Thank you very much for your help and the details of the self build you’ve provided.
I’ll have a good look at your post tomorrow but if preferred would rather have a prebuilt. Having said that, want something that’s going to work. Are those bits in your list all I’d need? plus case? I guess I’d need to get Windows separate aswell? Also I’d need the relevent cables?
After spending the past few weeks trying to find the nearest to perfect solution for my budget, maybe self-built will be the way.
Also could do with 2 monitors so seems this Medion has inbuilt graphics, which means no output for 2nd monitor?
I mean the prebuilt would work but I’d air on the side of lack of expansion which would cost more in the longrun.
The stuff I’ve listed is a similar spec but gives you room to upgrade in future. All you’d need to get it running is a case, you can create a Windows USB installer direct from MS site and then buy a key online (tbh you can run Windows without a key these days). The power supply cable would come with the PSU, all that’d really leave is monitor power/display cables.
I just did some googling and the MSI board I listed can do dual monitors off the motherboard without a discrete GPU. I can’t definitively say the same for the Medion desktop, as they list the motherboard as “B550 Motherboard” with no mention of branding, ports, etc. To run two on the MSI board you’d need two monitors that have one of each; HDMI, Displayport or VGA. I’d opt for a HDMI and Displayport monitor.
The thing with prebuilts really is that these days they are good value for money given PC part prices are high, you’re up and running asap but you’re gimped in terms of upgrading in the future. Say you purchased that Medion PC and then wanted to put a proper GPU in it, you’d 100% need a power supply upgrade - that’s assuming the case is a standard form factor, the motherboard has standard connections etc, and if the case even has room for a GPU. If you wanted to put more RAM in, you’d have to buy 16GB/32GB/etc kits instead of adding onto the existing 8GB kit. More drives/storage may require new case and potentially power supply or adapters since Medion don’t list any drive bays or spec of the PSU - essentially what seems like a cheaper more convenient buy in the short term usually ends up working out pricier and more of a headache in the long term.
If I was buying a PC at the budget you’ve gave, I’d either build it myself or hit up Facebook Marketplace - obviously there’s the fact you’re buying a used PC with no warranty etc, but as I said earlier I’ve bought and sold 2nd hand PC parts/built machines from them/etc for 15 ish years and had a dud part on 1 occasion. For example, just a quick check on FB marketplace shows an i7 6700k, 16gb RAM, GTX 1060, Asus ROG board, AIO cooler along with a good quality case and PSU for £350. Might be worth looking into since you were already considering an ebay PC.
Sorry for the wall of text, any questions let me know.
I’ve also looked on Marketplace but really not knowledgeable about what systems are worth so rather get something that comes recomended - I’ll have a think about building my own but again, that Medion I reckon would be okay?As long as it does the job, I’d probably sell it on and get another system further down the line.
But I will also look into your suggestions, if you think it’s worth building with those bits you say, even though there is room for ram expansion on that pre-built.
Key word being it should - honestly the listing is not descriptive enough to really give a clear answer. The amount of RAM is capped by the CPU, not the board. The issue with that Medion is that it’s probably going to be 1 stick of 8GB DDR4 at 2666MHz - Ryzen chips perform their best at higher RAM speeds, and the 5600G can do up to 3200MHz. If you do plan to upgrade the memory you’d basically have to buy a full set as running a lower speed RAM is essentially detrimental. You mentioned a 32GB kit earlier, the absolute cheapest 32GB kit on Scan is £112.38 which then puts the cost of the Medion + RAM upgrade to £592.37. The same kit of RAM added on the list I specced the other night (still minus a case) comes in at £495.32.
I mean, yeah the Medion would be okay. It’ll run, you can throw 32GB RAM in it and it’ll do what you want it to do. If you plan to sell it down the line and build a new PC, you won’t get anywhere near as much as you paid for it, so in the long term you’d spend more money. As someone who’d be classed as a PC enthusiast, these are my main gripes with that Medion system:
Massive lack of detail about any of the components; no mention of motherboard brand, memory brand, or power supply.
No info on storage upgrade capability, or gpu upgrade capability (if any).
Case airflow seemingly nonexistant.
Personally, given there’s no real info/manufacturer for the specs and no info on what can or can’t be upgraded I’d want to build it myself. However, its your money and it’s definitely tempting to get a works out of the box solution, so I don’t want to push you in any direction, rather just give you the relevant information and you can make your own decision from that
Never used one of those hubs/adapters for multi displays so I can’t really comment on that, but if you’re already doing it it’s definitely a viable option.
Well on a technicality it’s both - the memory controller has been on the CPU for generations. If you go back to say Intel LGA775 era, the chipset for memory was on the motherboard and as such the motherboard would define how much RAM can be run. Nowadays on a Ryzen chip, the upper limit is 128GB across all Ryzen 5 chips. Now a 4 slot board will do 128GB with no issue, a 2 slot board might do it but it’s dependent on the vendor - obviously this is a very specific edge case and if you wanted high quantities of RAM you’d be buying a board with 4/8 slots to account for it.
This doesn’t really apply to monkeybrains as he afaik wants to run a 32GB kit which is no issue on a 2 slot board but if he wanted to up it to 128GB for whatever reason, then technically the board might factor into it, I just didn’t want to go off on a tangent about it and how the OS could also impact it and so forth.
In reality it’s CPU, board and OS that play into it (along with the capacity of DIMM sizes for whatever generation platform it is), but in the majority of cases most will be capped by the upper limit of the CPU, and anyone wanting a higher quantity of RAM will be aware of that and buy the appropriate hardware.
Hahahaha this is EXACTLY the chipset that was around when I last built my own pc! Thanks for clearing that up, didn’t know how the tech had progressed.
Funnily enough it was the exact generation after 775 (LGA1366/First gen i7) when Intel moved the memory controller onto the CPU itself, though I think AMD already did it a good few years prior. I remember it distinctly as said controller was weak as fuck and would refuse to recognize memory if the heatsink didn’t have even pressure!
Prior to that you’d have two chipsets on the board, northbridge and southbridge; the north handling memory and PCIe for gpu’s etc, and the south doing most of the I/O like USB, SATA, etc. Most if not all CPU’s now essentially have the function of the northbridge on the CPU itself, whereas the southbridge still technically exists and handles the same functions as it always did, just it gets referred to as a chipset instead.
Don’t bother with the Aldi Medion, it seems far too basic for your needs and more inmportantly, the specs are super vague. It has AMD integrated graphics, which means there’s no need for a GPU, which puts more strain/pressure on the CPU. 8Gb of RAM is what some phones have and it’s really not enough for stress-free video ediiting. The CPU itself is pretty ok, but the rest of it is all bargain basement standard stuff. And given that we know nothing about the motherboard, it says to me that you’re probably going to run into problems trying to upgrade it.
I don’t know anything about gaming laptops - I play Xbox on a tv - but a streamer I watch was going on about Aero gaming laptops the other day. Think they’re around that price point
I’ll scrap the Medion idea but really would really prefer an out of the box solution if possible, but will look at both your suggestions mentioned earlier for self build - my limited experience only goes as far as installing additional internal harddrives/memory/disc drives and simply don’t want to run into issues (which always tends to happen with me).
Weirdly my work/home computer has just started glitching on the screen so not sure what that’s about - it’s one of these a Lenovo so literally now updating the drivers but no idea if that’ll fix it.
With that and my out of date video pc, it may be worth replacing all with one computer that could do everything and therefore having a bigger budget?
This happened to a work laptop of mine - screen ribbon was coming loose inside the case, a firm press down along top of keyboard fixed it but depends on what it is…
My daily driver laptop is fucked. It’s a 2017 Lenovo. Already replaced keyboard as one of the key switches was fucked, Bluetooth died a long time ago (chipset, now got mini usb dongle), battery lasts about 20 mins and mouse constantly playing up. Wrist rests are shiny as are most of the keys. It’s what I setup this forum on! Might have to replace it soon although can’t complain, it was my old work laptop I bought it out for about 200 EUR when I left. Big fan of Lenovo/IBM. Might have to go in again.
