What Office Computer?

[ollie989898]

I'd rather cut off my own foot and carry that around than use a Mac I'm afraid. Hideously expensive devices.

Dell? Who!? They are a maker of expensive paper weights, not an actual PC manufacturer. Not sure where folk got that idea from.

Do not buy a PC from PC world either. They merely sell last years stuff at this year's prices.

It isn't the RAM that makes a PC very responsive, it's the processor and more importantly the hard drive. The use of a solid state drive makes it very quick to boot, shut down and load or install software. This has been the case for some years now- even entry level processors from several years ago are very fast but they are typically still waiting the dripping tap of data that is provided by the average mechanical hard drive that many PCs come with. This is what makes a lot of modern PCs appear slow.

You do categorically not need an i7 processor for average office use either. Only people running serious audio/photo or video processing suites would ever notice the difference between an i7 and an an i5. In fact, the usual i3 today is no slouch either.

I would say you probably want a minimum of 4GB of RAM for an office machine. As I write I am on my own home built PC which has 16gb and as I type I can see that the system has slightly over 5GB in play (I am running Amazon music, multiple Opera tabs, my email client and a video chat client simultaneously, plus Windows 10).

For serious office use, I would say a 27 inch screen is essential, touch capability can be useful, too for some people. You can also run a second screen quite readily these days which is very handy- W10 will natively function with two or more displays and it makes a lot of stuff a relative doddle.

In terms of size for your hard drive (SSD), a MINIMUM of 120-128GB is recommended, the operating system and your everyday apps will take up 30GB probably quite readily.

More importantly, you can install all your software on the SSD and your operating system (W10 is so user friendly these days and lightweight to run its a joke but Linux is pretty cool too if you are so apt to use it) but bear in mind that any saved data/photos/music or files that are precious to you, MUST be backed up on a separate drive. If a solid state hard drive fails, it is impossible to ever recover the data. A mechanical drive meanwhile you can pay for data recovery if required. Therefore, invest in a Western Digital backup drive such as: https://www.wdc.com/solutions/wd-backup.html

The above spec (i3, 8gb RAM, 120gb SSD etc) will run most office type applications fine. Gaming is an entirely different ball park as are intensive video or audio processing loads but anyone involved in those will likely know their way around a modern PC fine.

I would recommend Novatech and Overclockers UK, they are very friendly dudes, ring them, and explain your requirements, and what you intend to do with the machine. I would personally tend to avoid all in one (PC guts reside inside the monitor) or micro type PCs in small cases as they are more difficult to repair or upgrade. Tell them you want a plain ATX form factor (Ie a tower type case) which means changing components or adding a second hard drive etc is easy.

Got the mother in law one of these the other day to live on the side in the kitchen but bear in mind if the monitor goes on the blink you are screwed. Luckily they come with a warranty.

Also, Windows 7- forget it, W10 is far superior.

Also, for godsake use an anti-virus suite.

http://store.hp.com/UKStore/Merch/Product.aspx?id=Z7C36EA&opt=ABU&sel=DTP

 

[wilber]

I'd honestly avoid the i3 and not reccomend it unless someones budget was incredibly tight.

 

[ollie989898]

I'd honestly avoid the i3 and not reccomend it unless someones budget was incredibly tight.

Ah but not all i3s are created equal. One of the higher range ones would be fine. But there is probably no real saving these days drop dropping out of i5. That said, some i3s used to have superior single thread peformance over i5s.

 

[wilber]

Ah but not all i3s are created equal. One of the higher range ones would be fine. But there is probably no real saving these days drop dropping out of i5. That said, some i3s used to have superior single thread performance over i5s.

I agree, but i would personally recommend a quad core chip for longevity , and its only with the release of coffee lake that we see quad core in the i3 chips.

 

[ollie989898]

I agree, but i would personally recommend a quad core chip for longevity , and its only with the release of coffee lake that we see quad core in the i3 chips.

All well and good, but for an office machine? I have no doubt Office is multi-threaded these days but without it attached to a solid state drive, what's the point?

They are all so fast now it's coming down to splitting hairs. I bet if you monitor the CPU loading on an average office machine it barely ever peaks. That said, apart from the (negligible) heat and power savings, I dare say there isn't much cost to be saved between the two ranges now.

 

[Longneck]

When I was in the same position as the OP about 5 Year’s ago I just went and bought a “What PC review guide” type magazine and found a review for a desktop system that was in my price range and bought that. Chillblast was the company, can’t remember the spec now but it’s been running absolutely fine and still going well today.

 

[wilber]

To be fair, spec wise he wont be going wrong with that palicomp one posted, parts will fail before it gets slow from age.

 

[Steevo]

To be fair, spec wise he wont be going wrong with that palicomp one posted, parts will fail before it gets slow from age.

+1

Just looked on Chillblast website and the Palicomp seemed better value for money.

 

[ollie989898]

The Palicomp wasn't half bad, no different to Overclockers price wise but a grief glace of the spec looked good.

That John Lewis machine wasn't bad but avoid anything without an ATX case.

 

[Steevo]

The Palicomp wasn't half bad, no different to Overclockers price wise but a grief glace of the spec looked good.

That John Lewis machine wasn't bad but avoid anything without an ATX case.

ATX being standard tower?

 

[ollie989898]

ATX being standard tower?

Sort of, ATX is a set of standards, it applies to power supplies, motherboards etc.

Within ATX there are form factors for the case, there is midi and full ATX size cases, amongst others. You want at least a midi.

 

[ollie989898]

Steevo, just PM or ring me if you are unsure of anything.

 

[Steevo]

Thanks. Looking at that Palicomp spec it suggests the case is a "Mini ATX".

 

[ollie989898]

Thanks. Looking at that Palicomp spec it suggests the case is a "Mini ATX".

That is the problem with companies that use funky components, I am not familiar with the brand to be honest. From the picture I would say that is a midi case because it appears to be able to take 2 internal optical drives horizontally. My wife has a mini ATX PC and there is no way you will fit 2 optical drives in it.

It might be worth ringing Overclockers to see what money they want.

 

[wilber]

Nothing wrong with a mini ATX. The one in the picture is the one you get unless you choose to change it. Fractal are a good brand for case's, Overclockers use them in builds and sell them.