Best PC for using Excel

[Tom L]

Budget (including currency): 1500€ (more or less the same in US dollar)

Country: Belgium

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Heavy use of excel

Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc):  I was wonder what the best PC build is for heavy Excel use. Next to this I has some questions. For example, does the GPU impact excel? Does a fast SSD impact working with excel? Is it better to have a lot of cores or less cores but higher speed? Is there something else that can impact the speed?

 

[Brooksie359]

One thing go note is that most cpus that have higher core count also are higher binned and have higher single core speed than the lower core variants so it won't be the case where the lower core variant would be better unless there is some really weird scheduling issue or other software glitch making it not play nice with the higher core count. 

[filpo]

16 hours ago, Tom L said:

I was wonder what the best PC build is for heavy Excel use. Next to this I has some questions. For example, does the GPU impact excel? Does a fast SSD impact working with excel? Is it better to have a lot of cores or less cores but higher speed? Is there something else that can impact the speed?

no a gpu shouldn't so igpu should be fine. Go for this

PCPartPicker Part List: https://be.pcpartpicker.com/list/YdcnW4

CPU: Intel Core i9-13900K 3 GHz 24-Core Processor  (€614.95 @ Megekko) 
CPU Cooler: ARCTIC Liquid Freezer II 420 A-RGB 68.9 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  (€143.85 @ Megekko) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z790 UD AX ATX LGA1700 Motherboard  (€227.95 @ Megekko) 
Memory: G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6600 CL34 Memory  (€161.92 @ Azerty) 
Storage: Samsung 980 Pro 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  (€89.90 @ Tones.be) 
Case: Lian Li LANCOOL III ATX Mid Tower Case  (€158.85 @ Megekko) 
Power Supply: Corsair RM850x (2021) 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  (€163.85 @ Megekko) 
Total: €1561.27
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-06-13 16:38 CEST+0200

[Brooksie359]

https://www.anandtech.com/show/17601/intel-core-i9-13900k-and-i5-13600k-review/8

Based on this review it looks like ryzen 7000 series cpu scores highest in the excel benchmark so I guess you would want the one with the highest score if you are looking for the best cpu for excel.

[CWALD]

The biggest thing that affects large excel sheets is memory, if you have lots of equations and/or macros then CPU speed can start to mater. Basically anything with an i5 and 16-32GB of RAM should be fine. For a desktop you shouldn't need to spend more then $500-$700 us. Personally I would probably just get an old Dell or HP mini off eBay leftover from a business. 

 

Edit: spelling/grammar

[venomtail]

6 minutes ago, filpo said:

no a gpu shouldn't so igpu should be fine. Go for this

PCPartPicker Part List: https://be.pcpartpicker.com/list/YdcnW4

CPU: Intel Core i9-13900K 3 GHz 24-Core Processor  (€614.95 @ Megekko) 
CPU Cooler: ARCTIC Liquid Freezer II 420 A-RGB 68.9 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  (€143.85 @ Megekko) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z790 UD AX ATX LGA1700 Motherboard  (€227.95 @ Megekko) 
Memory: G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6600 CL34 Memory  (€161.92 @ Azerty) 
Storage: Samsung 980 Pro 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  (€89.90 @ Tones.be) 
Case: Lian Li LANCOOL III ATX Mid Tower Case  (€158.85 @ Megekko) 
Power Supply: Corsair RM850x (2021) 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  (€163.85 @ Megekko) 
Total: €1561.27
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-06-13 16:38 CEST+0200

Go for this 

 

This is too extreme, like wasting money territory.

Dude's not gonna OC, why get a Z790 board... expensive SSD... gucci case when no gucci needed...

 

I think a fast 13600K would be plenty on a 60 board.

[filpo]

Just now, venomtail said:

gucci case when no gucci needed..

only mesh one that fits a 420 rad, also its a very good case (high performing)

 

Just now, venomtail said:

expensive SSD.

for a gen 4 ssd with dram cache its actually reasonable. But I agree there are cheaper options,  but would only save about 30 euros

 

1 minute ago, venomtail said:

Dude's not gonna OC, why get a Z790 board

They might, you never know. And even a good b760 board is again only 30 euros less

 

2 minutes ago, venomtail said:

I think a fast 13600K would be plenty on a 60 board.

depends, some things on excel get really demanding so if he's on that end of the spectrum he might want it 

[Brooksie359]

16 minutes ago, 8tg said:

This depends on the scale of excel usage, current excel is multithreaded and benefits greatly from core count. 
As well load times are affected by storage, and search times are heavily affected by ram speed and capacity.

All of this in context to after a certain point, digging through a 700k line table of plain information is not nearly as hard on a system as mass scale calculations done on that 700k line table. If you’re doing stuff like that, focus down cpu/ram/storage. If you’re not hosting the file locally you’d also want a decent network connection for a shared workbook to synchronize properly.

The gpu will do nothing for excel, if that’s the primary use case of this system then igpu is plenty for you, if you just want to power a bunch of excel across multiple monitors get a GT1030.

My take on the idea:

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/bQvywc
Basically focusing the 13900 non K, decent ram, high end ssd, otherwise just solid component choices considering the budget. 
Going 13900 non K since the benefit here will be core count more than single core performance, which allows for not starting a house fire and using a quieter air cooler. 
Closed side Define 7 since nothing pretty is being made here, obviously that kind of stuff is entirely subjective and it’s just my recommendation for a case.

Why is everyone suggesting the i9 when based on benchmarks ryzen 7000 series does better? Also 7000 series cpus have igpus now so it's not like you couldn't go the 7000 series cpu without a gpu. Just get a 7900x and you can easily blow the i9 out of the water. 

[Brooksie359]

12 minutes ago, 8tg said:

I don’t use and don’t like amd. 
 

Ok so give worse advice because you don't like a brand is kinda dumb. I mean at the very least it would be good to acknowledge the other option with your suggestion. Personally I don't see why I would go Intel when they need an entire ac unit to cool their nuclear reactor they call a cpu and it preforms worse in the excel benchmark than the AMD counterpart. 

[Why_Me]

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: *Intel Core i5-13500 2.5 GHz 14-Core Processor  (€272.95 @ Megekko) 
CPU Cooler: *Deepcool AK500 68.99 CFM CPU Cooler  (€58.85 @ Megekko) 
Motherboard: *MSI B760 GAMING PLUS WIFI ATX LGA1700 Motherboard  (€172.95 @ Megekko) 
Memory: *G.Skill Ripjaws S5 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-5600 CL36 Memory  (€116.95 @ Bytes At Work) 
Storage: *Samsung 970 Evo Plus 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  (€104.95 @ Megekko) 
Case: *Fractal Design Pop Air ATX Mid Tower Case  (€90.85 @ Megekko) 
Power Supply: *Corsair RM550x (2018) 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  (€107.90 @ Azerty) 
Operating System: *Microsoft Windows 11 Home OEM - DVD 64-bit  (€118.85 @ Megekko) 
Total: €1044.25
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-06-13 18:54 CEST+0200

 

[Brooksie359]

2 minutes ago, Why_Me said:

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: *Intel Core i5-13500 2.5 GHz 14-Core Processor  (€272.95 @ Megekko) 
CPU Cooler: *Deepcool AK500 68.99 CFM CPU Cooler  (€58.85 @ Megekko) 
Motherboard: *MSI B760 GAMING PLUS WIFI ATX LGA1700 Motherboard  (€172.95 @ Megekko) 
Memory: *G.Skill Ripjaws S5 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-5600 CL36 Memory  (€116.95 @ Bytes At Work) 
Storage: *Samsung 970 Evo Plus 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  (€104.95 @ Megekko) 
Case: *Fractal Design Pop Air ATX Mid Tower Case  (€90.85 @ Megekko) 
Power Supply: *Corsair RM550x (2018) 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  (€107.90 @ Azerty) 
Total: €925.40
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-06-13 18:53 CEST+0200

Is everyone going to suggest Intel even when the r5 5600x beats the i9 13900k in the excel benchmark? Some people are crazy I guess  

[Tom L]

Thanks to all for the info.