so sure that I want to start playing with xmp in order to have the best out of the system.
btw, just to be sure I understand properly, 2x1R is 2 sticks, each on a different channel and 2x2R, is 2 sticks, 2 on each channel?

 

[Brainonska511]

my current setup supports 3.2GHz ram out of the box, the previous one started to cause issues when I defined xmp to 3GHz.
that is why I'm not so sure that I want to start playing with xmp in order to have the best out of the system.
btw, just to be sure I understand properly, 2x1R is 2 sticks, each on a different channel and 2x2R, is 2 sticks, 2 on each channel?

Not sure what your current PC is, so its hard to say. From my own experience, my wife's PC was unstable with XMP on at 3000MHz with the R5 2600, but perfectly stable with the R5 5600X. So it could just mean the memory controller on the R5 2600 wasn't as good.

The current crop of CPUs should really have no issues hitting XMP speeds.

For 2x1r/2x2r - that's sticks and rank. 2 sticks of single rank memory or 2 sticks of dual rank memory.

 

[manly]

Pretty much all of us here like industry standard components for ease of serviceability. If not, we could just buy a Dell, HP or Mac pre-built and call it a day.

We try not to ask anyone to buy more than they need, but there is very little retail market for sub-500W PSUs. If you can find one, you'll be fine building with the efficient Zen 4. 450W will cost about the same as a comparable quality 500W-550W PSU does, within a few bucks.

We try not to assume where someone is located; the world is big and flat. Any links to Amazon U.S. or Newegg are just suggestions, and may not help you in your local market. But it's cool that your PC shop will accept your parts list and assemble it. That style of local PC store was still a thing when I was growing up a long time ago, but everything has gone to economies of scale over the past 25 years.

AFAIK the iGPU frame buffer size (i.e. memory it uses) won't be an issue; but if you want to play it safe, 32GB system RAM is going to be plenty. And I agree with above posters that state 16GB will be fine. (But don't believe Apple's claim that 8GB Macs are great ).

 

[BoomerD]

thanks for the PSU wattage explanation, I'll go with the seasonic, this one: https://seasonic.com/s12iii/

as for the ram, I don't remember which program it was, but I was surprised that such program requires 1GB of vram.
I know for a fact that they use a lot of browser tabs open, frankly, I don't use windows so I don't know how it fares with ram. I do remember that windows likes a lot of ram.
I'll stay with the 2x16


my current setup supports 3.2GHz ram out of the box, the previous one started to cause issues when I defined xmp to 3GHz.
that is why I'm not so sure that I want to start playing with xmp in order to have the best out of the system.
btw, just to be sure I understand properly, 2x1R is 2 sticks, each on a different channel and 2x2R, is 2 sticks, 2 on each channel?

I've been a Seasonic fan for many years, but the S12iii is rated as a "D" tier PSU and should be avoided.
Spend a bit more and get a quality unit. Power supplies aren't as "sexy" as a fancy video card or CPU cooler, but they're basically the heart of your system. A bad one can cause lots of problems...and can even kill components when it dies.

here's a decent tier list:

Faind X Network

faindx.com

 

[daggs1]

I've been a Seasonic fan for many years, but the S12iii is rated as a "D" tier PSU and should be avoided.
Spend a bit more and get a quality unit. Power supplies aren't as "sexy" as a fancy video card or CPU cooler, but they're basically the heart of your system. A bad one can cause lots of problems...and can even kill components when it dies.

here's a decent tier list:

Faind X Network

faindx.com

that is here the store's warranty comes in to play. the other alternatives are Cooler Master Elite V3 or fsp (for psus up to 500w as there are no 600w ones)
as said, I can get a psu from another store but that means I need to handle every issue found. I'd like to avert it if possible

 

[BoomerD]

that is here the store's warranty comes in to play. the other alternatives are Cooler Master Elite V3 or fsp (for psus up to 500w as there are no 600w ones)
as said, I can get a psu from another store but that means I need to handle every issue found. I'd like to avert it if possible

You're saying that if the PSU takes a crap and kills your motherboard or video card, the store will cover those? I doubt that.
Handling issues is just part of building your own PC. If you can' or aren't willing to do that...just buy a pre-built.

 

[daggs1]

You're saying that if the PSU takes a crap and kills your motherboard or video card, the store will cover those? I doubt that.
Handling issues is just part of building your own PC. If you can' or aren't willing to do that...just buy a pre-built.

the store sells me the computer build with warranty, if there is any issue, I take it to the store and find out what is the problematic part.
if it is still under warranty, they will replace it if the have the same part in stock, if not, you can choose a lesser part for free or add the diff from the original part and a new part and get it.
I must say that of all the parts I saw dying, psu was never one of it, nor a situation where a psu kills you mb or gpu.
that said, I always use antec psus...
these kind of stores where I live usually use good quality part.
I had one of my server's mb fried when I inserted a ram stick to it, took it back to the shop, they tested it and found it is faulty, I got a replacement.

 

[BoomerD]

the store sells me the computer build with warranty, if there is any issue, I take it to the store and find out what is the problematic part.
if it is still under warranty, they will replace it if the have the same part in stock, if not, you can choose a lesser part for free or add the diff from the original part and a new part and get it.
I must say that of all the parts I saw dying, psu was never one of it, nor a situation where a psu kills you mb or gpu.
that said, I always use antec psus...
these kind of stores where I live usually use good quality part.
I had one of my server's mb fried when I inserted a ram stick to it, took it back to the shop, they tested it and found it is faulty, I got a replacement.

Antec sells mid-grade PSU's. Not usually terrible, not usually great. It sounds like you're NOT building your own...but having it built for you, so if they're willing to warranty any failures, go for it.

 

[daggs1]

Antec sells mid-grade PSU's. Not usually terrible, not usually great. It sounds like you're NOT building your own...but having it built for you, so if they're willing to warranty any failures, go for it.

in the original post I suggested Corsair CX650 80 PLUS Bronze 650W, imho, is it more reliable than the season or the coolermaster I've suggested above?

I'm thinking of taking an AMD Ryzen 5 8600G rather than the 7 7700 to reduce the cost a bit.
on the other hand, I might ask them to select...

 

[Pohemi]

Greetings,

I was asked to provide a build for my father in law, they don't use the computer for much more than browsing and stuff.

I just have to reiterate what others have already said in regards to RAM. For their usage needs, 16GB would be plenty. 32GB would be overkill, though I understand wanting to "future-proof" it as much as possible. I have 32GB with my i5-12600K build, and I do some gaming and video editing (with an Intel Arc A750 dGPU) and I'm never short on RAM. Modern browsers suspend unfocused tabs so it's not likely to eat up a ton of system memory. And yes, a dGPU would be overkill even for light gaming; it doesn't sound like it's needed. iGPUs have come a long way, even on Intel systems.

Here's a hot take from my subjective opinion - get them an Intel NUC, some RAM, and an NVMe drive. It would more than suffice for what they need.

 

[Brainonska511]

I just have to reiterate what others have already said in regards to RAM. For their usage needs, 16GB would be plenty. 32GB would be overkill, though I understand wanting to "future-proof" it as much as possible. I have 32GB with my i5-12600K build, and I do some gaming and video editing (with an Intel Arc A750 dGPU) and I'm never short on RAM. Modern browsers suspend unfocused tabs so it's not likely to eat up a ton of system memory. And yes, a dGPU would be overkill even for light gaming; it doesn't sound like it's needed. iGPUs have come a long way, even on Intel systems.

Here's a hot take from my subjective opinion - get them an Intel NUC, some RAM, and an NVMe drive. It would more than suffice for what they need.

I went the NUC route for my mom to keep it simple, and it's been pretty good for someone that just needs something basic. A big benefit besides simplicity is freeing up space - it's so much smaller than the previous desktop. A 12th gen NUC with an i3, 16 GB of RAM, a cheaper 1TB NVME, and a recycled 500 GB 2.5" SSD (to just serve as an internal backup drive for data) is more than enough for browsing, office programs, and basic 2D Windows games (like Solitaire).

 

[Pohemi]

Right. Before I built my current system, I had used an 11th gen i5 NUC with 32GB RAM and a cheaper 1TB NVMe. It was surprisingly snappy, and worked better than I even expected. The ONLY reason I built this system and sold the NUC was so that I could play more demanding games (the kind of games his parents are not going to be playing).

While I had the NUC though, I could do some light gaming on it with the Intel Iris Xe iGPU. It was more capable than I thought it'd be. Modularity of a built system is nice, but for their needs a NUC simplifies things and as you said is a much smaller footprint. You can even mount it to the back of a VESA display.

I sold the NUC to another user here on AT, for their father. They said it worked great for his basic use needs.

 

[daggs1]

I just have to reiterate what others have already said in regards to RAM. For their usage needs, 16GB would be plenty. 32GB would be overkill, though I understand wanting to "future-proof" it as much as possible. I have 32GB with my i5-12600K build, and I do some gaming and video editing (with an Intel Arc A750 dGPU) and I'm never short on RAM. Modern browsers suspend unfocused tabs so it's not likely to eat up a ton of system memory. And yes, a dGPU would be overkill even for light gaming; it doesn't sound like it's needed. iGPUs have come a long way, even on Intel systems.

Here's a hot take from my subjective opinion - get them an Intel NUC, some RAM, and an NVMe drive. It would more than suffice for what they need.

I'd prefer to be better safe than sound, so I'll stay with the extended ram, windows likes ram

I went the NUC route for my mom to keep it simple, and it's been pretty good for someone that just needs something basic. A big benefit besides simplicity is freeing up space - it's so much smaller than the previous desktop. A 12th gen NUC with an i3, 16 GB of RAM, a cheaper 1TB NVME, and a recycled 500 GB 2.5" SSD (to just serve as an internal backup drive for data) is more than enough for browsing, office programs, and basic 2D Windows games (like Solitaire).

Right. Before I built my current system, I had used an 11th gen i5 NUC with 32GB RAM and a cheaper 1TB NVMe. It was surprisingly snappy, and worked better than I even expected. The ONLY reason I built this system and sold the NUC was so that I could play more demanding games (the kind of games his parents are not going to be playing).

While I had the NUC though, I could do some light gaming on it with the Intel Iris Xe iGPU. It was more capable than I thought it'd be. Modularity of a built system is nice, but for their needs a NUC simplifies things and as you said is a much smaller footprint. You can even mount it to the back of a VESA display.

I sold the NUC to another user here on AT, for their father. They said it worked great for his basic use needs.

the Nuc or even the entire minipc where is live is not common, this means the cost of the suggested above intel nuc is like the entire build in this post.
e,g, not worth it