Small PC for Office Use

[Prokart2000]

Budget (including currency): £500 max

Country: UK

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: general computer tasks, max will be very light games or some photo editing.

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 have peripherals all sorted

 

 

Hi all,

 

it has been a very long time since I have posted on here! I have been out of the PC game for a few years and I want to make an office pc that I can use when working at home. I want this to be pretty compact, maybe even desk top and be able to run general office tasks efficiently. The max I will need to play is some light games or watching 4k video for example, I don’t game heavily anymore.

 

I am unsure what the latest processors are anymore.

 

what do you suggest?

 

thanks!!!

 

[jaslion]

Used office pc from ebay and add 16gb of ram to it if it has 8. An 8th gen i5 is way more than plenty for these tasks.

 

You do have to specify what games you will be playing as light gaming DOES NOT equal easy to run.

[UnhingedIT]

Look into thinkcentre tiny m series. Those tiny bastards are great for office work and are cheap. And you can mount that sucker on the back of your monitor.

And you can play Heroes of might and magic 3 with no lag.

[Prokart2000]

1 hour ago, jaslion said:

Used office pc from ebay and add 16gb of ram to it if it has 8. An 8th gen i5 is way more than plenty for these tasks.

 

You do have to specify what games you will be playing as light gaming DOES NOT equal easy to run.

Thanks.

 

i have found both of these linked below

 

9th gen with more storage/ram

 

10th gen (so hyper threading too) but less storage/ram

 

bear in mind I can currently get 20% off the 10th gen one too so I could use that money to upgrade some bits.

 

Do these look good?

 

Thanks!

[the_delicate_snowflake]

2 hours ago, jaslion said:

Used office pc from ebay and add 16gb of ram to it if it has 8. An 8th gen i5 is way more than plenty for these tasks.

 

You do have to specify what games you will be playing as light gaming DOES NOT equal easy to run.

I'm literally just upgrading my father's I3-8350 as it takes over 20 seconds to load Word. I'd be surprised if there was a major gap going from I3 to I5.

 

 

Prokart2000 are you building a new one or upgrading?

I definitely wouldn't go for a prebuilt if you're cofident enough with building/upgrading.

I'm not in UK, but a 5600G CPU+compatible MOBO (MSI B450 should be compatible/upgradeable for ryzen 5000) combo with 16GB ram is less than £200 equivalent.

Your power draw would likely not increase, so you could definitely keep the PSU and most likely the case as well.

 

Take a 250-500GB SATA SSD with it if you don't have one.

 

 

But even if you're not upgrading you can probably get way under the budget if you're not dead set on having it in a tiny enclosure.

EDIT: Looking at Amazon (and I expect there are better places to buy computer parts in the UK) even if you go with B550 for assured ryzen 5000 compatibility It will cost you £110 for ryzen 5 5600G, £110 for a B500 MOBO, 2x8 GB RAM is roughly £40, same for a 400W psu, and another 40 for a case. 250GB SSD is under £15.

 

All in all it will set you back £355 and you will have a better CPU than my, still decent, gaming rig.

 

8th gen intel is the same release year as ryzen 100 which started kicking intel's butt and intel didn't manage to do any actual punches back until 12th gen for the budget CPUs.

Edited November 14, 2023 by the_delicate_snowflake
Additional information about available prices/products

[jaslion]

2 hours ago, Prokart2000 said:

Thanks.

 

i have found both of these linked below

 

9th gen with more storage/ram

 

10th gen (so hyper threading too) but less storage/ram

 

bear in mind I can currently get 20% off the 10th gen one too so I could use that money to upgrade some bits.

 

Do these look good?

 

Thanks!

No wow both of these are stupidly expensive damn. They really are pricing people out these days wow

 

Like this is full on used gaming pc money

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/374799075220?hash=item5743c40794:g:rdsAAOSwh7RkqACL&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA0E3IkU2vNJnc4NrLFZhX%2Fy9u%2Fy21oz45gPnPqcfcJoav22w1LnsSKr6TUBI%2FOitg1wC%2BoFBI6%2BudYGaTAQRd8xCKFVOMn9aQDXWNJvAzS7XbavmRhL2ujsy%2BuH39EzRCCtywPJ6Jbpc6m0MD8naWRUzFQqbSlvl3416xaxTepu53zO%2FitgH15mQHQAtN6r0m9tal8wLq78cKZYUVDETEoge%2F8bw4ErMxf%2B34XyMPyPXJ0GzlfGNTXq%2BlD3Z2lpAmEsJMJ9RbapbDRUOTqmXrH3Y%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR5aPuIf6Yg

 

(not the best example but its one)

 

 

[jaslion]

1 hour ago, the_delicate_snowflake said:

'm literally just upgrading my father's I3-8350 as it takes over 20 seconds to load Word. I'd be surprised if there was a major gap going from I3 to I5

Sounds like you might want some faster storage, more ram or a fresh windows install

 

and yes there is a good gap between these chips really

[Prokart2000]

8 hours ago, the_delicate_snowflake said:

I'm literally just upgrading my father's I3-8350 as it takes over 20 seconds to load Word. I'd be surprised if there was a major gap going from I3 to I5.

 

 

Prokart2000 are you building a new one or upgrading?

I definitely wouldn't go for a prebuilt if you're cofident enough with building/upgrading.

I'm not in UK, but a 5600G CPU+compatible MOBO (MSI B450 should be compatible/upgradeable for ryzen 5000) combo with 16GB ram is less than £200 equivalent.

Your power draw would likely not increase, so you could definitely keep the PSU and most likely the case as well.

 

Take a 250-500GB SATA SSD with it if you don't have one.

 

 

But even if you're not upgrading you can probably get way under the budget if you're not dead set on having it in a tiny enclosure.

EDIT: Looking at Amazon (and I expect there are better places to buy computer parts in the UK) even if you go with B550 for assured ryzen 5000 compatibility It will cost you £110 for ryzen 5 5600G, £110 for a B500 MOBO, 2x8 GB RAM is roughly £40, same for a 400W psu, and another 40 for a case. 250GB SSD is under £15.

 

All in all it will set you back £355 and you will have a better CPU than my, still decent, gaming rig.

 

8th gen intel is the same release year as ryzen 100 which started kicking intel's butt and intel didn't manage to do any actual punches back until 12th gen for the budget CPUs.

 

7 hours ago, jaslion said:

No wow both of these are stupidly expensive damn. They really are pricing people out these days wow

 

Like this is full on used gaming pc money

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/374799075220?hash=item5743c40794:g:rdsAAOSwh7RkqACL&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA0E3IkU2vNJnc4NrLFZhX%2Fy9u%2Fy21oz45gPnPqcfcJoav22w1LnsSKr6TUBI%2FOitg1wC%2BoFBI6%2BudYGaTAQRd8xCKFVOMn9aQDXWNJvAzS7XbavmRhL2ujsy%2BuH39EzRCCtywPJ6Jbpc6m0MD8naWRUzFQqbSlvl3416xaxTepu53zO%2FitgH15mQHQAtN6r0m9tal8wLq78cKZYUVDETEoge%2F8bw4ErMxf%2B34XyMPyPXJ0GzlfGNTXq%2BlD3Z2lpAmEsJMJ9RbapbDRUOTqmXrH3Y%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR5aPuIf6Yg

 

(not the best example but its one)

 

 

Thanks both!

 

I personally don’t mind building or buying.

 

it definitely looks like I can get a nice used system on eBay, I will take a look!

[jaslion]

1 minute ago, Prokart2000 said:

 

Thanks both!

 

I personally don’t mind building or buying.

 

it definitely looks like I can get a nice used system on eBay, I will take a look!

Yeah like this money new easily gets you a 5600g base rig that is nice.

 

Or gets you a ryzen gaming pc that is pretty darn good on ebay

 

Also look at local classifieds usually best deals there

[the_delicate_snowflake]

7 hours ago, jaslion said:

Sounds like you might want some faster storage, more ram or a fresh windows install

 

He has a SSD, but I'll have a look at cleaning up the system. You're right that it's not that old, so there's probably some other system issue as well.

[jaslion]

29 minutes ago, the_delicate_snowflake said:

He has a SSD, but I'll have a look at cleaning up the system. You're right that it's not that old, so there's probably some other system issue as well.

Considering these are commonly used at work here we are running them on 512gb ssds and 16gb of ram. A combi of i3's i5's and a couple i7's for the high peeps. All doing just fine really.

[the_delicate_snowflake]

5 hours ago, jaslion said:

Considering these are commonly used at work here we are running them on 512gb ssds and 16gb of ram. A combi of i3's i5's and a couple i7's for the high peeps. All doing just fine really.

I'll see what upping the RAM combined with reinstalling the system will do, thanks.

 

[Prokart2000]

12 hours ago, jaslion said:

Yeah like this money new easily gets you a 5600g base rig that is nice.

 

Or gets you a ryzen gaming pc that is pretty darn good on ebay

 

Also look at local classifieds usually best deals there

Managed to find this

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/276166666420?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=ZXm-EXmURaO&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=Zwo5a7BCR_O&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

 

seems to have a caring owner from what I can tell and seems a good price. Would be nice to have a GPU but I can always get a cheap one to add

[jaslion]

15 hours ago, Prokart2000 said:

Managed to find this

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/276166666420?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=ZXm-EXmURaO&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=Zwo5a7BCR_O&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

 

seems to have a caring owner from what I can tell and seems a good price. Would be nice to have a GPU but I can always get a cheap one to add

Yup amazing offer buy now!

 

There was a gpu in it in the bottom slots for some reason once but was removed

[Pan_TorchaYT]

I recommend getting a laptop cpu in a desktop motherboard

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005306840532.html

I9-11900H (8core, 16thread) ($184 Pounds)

Any cooler will work perfectly as this is only a laptop cpu.

current ram will work

[Prokart2000]

22 hours ago, jaslion said:

Yup amazing offer buy now!

 

There was a gpu in it in the bottom slots for some reason once but was removed

Damn I was going to buy this but sold before I got home from work.

 

I am considering buying some bits in the Black Friday sales and building my own. I already have a power supply and I have managed to spec a b550 mobo, ryzen 7 5700g, 16gb ram and 1tb m2 ssd for around £350 which I feel is a good price.

 

i dont have my old windows key anymore but i think you can get a license online for peanuts if i recall.

 

what do you think for future proof and light games. I will keep looking for any big deals on eBay!

[jaslion]

1 minute ago, Prokart2000 said:

Damn I was going to buy this but sold before I got home from work.

 

I am considering buying some bits in the Black Friday sales and building my own. I already have a power supply and I have managed to spec a b550 mobo, ryzen 7 5700g, 16gb ram and 1tb m2 ssd for around £350 which I feel is a good price.

 

i dont have my old windows key anymore but i think you can get a license online for peanuts if i recall.

 

what do you think for future proof and light games. I will keep looking for any big deals on eBay!

What psu do you have? Make and model.

[Prokart2000]

11 minutes ago, jaslion said:

What psu do you have? Make and model.

One of these from a while back. From the days running an overclocked 8320 and 280x haha

 

https://www.watercoolinguk.co.uk/p/Antec-High-Current-Gamer-HCG-850M-80Plus-Bronze-Modular-850-Watt_49562.html

[jaslion]

1 hour ago, Prokart2000 said:

One of these from a while back. From the days running an overclocked 8320 and 280x haha

 

https://www.watercoolinguk.co.uk/p/Antec-High-Current-Gamer-HCG-850M-80Plus-Bronze-Modular-850-Watt_49562.html

That'll do

[Prokart2000]

2 hours ago, jaslion said:

That'll do

Cheers!

 

do you know if I will need a better spec Mobo for a 5700g? I have read a few bits about VRM issues on the cheaper ones but unsure how bad they get affected

 

thanks!

 

EDIT: ignore the above, I have researched and the VRMs should be fine for a 5600g (which I will go for as it is more than adequate)

 

the main point I need help with is ensuring I have a motherboard with a good enough hdmi for a 3440x1440 output and ensure it has the correct bios flash to use the 5600g. Is there a way I can confirm this?