$400 office build

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jcosm075

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Approximate Purchase Date: ASAP

Budget Range: 400 approximately willing to pay more within reason

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Office work. Word, excel, flash games

Parts Not Required: keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: newegg canada (always had really good service with them), but i can translate everything over for newegg.com, open to other sources...

Country: Canada

Parts Preferences: Best experiences with AMD but open to others

Overclocking: No

SLI or Crossfire: No

Monitor Resolution: Office work.. don't really care

Additional Comments: I'm just looking for a reliable computer the I can have at work. Looking through old posts I can't find new parts still for sale. Need to somewhat impress the office that it's not a piece of ***. they were just going to buy some garbage off the internet pre built... This will be my 3rd build. Don't know much about which parts to order, but know what to do when i get them :) Any help would be appreciated.
 
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CaedenV
Sorry, all these are in American $, but it should get you a general idea what to look for to fit in the price range

Mobo, $60 Intel 1155 pin, H61 chip-set http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157241

Proc, $88-135 Intel Pentium or i3, make sure it has HD2000 or HD3000 graphics
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116397
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115090

Ram, $21 Whatever deal you can find on cheap 4GB of DDR3 @ 1333. Do 8GB if you feel like splurging, but 4GB is likely overkill for office applications. Dont bother with heat spreaders, they are quite unnecessary unless OCing, mail-in rebates change every week, and brands don't really matter for this kind of use...
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jcosm075

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Hi,

thanks for responding, it is a lawyers office. It will be mostly for e-mails and typing documents. The recpetionist likes to play flash games during her break (this is for her). Nothing fancy though.
 
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g-unit1111

g-unit1111

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It's gonna be difficult to get it under $400 with HD prices the way they are right now, if you can do $500 that might give you a little bit more lenience.

Do you need an operating system? I'm guessing not but in any event try this:

Case: Cooler Master Elite 430 - $49.99
PSU: Corsair Builder Series CX500 - $59.99
Motherboard: ASRock 970 EXTREME3 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard - $79.99
CPU: 3.0GHz AMD Phenom II X4 960 Zosma - $124.99
RAM: 8GB Kingston Hyper X Blu (2 x 4GB) 1600MHz 1.6V - $44.99
HD: 160GB Western Digital Caviar Blue 7200RPM - $79.99
Optical: Lite On 24X DVD Burner - $19.99
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 6670 - $79.99

Total: $547.89
 
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blazorthon

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I'm not sure jcosm075 needs a quad core for that kind of work. I do excel spread sheets and flash games on my machine and it runs without any lag with an old AMD dual core Turion 64 mobile CPU at 2.0GHz.

I also don't see any graphics card or integrated graphics in your suggestion. AMD 970 motherboards don't have integrated graphics.
 
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g-unit1111

g-unit1111

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I fixed that. :lol:

But the thing is a quad core AMD runs just as much as a dual core i3-2120 would, and it's better for multi-tasking. And I certainly wouldn't recommend using a G620 for an office build (keeping it in the ~$400 range).

RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813157233
$53.98 - (Get two of these)
Click to expand...

Do you really need 16GB of RAM for MS Office? :heink:
 
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blazorthon

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I don't think 16GB is necessary either lol. The only change I would make to your recommendation right now would be changing the RAM to this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148421

It's similar but I trust Crucial much more than Kingston and would prefer to have the RAM at 1.5v.
 
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ilikemacandpc

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A pentium G620 is WAY MORE THAN ENOUGH for an office computer. My Core 2 duo T6400 st 2.0 Ghz does all of what you say without lag. the pentium g620 is able to keep up with an i3 530 in gaming. Also, don;t look at LGA 1155 processors' clock speeds. Look at reviews. they perform way better than how they may seem.

Here is an epic $500 dollar build

Rosewill Blackbone Black Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

$49.99 -$10.00 Instant $39.99

BIOSTAR H61MU3 LGA 1155 Intel H61 HDMI USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

$79.99 -$15.00 Instant $64.99

HIS H675FS1G Radeon HD 6750 1GB 128-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card

$89.99 $89.99

CORSAIR Builder Series CX430 V2 (CMPSU-430CXV2) 430W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply

$49.99 -$10.00 Instant $39.99

Mushkin Enhanced MKNSSDBRKT2535 3.5" to 2.5" drive adapter bracket

$5.99 $5.99

Intel Pentium G620 Sandy Bridge 2.6GHz LGA 1155 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 2000 BX80623G620

$69.99 $69.99

Corsair Nova Series 2 CSSD-V60GB2 2.5" 60GB SATA II Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

$104.99 -$35.00 Instant $69.99

Pareema 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Desktop Memory Model MD313C80809L2
Model #:MD313C80809L2

$18.99 $18.99

HITACHI HDS721050CLA362 (0F10381) 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

$79.99 $79.99

LITE-ON 24X DVD Writer Black SATA Model iHAS-324-98B

$19.89 $19.89
Subtotal: $499.80

These parts are ALL from Newegg. You could forgo the SSD and the dedicated GPU to bring this computer well under $400.
Though, I recommend keeping both. Then, you won't have to worry about integrated graphics slowing you down a few years down the road or general slowness.
The SSD is essential for responsiveness, and will make other i7 computers feel slow that do not have SSD's.
Otherwise, find some local store that will build it for you.
You're not gonna find upgradeable computers prebuilt.
I chose a usb 3.0 motherboard for futureproofing.
If hard drive prices were lower, I would buy a Pentium G840.
But, this is a relatively good computer and you should have good experiences with it.
 
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blazorthon

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jcosm075

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alright, now i have a lot to chose from. I actually think i like macandpc's choice of putting in an SSD. Yet it's still under 500. I think a motherboard with a build in graphic's card is the way i'm going to go. Saves so much money. Thank everyone for their suggestions and if anyone would like to amend their's to include an SSD and have a mobo that has a built in graphic's card please let me know :)
 
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blazorthon

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The video card is way overboard for an office machine running excel and word and simple flash games.I also disagree with putting only 4GB of RAM in because 8GB is much more future proofed and is just so cheap now anyway.

Increase the RAM to 8GB and switch the video card for (at most) a Radeon 6670.
 
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CaedenV

CaedenV

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Sorry, all these are in American $, but it should get you a general idea what to look for to fit in the price range

Mobo, $60 Intel 1155 pin, H61 chip-set http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157241

Proc, $88-135 Intel Pentium or i3, make sure it has HD2000 or HD3000 graphics
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116397
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115090

Ram, $21 Whatever deal you can find on cheap 4GB of DDR3 @ 1333. Do 8GB if you feel like splurging, but 4GB is likely overkill for office applications. Dont bother with heat spreaders, they are quite unnecessary unless OCing, mail-in rebates change every week, and brands don't really matter for this kind of use: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231394

SSD, $80 after rebate. splurge on an SSD, they are expensive, but so is time waiting for things to open and close. I could personally guarantee that it will pay it'self off in an office environment in productivity due to less waiting for loading programs/files: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227725

DVD/CD drive, $18, spend an extra $2-3 for a burner, but as flash drives are simpler to use I wouldnt bother with a burner: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106276

Case, $40 micro ATX case, preferably without a power supply. I would buy one at a local store if possible as shipping and cases do not go well. The only thing making any heat at all will be your power supply, so you only need 1 case fan to cool everything else, preferably of the 120mm varieity, but with this small of a case that may be hard to come by. Something like this would do good: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811133066

Power Supply, $40, again something with a 120mm fan for quiet airflow. A 200W power supply may do the trick, but here is a decent quality 300W: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151086

Brings the total build to $350 US with a pentium duel core with HD2000 graphics (not bad), or $395 US for an i3 duel core with hyper-threading and HD3000 graphics (verging on overkill for an office). You will then need $100 for Windows 7 home, or $130 for Windows 7 Pro (pro if it needs to be on a domain, otherwise stick with home).

You could probably find a better/slimmer case if you look around, with a decent power supply built in for less money, but I quite frankly did not look that hard. A single 80 or 120mm fan plus the PSU fan will be all the cooling power you need as this will produce no real heat to speak of. It would be preferable to have the case fan in the front blowing in so that you accumulate less dust.

You will note that the SSD is a little small. My wife's office/home PC has the Solid 3 60GB (one small step below the Agility line) and with Win7 home 64bit, Office, Sibalious, a few web browsers and other small programs she is using a total of 45GB, so it should be plenty of space for what you are describing. We then have a 500GB drive for file storage, but that drive will be removed as soon as we get our home server up and running. As an office PC I would highly suggest putting all data files on a network drive that is kept locked in a secure location which gets backed up occasionally off-site. Do not keep the files local if this is for business use.

Lastly, I would HIGHLY suggest a pre-built system if this is in a professional work environment. While this would be a rocking office system (heck my wife's core2duo is a great office system, and this would run circles around it), you would be far better off with a similarly specked Dell that has an extended warranty. Sure, Dell's home use computers suck and have woeful customer service, but it is a different story with their business machines. On top of that you will have a more compact/quieter machine for a similar amount of money.
 
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sadams04

sadams04

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An SSD for office purpose adds to the "cool factor" but is overkill. All you will do is boot the OS a little faster (while they are away getting coffee), and load Excel / Word one second faster (when loading for the first time of that boot sequence). Save your money or put it toward a traditional spindle hard drive.
 
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CaedenV

CaedenV

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My wife's build has 4GB of ram, and I highly doubt she has EVER used more than 2GB of it, even when doing multitasking, or composing on Sibelius. Heck, I have 16GB of ram in my system and the only time I go north of 3GB is when doing a media project, but then we are talking 12+GB of usage. High end video games don't even use 4GB of system ram! Besides, once you have an SSD slapped in there then virtual memory is no longer an issue as it is so damn fast. Granted ram is cheap right now and it would not hurt to put in 8GB... it's just such a waste.

The only place you need power in an office machine is in drive and internet speed. Internet speed is determined by the ISP and the network, so the only thing that really matters is the HDD/SSD

The G series Pentium or a Phenom2 x2 is more than enough power for office use. The only reason to go with an i3 would be to get the HD3000 integrated graphics which is quite a bit better than the HD2000, but either would be more than fine for an office build.
 
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CaedenV

CaedenV

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An SSD took the loading time of Outlook from over 30sec down to 2 seconds on my wife's computer. It may not be a huge program, but once you fill it with a few thousand e-mails it starts taking a little while to open, plus the HDD is the only true noise making element in the computer so removing it will make it super quiet. It is overkill, but it is about the only performance optimizing thing you can do for an office machine, and THE only reason to build a budget system yourself compared to buying a Dell or HP as they will rape you for the privilege of having an SSD.
 
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CaedenV

CaedenV

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I agree, there are no problems with Llano, and it would probably be a little cheaper to run than the Intel chips/boards. The only reason I did not suggest one is because I am not familiar enough with AMD chips to make a good selection or have any idea on performance expectations. But I have never heard anything bad about Llano other than a few morons who thought they could game with on-board graphics.
 
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blazorthon

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A lot of the LIano motherboards have problems. A few are just annoying like poor SATA port placement but every board I looked at had some buyers reporting stuff like the VGA port doesn't work or the Ethernet port doesn't work and similar things.

Chances are for not having a problem board but I haven't seen one LIano motherboard on Newegg.com that didn't have one to three or so complaining reviews about faulty parts on the board.

For anything but an office/business PC I would recommend LIano to anyone willing to give it a try (I would but I need more CPU horsepower than LIano offers) but I would be more cautious with an office computer.
 
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sadams04

sadams04

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The "no VGA port output" issue is with overclocking and pushing the limits of the FSB which has in impact to the GPU. Using an HD output (HDMI / DVI) has not seen any problems of that sort (and are typically the fix for overclockers). Never heard of the NIC problem. I don't know of any reason why Llano shouldn't be considered for an office PC...
 
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jcosm075

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so are you saying it's not worth it to build one unless it has an SSD? I also just found out about the prices of Microsoft office professional. Holy ***. it's going to cost almost the same amount of money as it would buying a comp from HP with office and windows installed already.
 
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CaedenV

CaedenV

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Exactly, when you figure in the software costs it really doesn't make sense to build your own budget machine unless there is something 'special' about it that is not standard. Dell and HP are very good at what they do; bottom barrel PC's, which is exactly what an office PC is. this way you get a much better warranty, and the slim cases are pretty slick too.

Only thing to note about buying a pre-build machine is that you want to pay the $3 or whatever to get restore CDs with the system, otherwise they cost some $20-40 if you get them later when you need them. Tape them to the inside of the case they belong to, and pray to God Almighty that you never need to use them.
 
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