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Business Computers

andyGstl
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I've watched many of the LTT videos, and as much as I enjoy watching the videos about gaming computers (I still don't understand threads, or cores or anything), I haven't seen a video about how to build a computer for regular everyday business activities for people such as myself (Especially with a lot of people that are having to work from home now).

 

The only thing I know about computers is that they turn on and magic happens. I'm not a gamer, just a project manager. 98% of my day is excel, and I have found that I am going to need 4 monitors (I'm currently using 3). The spreadsheet that I formatted uses 3 separate excel files. 

 

With that being said, I need some advice on what I should look for in a computer. I'm replacing my laptop and docking station for a desktop. I do have one in mind, but I'm always welcome to opinions and advice from people who know a lot more than me about computers and tech. Many thanks in advance.

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4 minutes ago, andyGstl said:

I've watched many of the LTT videos, and as much as I enjoy watching the videos about gaming computers (I still don't understand threads, or cores or anything), I haven't seen a video about how to build a computer for regular everyday business activities for people such as myself (Especially with a lot of people that are having to work from home now).

 

The only thing I know about computers is that they turn on and magic happens. I'm not a gamer, just a project manager. 98% of my day is excel, and I have found that I am going to need 4 monitors (I'm currently using 3). The spreadsheet that I formatted uses 3 separate excel files. 

 

With that being said, I need some advice on what I should look for in a computer. I'm replacing my laptop and docking station for a desktop. I do have one in mind, but I'm always welcome to opinions and advice from people who know a lot more than me about computers and tech. Many thanks in advance.

A Dell Optiplex with a Core i3 or i5 should do fine. But they can only output 2 monitors. Apart from that, it should suit you perfectly. They are also very cheap nowadays. Since all you will be doing is spreadsheets a Core i3 is all you basically need. If you need you can always throw in a discreet GPU which will increase graphics performance and quality

Make sure to quote me @Meowster  so that I see your reply

I love my job, being a sysadmin. It's very fun 

 

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An old dell optiplex with a GT 710, for multi monitor support and more ports...

Main PC [The Rig of Theseus]:

CPU: i5-8600K @ 5.0 GHz | GPU: GTX 1660 | RAM: 16 GB DDR4 3000 MHz | Case: Lian Li PC-O11 Dynamic | PSU: Corsair RM 650i | SSD: Corsair MP510 480 GB |  HDD: 2x 6 TB WD Red| Motherboard: Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Pro | OS: Windows 11 Pro for Workstations

 

Secondary PC [Why did I bother]:

CPU: AMD Athlon 3000G | GPU: Vega 3 iGPU | RAM: 8 GB DDR4 3000 MHz | Case: Corsair 88R | PSU: Corsair VS 650 | SSD: WD Green M.2 SATA 120 GB | Motherboard: MSI A320M-A PRO MAX | OS: Windows 11 Pro for Workstations

 

Server [Solution in search of a problem]:

Model: HP DL360e Gen8 | CPU: 1x Xeon E5-2430L v1 | RAM: 12 GB DDR3 1066 MHz | SSD: Kingston A400 120 GB | OS: VMware ESXi 7

 

Server 2 electric boogaloo [A waste of electricity]:

Model: intel NUC NUC5CPYH | CPU: Celeron N3050 | RAM: 2GB DDR3L 1600 MHz | SSD: Kingston UV400 120 GB | OS: Debian Bullseye

 

Laptop:

Model: ThinkBook 14 Gen 2 AMD | CPU: Ryzen 7 4700U | RAM: 16 GB DDR4 3200 MHz | OS: Windows 11 Pro

 

Photography:

 

Cameras:

Full Frame digital: Sony α7

APS-C digital: Sony α100

Medium Format Film: Kodak Junior SIX-20

35mm Film:

 

Lenses:

Sony SAL-1870 18-70mm ƒ/3.5-5.6 

Sony SAL-75300 75-300mm ƒ/4.5-5.6

Meike MK-50mm ƒ/1.7

 

PSA: No, I didn't waste all that money on computers, (except the main one) my server cost $40, the intel NUC was my old PC (although then it had 8GB of ram, I gave the bigger stick of ram to a person who really needed it), my laptop is used and the second PC is really cheap.

I like tinkering with computers and have a personal hatred towards phones and everything they represent (I daily drive an iPhone 7, or a 6, depends on which one works that day)

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Awesome, thanks! I appreciate the advice. I have thought about possibly building a minimalist computer to do what I need to do, but I'll have to see how buying vs. building plays out financially. I hope everybody is staying healthy! My work space is going to be insane when I get it all finished and setup with the new computer.

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In addition to what everyone else has said, I would recommend 16GB of ram if you plan on having the machine a long time (4+ years) or if you usually have a lot of browser tabs open. Otherwise, 8GB will do. Very large excel sheets can also consume a lot of ram.

 

Also make sure whether you build or buy you have an SSD. Sometimes modern cheaper business computers still have HDDs or SSHDs which will make your computer feel very slow.

~Air Cooling Advocate~

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I definitely have a lot of windows and browser tabs open all the time. Currently I have 7 excel files (one is pushing 4.6 mb) open and 4 browser tabs.

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