PC Building

[neon]

Hi, I am going to build a computer for a customer who is not gaming, and will use it for office tasks and some video watching. The performance demands are thus fairly low. The customer is replacing a PC that is 11 years(!) old, and was not upgraded during that time. The only minor issue with the old PC was a flaky power switch on the case - which is what led to the discussion to get a new PC, lol. In consideration of how long it has been between upgrades, longevity and reliability will be important features for this build.

A discrete video card will not be required, since it is not a gaming PC. Fortunately, AMD has a solution: Ryzen with Radeon Graphics processors (formerly APUs). There is not yet a RyzRad processor for socket AM5 (there are rumors of an announcement soon, maybe for availability next Spring), and so we will go with a socket AM4 RyzRad. Since I want the PC to have adequate video performance for the next 5 or so years, I have decided on the best video performer, which is found in the Ryzen 7 5700G with 8CU of Radeon Vega graphics. I think this configuration would also work for a PC used for light gaming / e-sports.

Specifications:
AMD Ryzen 7 5700G with Radeon Graphics (Cezanne 8c/16t 8CU Radeon Vega)
Thermalright Burst Assassin 120 ARGB (6-heatpipe single tower + 120mm fan)
AsRock B550 Taichi ATX
2x G.Skill TridentZ RGB 16GB DDR4-3600
Crucial P3 Plus 1TB PCIE 4.0 NVME M.2 (OS drive )
Inland Prime 1TB PCIE 3.0 NVME M.2 (storage drive )
Lian Li Lancool 216RX
FSP Hyper M85+ 550W

These peripherals will carry over from the previous computer, except for the mouse. The previous mouse is a basic Logitech M100 3-button. The Roccat Kone Pro has thumb buttons, and is very light.

NEC MultiSync EA232WMi (23" 1920x1080 75Hz)
Logitech X230 (2.1 speakers)
Logitech K200 Keyboard 

Roccat Kone Pro

[johnnyenglish]

Hi there, here are some suggestions but from the picture, they may come too late.

The PSU should be at least 650 corsair or seasonic to a possible GPU upgrade in the future, you never know.

Should be only one nvme 2tb or you could be cutting performance in half from two, depending on the board slot specs. Check for PCI lanes assigment in BIOS or the user manual.

16Gb would be more than enough for office work, every workstation I configure will have just that and can handle even light video editing. 

Good luck with the build 

[neon]

Thank you for the comments, and I mostly agree with them. The PSU was actually a leftover from a build that didn't happen, so it is getting repurposed for this. If someone wants to add a discrete video card, then it would likely be limited to a mid-range card.

The reason for 2 nvme drives goes back a long time. In the Win 9x/XP days, I liked to keep user data on a separate drive, which made it easier to back up. Backup software was less capable and storage space more limited than now. The advantage of configuring it that way may have diminished now such that it is no longer necessary. I would invite opinions on that topic. The Asrock manual says that one m.2 slot supports *up to* gen4 x4, and the other slot supports *up to* gen3 x4. As for what happens to the pcie lanes when both m.2 slots are occupied, the manual does not say, and neither does the website FAQ.

And you're right about 16 GB is enough RAM for office work, at least for now. I splurged a bit on Black Friday.

[neon]

wired upThere has been progress!

The CPU, heatsink/fan, and memory are installed in the motherboard, the motherboard is mounted in the case, the power supply is in, and most of the cables are plugged in.

I elected to keep the case in its shipped configuration. The moveable front control panel was left as is, no changes were made to the case fan configuration (2x 160mm up front, 1x 140mm on the back). It's a basic front to back air flow. There are standoffs to mount the motherboard about 1" higher to make clearance for fans on top of the power supply shroud, which Lian Li calls, "air cooling mode", but I'm not putting fans there, and it seems fine in the default "water cooling mode".

[BigAl01]

Happy to see this build already in process.  I have one gaming machine on my LAN that is running the 5700G CPU with integrated graphics; it's pushing pixels to a 60 Hz 1080p display and runs most games at that resolution just fine.  I've thought about adding a video card, but then I really should upgrade the monitor and so it goes...  For now, it's fine and reliable.  I also have another gaming machine hanging near my work bench and it's running the 5600G CPU on integrated graphics.  This machine is mostly there to look cool and play tunes through a set of the Klipsch 2.1 Pro Media computers that are mounted above the work bench.  All my other machines have discrete video cards.  

As for your build, I would consider adding a fan to the top (assuming it's vented) so air is actively pulled out of the case on the top, along with the back.  Without a video card installed however, it probably isn't necessary.

[neon]

Some more photos. On the right side, the velcro straps in the middle and clips along the back edge aid the cable management situation. Also, the fan hub / aRGB hub that is included preinstalled on the Lian Li 216RX makes life easier - every build using RGB could use one of these.right side, panel offmotherboard, looking towards the back

[neon]

Power OnHere it is powered up. I forgot to mention that there was a test POST using an older Ryzen before mounting the motherboard in the case, followed by a UEFI update. Asrock instructs that this update has to be done using a Matisse, Renoir or Vermeer CPU.

The left panel is on, but I have not peeled the protective film from the glass yet. The RGB lights are set to a gold color, to match the Taichi theme of the motherboard. The customer will judge next week.

Front fansFront oblique

[mengelag]

I think that build is just fine for what the use is. You have some good upgrade paths going forward. Pretty solid parts choices.