Non gaming CPU

[Darkpagey]

Hi guys,

Building a PC for a friend who only requires it for basic office work and internet browsing. No games will be played on this PC.

I've been looking at 2 CPUs in particular,

- Intel Pentium G3258 (£49): I get that this thing can be overclocked to be a bit of a beast for its price, but I don't think that overclocking is something I want to do for this particular person.
- Intel i3 4160 (£85): Solid 2 core performance but I'm worried a) it's considerably more expensive, and b) this CPU might be a bit overkill for their requirements?

Both have onboard graphics - ideal for keeping costs down and probably more than good enough for their intended use.



At the moment I have this build (no HDD required - will reuse recently bought 1Tb drive):

PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/thvmhM

CPU: Intel Core i3-4160 3.6GHz Dual-Core Processor (£86.32 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-E34 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£35.12 @ CCL Computers) (not sure about this.....)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£39.95)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£49.24 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1100 MicroATX Mini Tower Case (£28.43 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 430W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£40.60 @ Amazon UK)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer (£10.06 @ CCL Computers)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 OEM (64-bit) (£67.95 @ Ebuyer)
Total: £357.67





Please could you offer any thoughts? I'm trying to get the balance between price, performance, and longevity. Budget could go to £400 or maybe a bit more if you can justify the price.

 

[CTurbo]

Honestly, a ssd would make more of an impact on the overall speed of that type of system than any cpu would. Having said that, I think I would still at least get an i3 or an AMD A8 or A10. It's also ALMOST not worth building a PC like this as you could probably head down to a local retailer and grab something prebuilt and boxed for around the same price or cheaper. (except none of those would come with a ssd)

The build you have above would be perfectly fine and even GOOD for the intended usage.

 

[hamzahfelix]

The pentium g3258 will handle tasks just fine, even without overclocked. The extra on the i3 will be nice if the person plan to run multiple applications at the same time, but not really necessary in my opinion. Just go for the pentium.

 

[CTurbo]

Here is a slightly cheaper alternative that has a better motherboard and a more reliable psu. That is a quad core AMD cpu with very strong integrated graphics. £6 more could get you a more powerful A10-5800k

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD A8-7600 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor (£64.42 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A88XM-D3H Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard (£47.94 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£39.95)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£49.24 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1100 MicroATX Mini Tower Case (£28.43 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: Antec EarthWatts Green 380W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£38.68 @ More Computers)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer (£10.06 @ CCL Computers)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 OEM (64-bit) (£67.95 @ Ebuyer)
Total: £346.67
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-06-18 19:12 BST+0100

 

[AdviserKulikov]

The Pentium is fine for most people. If you aren't playing games it's a good choice.

If your friend needs a little beefier GPU, then he should go with AMD for the price point.

The 5800K is a decent CPU, and has a much more capable GPU.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD A10-5800K 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor (£70.91 @ More Computers)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A78M-HD2 Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard (£34.94 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £105.85
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-06-18 19:14 BST+0100

 

[LetsPlayThisBro]

The Pentium G3258 is an overclocking beast though, it's the main selling point vs the i3 along with price but that mobo isn't going to allow overclocking anyway so it's a moot point. Just went over to CPU Boss for a head to head comparison, it says the G3258 wins but not by a huge margin.. value on it is huge though.

 

[CTurbo]

I agree the i3 is not exactly necessary, but if this person plans to use this PC a lot they may be glad they opted for the i3(if budget allows, why not)

If you don't want to bother with the i3, the Pentium is WAY overpriced compared to the Celeron g1840 which is £20 cheaper.


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Celeron G1840 2.8GHz Dual-Core Processor (£28.93 @ CCL Computers)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B85M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£48.74 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£39.95)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£49.24 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1100 MicroATX Mini Tower Case (£28.43 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: Antec EarthWatts Green 380W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£38.68 @ More Computers)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer (£10.06 @ CCL Computers)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 OEM (64-bit) (£67.95 @ Ebuyer)
Total: £311.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-06-18 19:16 BST+0100

 

[CTurbo]

The thought of overclocking in an office build like this is absolutely silly. Avoid the Pentium. Get the Celeron, i3, or A8/A10.

 

[teknobug]

A G3258 will be fine for the most part but if it's work related stuff such as MS Office or running multiple programs at once, then the i3 is better off.

 

[LetsPlayThisBro]

But even not overclocking the performance between the i3 and Pentium is about the same in the benchmarks I've seen. With a very very slight advantage to the i3, but is a very slight gain worth an extra X dollars, that's the real question, if it were me I'd get get the Pentium and save a few bucks that can be put into other parts.

EDIT: having said this, let me be clear, that's if the i3 vs Pentium were the only options as the OP suggested. Others have posted builds which would perform better at the same price point but are AMD based. If I were to be building a basic PC for non-gaming the only consideration between the AMD and Intel would be heat issues, where will the case be located? Under a desk where the air around it isn't circulated well? Then I might still lean to the Pentium if only because it handles higher operating temps better than even the i3.

But dollars to donuts I'd do an AMD build as suggested above if that were an option.

 

[Darkpagey]

Wow thanks for all the replies guys

You pretty much all echo my thoughts on things which is good to hear. Figured that overclocking for an office PC is pretty pointless + i'd need a much more expensive board to do so. Good point about the SSD making the most noticeable difference. I had included one in the build but was considering scrapping it in order to save costs. Probably worth the £50 to include it if i'm honest.

So I think it's down to the i3 if he's willing to splash the cash, or A8/A10. If anyone wants to suggest any CPU/mobo combos that would be good. I'm in 2 minds about buying a chipset which would allow CPU upgrades in the future - I figure that by the time this would be required they may as well be considering getting a new PC altogether.

 

[Darkpagey]

having said this, let me be clear, that's if the i3 vs Pentium were the only options as the OP suggested. Others have posted builds which would perform better at the same price point but are AMD based. If I were to be building a basic PC for non-gaming the only consideration between the AMD and Intel would be heat issues, where will the case be located? Under a desk where the air around it isn't circulated well? Then I might still lean to the Pentium if only because it handles higher operating temps better than even the i3.

But dollars to donuts I'd do an AMD build as suggested above if that were an option.

Hey, thanks. The two processors i've put in the op are only suggestions. I'm more than open to other ideas if they are more suitable to his requirements.

With regards to heat, this is a pretty big issue. Will be running most of the day as they run a B&B so need access to their software (not intensive at all) and internet. Ideally it would be located under the desk and quite possibly in a little "cubby-hole" where the only airflow would be straight through the front and out the back. This location could change if it would be a big issue though.

 

[teknobug]

I have an A8 7600, I'm not entirely satisfied with it although it's rather nice on the juice (electricity) compared to most other AMD chips.

 

[CTurbo]

I honestly think I would get the A8 7600(or A10-5800k) over the i3 if you/he are on a very tight budget. The i3 is more expensive and the performance difference between the i3 and the quad core AMDs are at least similar in "everyday uses". And the Celeron is not a bad choice if even the A8 build is too much.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4160 3.6GHz Dual-Core Processor (£86.32 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B85M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£48.74 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£39.95)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£49.24 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1100 MicroATX Mini Tower Case (£28.43 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: Antec EarthWatts Green 380W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£38.68 @ More Computers)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer (£10.06 @ CCL Computers)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 OEM (64-bit) (£67.95 @ Ebuyer)
Total: £369.37

vs

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD A10-5800K 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor (£70.91 @ More Computers)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A88XM-D3H Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard (£47.94 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£39.95)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£49.24 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1100 MicroATX Mini Tower Case (£28.43 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: Antec EarthWatts Green 380W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£38.68 @ More Computers)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer (£10.06 @ CCL Computers)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 OEM (64-bit) (£67.95 @ Ebuyer)
Total: £353.16

vs

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD A8-7600 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor (£64.42 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A88XM-D3H Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard (£47.94 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£39.95)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£49.24 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1100 MicroATX Mini Tower Case (£28.43 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: Antec EarthWatts Green 380W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£38.68 @ More Computers)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer (£10.06 @ CCL Computers)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 OEM (64-bit) (£67.95 @ Ebuyer)
Total: £346.67

vs

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Celeron G1840 2.8GHz Dual-Core Processor (£28.93 @ CCL Computers)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B85M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£48.74 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£39.95)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£49.24 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1100 MicroATX Mini Tower Case (£28.43 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: Antec EarthWatts Green 380W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£38.68 @ More Computers)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer (£10.06 @ CCL Computers)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 OEM (64-bit) (£67.95 @ Ebuyer)
Total: £311.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-06-18 19:16 BST+0100

 

[Darkpagey]

Ok great, thanks for all your help and time.