The most useful side of the current Pandemic is, I had a lot of time to work on something I always wanted to do. From my high school time, I have watched a lot of video tutorials where YouTubers make high-end Gaming PCs and Workstations. So I am considering this as my pet project. By the way, this is my first time building a PC (actually a Mini-PC). Before this, I have always used an OEM laptop (HP and DELL), and this project was all about how I can make the most epic PC for less money while reusing existing components from previous and old laptops. In this project, I used RAM, HDD from my other laptop, and used Google Home-Mini as a Bluetooth speaker:wink:
Note: The Bluetooth connection for the Google Home devices are for input only. You cannot use it for conference calls
You may think, why now? Why AMD? There are many reasons, few of them are
- Working from home: more tabs + more programs, I needed a better processor than my 2 Core i7-6600U from Q3'15.
- Needed something with Graphics to edit videos
- But the major component of motivation was Henry Cavill💪. I am a huge fan of him, and after watching his PC building video, I then and there decided even I want to build a PC NOW!! ....and the search for the parts began
I needed a CPU, a CPU Cooler, a Motherboard which can use a SODIMM memory, NVme SSD (not the SATA SSD), Graphic Card, and a case. I already had two Monitors (Thanks to my friend for giving me his monitor), 1x8GB RAM, 1x500GB HDD, speakers, and 14TB Seagate External hard drive. So I started looking for a case and to my surprise, there are a lot! From NZXT, Corsair, Cooler Master. So to make it simple, I started looking forMini-PC builds👀
Info: You can use PPpartpicker for customer builds, they provide part selection, compatibility, and pricing guidance for do-it-yourself computer builders
There are a handful of Mini-PC options, but I was mainly looking for a Barebones system (no CPU, SSD, RAM), also known as a Small form-factor (SFF). Top names are Intel NUC, Lenovo ThinkCentre, HP Mini Workstations, but as I said earlier, I ditched Intel and wanted a cheap yet powerful system. But where could I find it? 🤔
Drum roll🥁
Once I made my mind for AMD, I shortlisted listed two of the manufacturers which I liked.
I found about them from my Google Feeds (thanks Google lady:+1:). I watched a few videos, researched for hours on the company's background, and whether I should buy it or not. I found out that they are a promising company, and their product is solid. I joined their FB group asked a few questions which I had, they are kind, supportive, and fast in replying to people’s queries.
But the only thing that made me not choose Minisforum was- TIME✨, so the thing is that they have launched a funding campaign on Indiegogo and it will take them 2-3 months (October ending) to ship the final product to the users worldwide. And I wanted my PC in a few weeks, I did not had that much patience so I moved forward with ASRock, also they don't have an option for barebones
AMD's APUs blend CPU with Radeon Vega graphics on a single ready-to-game chip. Fortunately, ASRock DeskMini supports Ryzen 3000 series right out of the box. And I had two options for APUs:
- The Ryzen 3 3200G- 3.6/4.0 GHz, (4C/4T), Vega 8 Graphics, Unlocked, $100
- The Ryzen 5 3400G- 3.7/4.2 GHz, (4C/8T), Vega 11 Graphics, Unlocked, $150
AMD APUs come with cooler, I wanted Wraith Spire but the issue was its big size could not fit inside DeskMini case. So I saved 50 bucks and went for 3200G AMD Wraith Stealth 😎
You can read an in-depth review of it from Anandtech and specs can be found here.
I finally found what I ever wanted, a barebone system where I can use my exiting SODIMM DDR4 RAM and I have few HDD lying around which I can use them on the board as a RAID setup.
| Component | Price | Link |
|---|---|---|
| AMD Ryzen 3 3200G | $99.99 | here |
| Thermal Pad | $12.95 | here |
| Crucial 16GB DDR4 2400 SODIMM | $64.40 | here |
| ASRock DESKMINI A300W | $153.99 | here |
| Crucial P1 500GB NVMe | $56.99 | here |
| Stuff from previous laptop | Price | Link |
|---|---|---|
| Crucial 8GB Single DDR4 2400 | $31.99 | here |
| Seagate 2.5 HDD |
The Graphite Thermal Pad helps me with keeping the temperature down by 10 degrees. This is my current APU's performance, where I'm editing this article on Chrome, listening to music, working on a word doc, adobe acrobat and xlsx. All these multitasking with just 7-10% load with 45-50°C temps.
Thanks to Haroon S Malik for providing me with cable
Shout out to fellow Youtubers for reviewing DeskMini and replying to my questions, they certainly helped me with my purchase decision.
Dr. Lisa Su CEO of AMD. She has transformed the company within the last 5 years where the sky is not the limit.