CPU for office pc

[Jennice]

Hi all, I am considering a PC build for my dad.

He'll be doing office work / web, and movie watching via TV.
Occasional movie transcode, but it's rare.

In terms of boot time, office apps etc, would I be better off with an i3 (higher clock), or i5 (lower clock, but more cores and turbo boost).
The iGPU will be fine for him, so it'll be a "clean" build: PSU, motherboard, CPU/Cooler, m.2 SSD.
And... yes. I prefer Intel CPU.

Thanks -
Jennice

 

[7664stefan]

Would even suggest a Ryzen 2200G which for me is at the moment the best option for Windows machines with no need for dedicated graphics power.

 

[Yogi2367]

FWIW ...
My latest build for an office unit was a Ryzen 7 2700X with stock Wraith Prism cooler, Asus Rog Strix X470-I, G.SKILL TridentZ RGB Series 32GB DDR4 3200, Seasonic FOCUS SSR-850FX, an ASUS GTX 1070 8GB graphics card, a 512 GB Samsung 970 Pro M.2, and a 1 TB Samsung 850 EVO, all stuffed in a BitFenix Prodigy case, running Windows 10 Pro, and OC'd 20%. Cute little thing really.
Now, some will no doubt say this is overkill for an office environment. In some respects that is probably correct, if all you are doing is a simple Excel spreadsheets, Word Docs, and tiny little Access databases. However, if you are running SQL, DB2, sordid other "server-grade" databases and their complimentary reporting softwares like Crystal, complicated, colorful, and massive Excel spreadsheets, intensive PowerPoint projects, then this thing rocks. Frankly, it smokes any of the new 8th Gen intels in the office.
Others will say that this is a lot of money. They're right. It is a lot of money. For me, the ROI works out, and in business the ROI is all that really matters.
The icing on the cake ... It runs Wildlands on Ultra at 75+ FPS on an LG 24GM79G.
People have to have some fun on their lunch break, right ??? ... LOL

 

[Tinstaafl]

For my "office" rig, I am still running a relatively "ancient" i3-3xxx series @3.4GHz, with the Intel HD 2500 integrated graphics. It powers two displays at HD resolution, and can handle anything 2-D that I throw at it with ease, including Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom.

The best upgrades I did over the past few years was to add RAM and a SSD. I would say minimum of 8GB RAM, and a 250GB SATA SSD should do it.

The only area where my office build gets dinged on benchmarks is 3-D performance, but since I do not play games on it, that is of no consequence. That is what the PC in the living room is for!

I would say go for the CPU you can afford with the highest clock, rather than core count. My i3 is dual core, 4 thread, so I would think a full 4-core i3 should be plenty for the intended use.

 

[smorizio]

on your build make sure you pick up a good power supply and not a cheap one. with a good unit it last a long time and not kill parts if it dies when in use. also ask your dad if he like a two monitor set up. I did that for my brother he keeps office open on one monitor and emails on the other durning the day as he working. another thing to ask him is where he like the pc on the desk. next to it or mounted on the side.