Any Ryzen with integrated graphics should be able to do media and some light photo/video work. I don't know what your use case actually is, but paired with good RAM, I was able to play BioShock Infinite and Halo Infinite @ 1080p @ Medium settings using just a 5600G.
Whatever AMD integrated graphics are out with the current gen should be more than sufficient.
Awesome, this is exactly what kind of info i was looking for. Thank you!!!
To go a step further: When looking at motherboards and RAM, are there any particular brands/options i should be considering or possibly avoiding?
The motherboard you pick should have a QVL (Qualified Vendor List). It's basically RAM they've tested and verified to work with your motherboard.
It's not rigorously tested at all, and stability comes down to a mixture of the CPU you pick and the silicon lottery, but it's a decent baseline.
For brands, go with the ones you know. Crucial used to be my go-to, but they're focusing on SSDs and don't do RAM anymore (I do recommend their hard drives, btw). Pick a motherboard that has the features you want, but don't worry about things like PCIe5, since hardly any content even makes use of the full PCIe4 specification.
Looks like you should be able to pick whatever motherboard you want with that case, so unless you are going with ITX, you shouldn't have to worry about clearances. ASRock tends to be the cheapest option, Gigabyte is somewhere around the middle, and MSI/Asus tend to be the most expensive, but the last also often come with extras. Just look into what each one offers, and don't settle.
Thank you for the follow up response!! I really appreciate your insight ๐ I'll do some homework when i get a minute and sort through my options.
Here's some general thoughts in no particular order:
PC Part Picker is your friend for compatibility and sorting through all the options.
I have a Fractal North XL. It's a solid case. If you don't need a top of the line GPU, the regular North will do just fine.
Add some head room for your power supply. Get a gold or better rated one from a reputable brand.
Try to buy in-person from a Microcenter if you can. I brought a tablet with my list and they actually recommended some better in-house deals after reviewing my build concept. I saved money and ended up getting some backup parts.
From what I understand right now is that AMD is a better choice than Intel for CPUs.
Having one SSD as your primary drive and a secondary drive for data storage can be useful, especially if you need to reinstall the OS.
If you want to get into video/photo editing you'll want to consider getting more memory/RAM.
Take pictures while you build. Have some small containers ready for all the screws you'll be managing.
Build with a friend that has done this before if you can.
Jays2Cents has a lot of good consumer-focused videos without going too far into the technicals like GamersNexus.
You may find an entry level GPU useful for basic photo and video editing, but I'd read up on what's available on Linux and what's really needed.
Thank you for the detailed response! I'm starting to think it might make sense for me to try microcenter. I'm not building anything powerful or particularly specific to any high-demand needs so it probably would make the most sense for my time and budget to simply take my core specs down there and see what they can recommend.
Thanks again for your helpful response!!
Happy to help! Oh one more thing: Microcenter price matches, so look at competing sites the day before you go.
Case in question:
https://www.fractal-design.com/products/cases/north/north/chalk-white/
I think that that's really a question of aesthetics, how you want your living room to look.
I mean, pretty much anything can handle browsing and movie watching. If you want to tamp down on the price a bit, you could get a smaller system. But if you're happy with the system, can't say that anything's wrong with it.
The last time I needed a media PC for the living room, I bought a used PC for $45 and plonked it next to the TV, but I didn't especially care about what it looked like.
You're probably going to want Bluetooth if you're going to be using wireless headphones, keyboards, or gamepads.
Other than that...nothing terribly demanding.
The case is ATX, so if that's what you want, you're going to get an ATX motherboard, which is the most-common motherboard form factor out there. That's probably the only kind of constraint it imposes.
I love the idea of buying a really cheap mini profile, and just putting it inside a pretty case. Mac mini in an ATX.
Thanks for the response! Sounds like i really don't need to overspend on this, certainly a plus! Good thinking on Bluetooth--that's something my current pc never had. I've got a wireless keyboard and mouse but they each have their own little receivers. It would be nice to finally just get everything on Bluetooth, plus that would finally allow me to use my wireless headphones with the computer (not that i find the need to that often, still would be a nice option)... Thanks again!
Just FYI, you may need your old keyboard and mouse to initially set up your computer so don't get rid of them quite yet. You'll most likely need to boot into the OS to pair them, so that's probably going to have to be after your initial setup. Also if you ever need to get into your computer's BIOS I don't think most of them support Bluetooth keyboards (I could be wrong, I'm not totally up to date on the state of things, my own motherboard is pretty old so that may have changed) so you'll probably want to keep them around
Some Bluetooth keyboards/mice do work as a wired device as well or have the option to use a non-bluetooth dongle, but check the specs, just because it has a USB port for charging for example doesn't necessarily mean it will talk to your computer over USB.
Good call! I do keep a wired keyboard and mouse around for the occasional need for something of this sort... I will be sure to locate them before i get down to business. Thanks!!
As far as being a media center PC, you can probably stick just about any reasonably modern components you can find in a case and call it fine as long as you have HDMI on your motherboard you probably don't even really need a graphics card, a half decent processor with integrated graphics is probably more than sufficient.
As far as Linux software and compatibility I'm out of my element there. I know KODI is kind of the standard recommendation for HTPC software, but that's pretty much all I got for you.
Same with video/photo editing, not my thing especially on Linux, but I get the overall impression that those are very broad categories that range from "you could probably do that on a $5 thrift store toaster if you could figure out how to hook a monitor and keyboard up to it" up to needing a truly beefy computer with all the bells and whistles (and you can probably still make toast with it if you skimp on the cooling a bit)
The case you have picked out is definitely an attractive option if you want to have your PC sitting out in the open next to your TV in the living room. Personally I built my PC in a Silverstone GD09 and it fits nicely in my entertainment center and pretty much looks like any other piece of AV equipment. It's a little cramped to build in, but it does the job just fine, I was worried about airflow and cooling with how cramped it is and since it's living in an enclosed entertainment center, but I filled up all the fan spaces and even using it as a gaming PC it seems to stay cool enough. They have a couple other cases that are geared towards HTPC usage, I went with this one in particular because of the optical drive because I want to be able to stick a DVD or Blu ray disk in it, because it's a media PC, but that's not important to everyone.
IMO, just taking a quick look at what bundles are currently available at microcenter, something like this is probably sufficient for a basic media PC. That + a power supply and hard drive/SSD/m.2 drive and you're pretty much set. You'd need to talk to someone else about Linux compatibility or suitability for video/photo editing.
I'm personally of the opinion that some sort of small handheld keyboard with a touchpad is borderline necessarily for a HTPC, the one I use is a Rii i4, no complaints about it, maybe some nicer options out there but it does what I need it to do and was cheap.
If you might want to sit back on the couch with a full keyboard and mouse on your lap, unless you want to shell out for something like a couchmaster, I think a wireless trackball mouse is a good option since you probably won't have a lot of "desk" space to move your mouse around.
Very thoughtful and informative response--thank you!! It looks like i have a microcenter a little over an hour away... Perhaps I'll give them a try. I like that they have some pre-selected options, might make my life easier to let them choose the parts since I don't really know my way around this stuff. Cool case, btw! I like all the different options out there these days. Def looking for something i can display in the living room...
Thanks again for the response, lots of food for thought here.
Yeah, microcenter is kind of the place to go for computer building as far as brick and mortar stores go. And most of the staff there, at least at the one near me, are pretty knowledgeable and willing to talk shop and let you pick their brain a bit.
Also just kind of a fun place to walk around if you like electronics, all the weird adapters and gadgets that you know must exist but never actual see in stores are there. The one near me also has a bunch of 3d printers and other maker/tinkerer tools and gizmos.
And their service department is usually pretty great (although I don't know if their online appointment system actually works, anytime I've brought something in to them with an appointment they kind of act like online appointments don't exist)
I haven't used their PC building service myself, but I'm pretty sure you could pretty much tell them what you want to do with your computer and they'd build you something suitable.
This place sounds amazing! I'm very excited to go there now :)
Thanks for your response!
I dont have much advice for hardware but FWIW I've loved my Phanteks Enthoo Pro case because it can hold about 8 3.5" drives without modification.