My budget friendly PC

The last time I built my desktop computer was 6 years back. I went all out and got 9TB disks and 64GB memory and two 27 inch IPS monitors. It worked well for me all these years without any upgrades. Couple of years back, I built a deep learning rig, but that was for a different purpose. Now I am due for a new PC for my work.

My requirements are these:

1. Need to be simple: I am not a gamer. I am a programmer. I want to spend my money where it matters: monitor, keyboard, and memory (for running VM’s). 
2. Need to be future looking: I do not have any legacy compatibility requirements. I don’t need to support older monitors or disks.

Considering my need for screen real estate, I want to have the ability to drive more monitors. I want to start with one 4k monitor, and add one more soon. To run two 4K monitors at 60Hz frequency needs special care. Most 4K monitors run either displayport or HDMI 2.0. Ideally, we are looking for dual display port capable machine, or at least one display port and one HDMI 2.0.

Since I do not do games, the internal graphics from intel is a good option. I decided to use Intel anyways, for many reasons, including compatibility with some of the software that I run. With 9th and 8th gen intel, we can support dual 4k and some more, provided the motherboard also can support it.

So, 9th or 8th gen intel CPU it is. 8th or 9th? There does not seem to be much difference. However, 9th gen has 15% more performance. I could have used i3, but I found i5 at $140 from best buy on sale. I promptly ordered it.

Then, which motherboard? It needs to use intel 300 series of chipset to support this cpu. More importantly, it should support dual 4k monitors. Unfortunately, such mobos are outrageously expensive. The ones with HDMI support only HDMI 1.4, which supports 4k only at 30Hz. That is not an option.

Gigabyte H370N Wifi is a little engine that could. It supports dual 4k monitors and one more at 1080P. It also has wifi and dual NICs. The dual NICs seem indulgent, but they are needed if I ever run a Xen server. It also supports enough USBs. More importantly, it supports two NVMe cards. 

NVMe was a revelation to me. Last time I was building my PC, NVMe was too expensive for me to include in the build. Now, the prices have plummeted so much that they are of the same price as SSD, but with performance upto 5 to 8 times!

There was only one drawback: The motherboard is built for compact machines: mini ITX. It can only support 32GB. While 32GB is plenty, my previous two builds had 64GB memory. I usually run multiple VMs. And, sometimes I set up ramdisks on Linux, which are insanely fast. 64GB comes in handy for those needs.

Still, I ordered H370N Mobo from Microcenter, where it was only $140. I also ordered 1TB NVMe disk for $100. Now, the running total is $380.

To complete the electronics, I need 32GB. DDR4 3200 costs $100, which is good enough for the machine. There is not much difference between brands. Any brand will do, as long as the company is decent. I ordered it from Newegg. Now, the total is at $480.

Finally, to house all these, we need a case. To run the machine, we need a power supply (PSU). Since our machine does not use much power, even 200W also will work for us. I was not going to spring lot of money to run a $480 box!

Newegg sells Rosewill brand boxes with PSU for $40. It is an incredibly cheap price for the case. It is not as small as it could be -- it supports slightly larger micro ATX as well. Still, for a novice builder like me, the vast inner space of the case is an advantage. I do not have to organize the case very carefully. 

So, the entire PC came to $520. 

Now the part I really care about: the monitor. 4K monitors are falling in price. For a non-gamer like me, any 4k monitor will do -- as long as I can rotate it. Fortunately, I found a good deal on Newegg for the holidays for $275, I could get a 4k monitor that can be vertically tilted: LG 27BL65U-W. 

Building the PC is not a big challenge: I put in the CPU and the CPU fan in the Mobo. I added the memory and the NVMe card. I put the Mobo in the case and fixed it. I put in the power cables and it worked in the first attempt!

For those of you who would like to do a similar build, here are the parts with prices:

1. I5-9400: (Not 9400F, which does not have graphics): $140
2. Gigabyte H370N Wifi motherboard: Be aware that if you get older bios, you need to update it to support 9th gen intel. It is $140.
3. 32GB memory: DD4 3000. It is less than $100.
4. 1TB NVMe SSD: Inland is an inhouse brand for Microcenter. I was keep the costs low. $100
5. The Rosewill Box: This box is for $40
6. The LG monitor: If you are lucky you will find it under $300. I found it for $279.  

I will describe how I prepped my machine in the future installments. Happy building!

Rama Kanneganti