I always just drifted to Bestbuy when I needed pc parts. Its local and I can see what I am buying. I also always end up spending an arm and a legs for parts. Motherboards and cpus usually run up a $200-$300 bill. Now I need to build a pc and I can't afford that. So I went on Amazon and I see I can get a MB/CPU combo for about $100. Admittedly, many of them are 2, 3 or 4 years on the market. Some of them don't even require a fan. I thought all cpus needed a fan. Now I am wondering if I have been a fool to shop at Bestbuy for "new this year" parts. Apparently they only sell top of the line stuff. I didn't realize that I was paying for stuff that was way overkill for what I needed. At least thats what I came here to find out. So, for a desktop pc used for browsing, music, movies, etc (NO GAMING) what is actually needed? Are the MB/CPUs on this page adequate for my needs? https://www.amazon.com/s?k=cpu+mothe...f=sr_nr_p_36_3 What specs do I need to know about?

A Raspberry Pi 4B or 400 will do all of that with relative ease, but so can most laptops/desktops built in the last 20 years!

Anything with a processor around 2GHz, with 4GB ram, will be more than enough.

I have, & still use, an old (2006) Toshiba Satellite - 1GB ram - 80GB HDD - 1.3GHz Celeron processor - with 2GB swap - it handles the internet using Firefox for my daily needs.

(My main desktop is a fanless & therefore silent 4" square box with a dual core 1.2/2GHz Celeron, 4GB ram, & a 240GB m2 SSD.)


https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/

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Laptops are garbage and Rasberries are good in pies.
Get a $100 Dell recycle off ebay
https://www.ebay.com/b/Dell-Optiplex...=&toolid=10001

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Of what you list, movies and maybe browsing will be the main concerns - especially if you want to watch 4K resolution. Really 4K is the issue. Pretty much anything will do fine for 1920x1080 but there are honestly limits to that if we're talking cheap used stuff off eBay (especially older equipment).

In my experience, Netflix/YouTube was the biggest concern. Really old GPUs don't cut it, even for 1920x1080, and certain sluggish CPUs won't cut it either (Atom, many Celerons).

Just skimming that Amazon search, everything there is easily fine. I'm just speaking from my personal experience, since I tend to buy much older used stuff - like dirt cheap Dells and laptops off eBay. You can get a LOT more bang for your buck with a corporate fleet castoff than buying components, BUT you have to do research to make sure what you're getting is truly adequate for your needs.

For example, I have a used Core2Duo Dell which actually is able to play 1080p Netflix, but not with its built in on board video. I had to put in a video card fast enough to handle it, which I determined via trial and error (I have a bunch of different video cards from over the years).

In fact, even for gaming an old cheap Core2Quad is pretty good - when paired with a decent video card.

The bottom line is that for watching movies you need to consider the video chip/card, not just the CPU. I mean, if you're buying something new or newish it'll be fine, I think. But if you're looking to get the best bang for your buck, there really are a ton of corporate fleet castoffs on eBay which can go a lot further on a budget than all separate components. But you'll probably still want to consider a video card.

Oh - one "hidden" bonus with buying a corporate fleet castoff - usually it'll have more than two RAM slots. Something with four or even six RAM slots can go a long way toward future-proofing. It's just so much less expensive to increase or max out RAM with more than 2 slots.

All that said, I tend to prefer getting laptops off eBay since the shipping is much less. In that case, careful consideration of the video chip is paramount since it's not really practical to upgrade the video (there are actually options, but overall it makes more sense to just cough up the extra shipping for a desktop).

But yes, Bestbuy has always been priced higher than mail order. This isn't really a knock on Bestbuy - brick and mortar retail does cost more, and there's a certain value to having in person support.

Well, I can only tell you what I've got:

AMD A6-9500 with integrated Radeon5 graphics (similar benchmark to an Intel i3)
Cheapest available Gigabyte motherboard
4 GB RAM
19 inch display

Is that enough? Well I don't stream films, but full-screen videos on Youtube work — I've just checked on the trailer for a Sony Pictures Animation.

"So, for a desktop pc used for browsing, music, movies, etc (NO GAMING) what is actually needed?"

The movie deal may need more power. If you need hdmi then you will have to stick with newer stuff. I'd think that for $150 you could buy a refurbished one online tigerdirect newegg sorts or maybe Fry's sort of place. Every town has Goodwill usually. Maybe they have something.

I'd think that any Core i3 or above should be OK for any common stuff. Again if you need transcoding and high frame rates then more info needed.

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SparkyLinux Kernel: 5.10.0-6-amd64

As of: mié 19 may 16:44:02 CST 2021

System load: 0.44 Processes: 251
Memory usage: 1/5 GB Uptime: 4:54 hours
Disk usage: 84% Swap: 0.0%

doug@doug-sparks:~$ inxi -b
System:
Host: doug-sparks Kernel: 5.10.0-6-amd64 x86_64 bits: 64
Desktop: Xfce 4.16.0 Distro: SparkyLinux 6 (Po-Tolo)
Machine:
Type: Desktop Mobo: ASUSTeK model: PRIME A320M-K v: Rev X.0x
serial: <superuser required> UEFI: American Megatrends v: 5408
date: 12/27/2019
CPU:
Info: Quad Core AMD Ryzen 3 3200G with Radeon Vega Graphics [MCP]
speed: 1258 MHz min/max: 1400/3600 MHz
Graphics:
Device-1: AMD Picasso driver: amdgpu v: kernel
Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.11 driver: loaded: amdgpu,ati
unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa resolution: 1366x768~60Hz
OpenGL: renderer: AMD Radeon Vega 8 Graphics (RAVEN DRM 3.40.0
5.10.0-6-amd64 LLVM 11.0.1)
v: 4.6 Mesa 20.3.4
Network:
Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
driver: r8169
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 447.15 GiB used: 86.87 GiB (19.4%)
Info:
Processes: 247 Uptime: 4h 54m Memory: 5.79 GiB used: 2.41 GiB (41.6%)
Shell: Bash inxi: 3.3.01

Rewriting as my post was long winded with unnecessary information.

I built a computer to play World of Warcraft on from Ebay parts + 1 or 2 new parts. The system is 3rd gen intel based. Just shy of max settings without breaking a real sweat. My living room htpc is a 3rd gen intel Dell Optiplex. Runs Minecraft quite well for my wife. Also used as a regular browser and media via Kodi.

You don't need to spend much for a good experience. I think the idea of new hardware being better is a past concept. Yes, it is statistically better. But as time goes on the improvements in performance aren't as huge as they used to be. You can do just fine with older or used hardware for your needs. In my case even modest gaming works great on older hardware that most wouldn't even look at these days.

*EDIT* Just for reference. I put together a machine on Newegg for recommended Wow settings (as that is my normal usage). Tried to be reasonable and not pick the most expensive of whatever. GPU's these days are crazy. That being said with basic & midrange parts my total on the cart is $1772.80 US. This does not include a Windows 10 license. Contrast with the total $350 US or so I've spent on my Wow machine and it's not even in the same area. That included the Windows license. Didn't bother doing one of the minimum requirements but I have no doubt it's at least double what I've spent on my machine.

I found a Lenovo business machine, M78 made in 2012 for $65 on Ebay a few months ago refurbished. Has 3.4 Ghz dual core processor and came with 4 GB RAM and an unused 500GB HDD Windows 10. Put Linux Mint on it and also spent like $30 on an 8 GB RAM stick to bump it up to 12. It's upgradable to 32 GB and has 4 memory slots.

It's small form factor, so there's only space for two drives (the HDD and DVD drive), but it does have USB 3.0 so adding an external drive would be fast enough. I'm not sure if it can boot from an NVMe drive. I doubt it, as it requires a PCI slot adapter to install one and the machine puts out enough heat to begin with, so I decided to leave well enough alone.

If you really want to go cheap you could aliexpress.com an older used pull AM4 cpu direct from china (2 to 4 week delivery).

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3301...archweb201603_ This has video onboard.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000...archweb201603_ This needs a video card, but is faster cpu.
Get a budget am4 motherboard , memory & cooler from microcenter (if there is one near you) or else newegg.