Need some help with office PC spec

Soldato
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It’s been years since I put a machine together and need to sort one for a family member. I have £600ish (could probably go to £700 at a push).

I need a machine with everything for a home office setup. Mainly office programs with small amounts of minor video work (this isn’t video editing as such but would include minor cuts of occasional YouTube’s in presentations etc)

I’m thinking an Matx setup, aesthetically pleasing case, 24-27” monitor, 250gb smallest drive (nvme?). Was going to go down an AMD route with 8gb min of RAM and would need a wifi connection.

id really appreciate some assistance as I’m struggling with options.

cheers.
 
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Why wouldn’t I?

You tell me it's why I asked. If it's been years since you put one together. It's just like a jigsaw puzzle.

If it's an office machine are you wanting everything brand new?

You might be able to save money and increasing spec by buying parts from the MM if you really sure you want to build it. There's few bundles pop up now n again.
 
Soldato
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You tell me it's why I asked. If it's been years since you put one together. It's just like a jigsaw puzzle.

If it's an office machine are you wanting everything brand new?

You might be able to save money and increasing spec by buying parts from the MM if you really sure you want to build it. There's few bundles pop up now n again.

yes would prefer new. Working with them and putting them together isn’t the issue, knowledge of current hardware offerings is my problem.
 
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What I'd recommend:

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £608.93 (includes shipping: £18.12)



What is in stock:
My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £618.45 (includes shipping: £19.62)


Also didn't add any peripherals, not sure what's needed (KB, mouse, headset, webcam, etc...). The case is just a place holder, £50 is normally way over what most people spend on an office-based PC. You can gain £30 by dropping to a 250GB NVME drive and another £20 dropping to 8GB DDR4, but I kept them there as 250GB is a bit small and MS teams and some browser tabs can easily crush 8GB.
Also, in both cases, it wasn't clear if the CPU's come with coolers or not, so assumed they did.
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
28 Jul 2003
Posts
5,801
Location
South Wales
What I'd recommend:

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £608.93 (includes shipping: £18.12)



What is in stock:
My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £618.45 (includes shipping: £19.62)
Also didn't add any peripherals, not sure what's needed (KB, mouse, headset, webcam, etc...). The case is just a place holder, £50 is normally way over what most people spend on an office-based PC. You can gain £30 by dropping to a 250GB NVME drive and another £20 dropping to 8GB DDR4, but I kept them there as 250GB is a bit small and MS teams and some browser tabs can easily crush 8GB.
Also, in both cases, it wasn't clear if the CPU's come with coolers or not, so assumed they did.

cheers, was concentrating on amd but I guess the i3 has inbuilt graphics ?
 
Associate
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cheers, was concentrating on amd but I guess the i3 has inbuilt graphics ?

The first build will have onboard graphics, the second doesn't, which is why it has a cheap GPU.

All Ryzen chips apart from the ones with 'G' on the end (3200G/3400G) do not have onbaors graphics and becomes a bit more of a pain.

Also, within your budget, OCUK have nothing in stock on the AMD side, the first to come up is the £200 Ryzen 5 3600.

The stock issues at the moment mean the only kit in stock is either more mainstream (and more expensive) or older. The first build is 4c/8t, whereas the second is only 4c/4t. Still perfectly fine for office work, but a shorter lifespan.
 
Soldato
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The first build will have onboard graphics, the second doesn't, which is why it has a cheap GPU.

All Ryzen chips apart from the ones with 'G' on the end (3200G/3400G) do not have onbaors graphics and becomes a bit more of a pain.

Also, within your budget, OCUK have nothing in stock on the AMD side.

yes, even if I push for £700, I’m not sure I’d make and amd build fit. All of the lower end CPU’s seem to have gone already. 3600 seems “cheapest” but still £180 plus where Im stock.

that said, I didn’t realise the. I3 was now quad core and 8 threads!
 
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Associate
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yes, even if I push for £700, I’m not sure I’d make and amd build fit. All of the lower end CPU’s seem to have gone already. 3600 seems “cheapest” but still £180 plus where Im stock.

that said, I didn’t realise the. I3 was now quad core and 8 threads!

Yeah, makes me feel bad sat here on an old socket with an i5 and 4c/4t!
 
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So... have you considered to buy a second hand Xeon? you don't need to spend lots of money in an old machine and it still can pack lots of cores and RAM. Then you stick a GPU and a SSD on it and there you go. I have an old guy here from 2007 that has 8 cores, 32Gb of RAM, a GTX980, a modern 500 Gb SSD and a regular 6TB HDD. This particular unit also has a USB 3.0 card that provides 4 ports, Wifi, Bluetooth and a nice PCI sound card I got for free. My gf was using it to work from home until now (I recently replaced it because I happened to have something beefier around) I can tell you that for office work is more than enough even at 4K, and it is also able to play many games at 1080p.
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
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Posts
5,801
Location
South Wales
So... have you considered to buy a second hand Xeon? you don't need to spend lots of money in an old machine and it still can pack lots of cores and RAM. Then you stick a GPU and a SSD on it and there you go. I have an old guy here from 2007 that has 8 cores, 32Gb of RAM, a GTX980, a modern 500 Gb SSD and a regular 6TB HDD. This particular unit also has a USB 3.0 card that provides 4 ports, Wifi, Bluetooth and a nice PCI sound card I got for free. My gf was using it to work from home until now (I recently replaced it because I happened to have something beefier around) I can tell you that for office work is more than enough even at 4K, and it is also able to play many games at 1080p.

to be honest, if it was for me, I’d consider second hand and buy it in bits. I’m putting this together for a family member so need things quick and would prefer new.

I am contemplating a build for myself also but will have a bigger budget (£1000 maybe).
 
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