$500ish Office PC Build... Any Thoughts???

[birdflyer]

Greetings Community:

Below is a part list for an office build, not at all dissimilar to one that I built several months ago, that will only be used for web browsing and light word processing. The name of the game is longevity, reliability, and cost-effectiveness. Although I won't go into the details surrounding this, I realize that there are refurbished or pre-built systems available for a better price.

The main thing I am not quite happy with is the PSU of this build. Although I own and currently use a 500w EVGA GD power supply, I would much rather use a SeaSonic Focus Gold or similar. Any thoughts?

 

____________________________________________________________________

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/D8brzf

• CPU: Intel Core i3-12100 3.3 GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($114.99 @ Amazon)
• Motherboard: Gigabyte B660M DS3H AX DDR4 Micro ATX LGA1700 Motherboard  ($114.99 @ Newegg)
• Memory: Patriot Viper 4 Blackout 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  ($39.99 @ Amazon)
• Storage: Patriot Viper VP4300 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($74.98 @ Amazon)
• Power Supply: EVGA 600 GD 600 W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply  ($79.98 @ Amazon)
• Case: Thermaltake Versa H15 Micro ATX Mini Tower Computer Chassis 2.0 Edition with One 120mm Rear Fan Pre-Installed CA-1D4-00S1NN-A0  ($44.99 @ Amazon)

Total: $469.92
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-06-10 17:16 EDT-0400

 

[DrMacintosh]

Refurbished M1/M2 Mac mini

https://www.apple.com/shop/product/FMFJ3LL/A/refurbished-mac-mini-apple-m2-chip-with-8‑core-cpu-and-10‑core-gpu?fnode=e9fa5142b611130c67ffd5c9f126949b5fd3cca466c0b2404a656db40b65a9e6896869aab5b3376deaa2702a03560d1c5adfddd20734ae967e60431b0a43d49b66599a8128a1b055e131626c4882fb5a

 

The only potential downsides are drive size (to that I say leverage network or cloud storage as a business) and program compatibility. But for office tasks the Mac can do everything a PC can do in a small plug and play package.

 

Amazon sells renewed M1 Mac minis for $429, I'm sure you can find new old stock from other retailers.

[Radium_Angel]

1 hour ago, birdflyer said:

only be used for web browsing and light word processing.

 

1 hour ago, birdflyer said:

Core i3-12100

That's overkill for that office use. 

[Somerandomtechyboi]

1 hour ago, birdflyer said:

I realize that there are refurbished or pre-built systems available for a better price

 

1 hour ago, birdflyer said:

only be used for web browsing and light word processing

There is absolutely no reason to build a new system unless you are looking for an sff, in that case go ahead and look at the asrock deskmini x300 barebones and buy the cpu rams and storage, its absolutely useless to build a new pc for office if it isnt a sff box, gotta get some sort of noticable benifit from buying new

 

if you are not looking for an sff system go ahead and buy some 50-100$ optiplex or whatever 3rd, 4th, or 6th gen prebuilt as these will suit your needs just fine

[birdflyer]

2 hours ago, DrMacintosh said:

Refurbished M1/M2 Mac mini

https://www.apple.com/shop/product/FMFJ3LL/A/refurbished-mac-mini-apple-m2-chip-with-8‑core-cpu-and-10‑core-gpu?fnode=e9fa5142b611130c67ffd5c9f126949b5fd3cca466c0b2404a656db40b65a9e6896869aab5b3376deaa2702a03560d1c5adfddd20734ae967e60431b0a43d49b66599a8128a1b055e131626c4882fb5a

 

The only potential downsides are drive size (to that I say leverage network or cloud storage as a business) and program compatibility. But for office tasks the Mac can do everything a PC can do in a small plug and play package.

 

Amazon sells renewed M1 Mac minis for $429, I'm sure you can find new old stock from other retailers.

Hey, thanks for the suggestion!

This office has some software that is Windows only and a Mac also won't work for a few other reasons.

[FirstTimePcBuilder]

This pc can also do some light gaming and it is 500 dollars and this will give you the most bang for your buck at this price point and this a great system 

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/BrJP2m

[birdflyer]

2 hours ago, Radium_Angel said:

 

That's overkill for that office use. 

Although I realize that, it is currently the best bang-for-the-buck and won't at all be overkill in 5–8 years.

[birdflyer]

6 minutes ago, FirstTimePcBuilder said:

This pc can also do some light gaming and it is 500 dollars and this will give you the most bang for your buck at this price point and this a great system 

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/BrJP2m

Hey, thanks for the suggestion! This computer will be used in an office environment that will never play games and shouldn't have the capability to do so. Thanks again though!

[SorryBella]

12 hours ago, birdflyer said:

Hey, thanks for the suggestion!

This office has some software that is Windows only and a Mac also won't work for a few other reasons.

Id implore you to check electronic clearance section of a best buy or local computer store then. A lot of simple core i3 office system from the likes of HP and Dell can be found around there, and it would be sub 500$ with windows license. Just make sure it has a full SSD storage setup or atleast a small SSD where the OS resides, thats the secret to snappy basic windows function. They are that storage time hungry.

[birdflyer]

On 6/11/2023 at 6:12 AM, SorryClaire said:

Id implore you to check electronic clearance section of a best buy or local computer store then. A lot of simple core i3 office system from the likes of HP and Dell can be found around there, and it would be sub 500$ with windows license. Just make sure it has a full SSD storage setup or atleast a small SSD where the OS resides, thats the secret to snappy basic windows function. They are that storage time hungry.

Hey, once again, thanks for the suggestion and I completely understand where you are coming from for the recommendation. There are a few reasons that they won't be going with a refurbished, or pre-buit system, but I am not going to get into why as it isn't relevant to this conversation. I may have not made myself clear, but I was mostly asking about the build on the OP. Thanks!

[birdflyer]

Hey, I just wanted to close this thread out by saying that the only component that I changed out was the MB. At the time that I originally parted this computer out, I was not aware that B600 series boards were actually being phased out already by B700 series boards and so I just swapped the board over to the Gigabyte B760m DS3H. The only difference to the user is the addition of a VGA port, which is quite a nice addition to a lower end board. Here is the final parts list that I ordered:

 

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/qP4j3y

• CPU: Intel Core i3-12100 3.3 GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($114.99 @ Amazon)
• Motherboard: Gigabyte B760M DS3H DDR4 Micro ATX LGA1700 Motherboard  ($119.99 @ Amazon)
• Memory: Patriot Viper 4 Blackout 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  ($39.99 @ Amazon)
• Storage: Patriot Viper VP4300 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($74.98 @ Amazon)
• Power Supply: EVGA 600 GD 600 W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply  ($79.98 @ Amazon)
• Case: Thermaltake Versa H15 Micro ATX Mini Tower Computer Chassis 2.0 Edition with One 120mm Rear Fan Pre-Installed CA-1D4-00S1NN-A0  ($44.99 @ Amazon)

Total: $474.92
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-06-12 23:56 EDT-0400