Budget ITX Office Build

[N4PSTEr17]

Hey guys! 

 

I just wanted to ask you to take a look at my current plan for a budget ITX office Build.

 

Here is the PC-Partpicker list:

 

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/zNGCnQ

 

I don't need OS/monitor/... only the tower.

 

The system should be as quite a possible at least under light load.

 

There will be no gaming on this machine whatsoever, so do you think the stock cooler will do the job or should I go for an aftermarket one?

Can you recommend a low profile budget cooler?

 

SSD will be a 128GB / 256GB drive, whatever I can find a good deal on.

 

Linus has just posted a video about RAM and said in gaming you won't profit much from a dual channel kit (vs. 1 stick).

Will there be a benefit in office applications?

 

Case has made a good impression in the recent review on the youtube channel, but do I need a SFX power supply for an ITX case?

All I could find was that a ATX will fit fine.

(length of the Corsair in the list should fit with 140mm)

 

 

Thanks in advance for your help!

Best regards

[Aleks_bf]

what is your budget?

[N4PSTEr17]

Sorry, I forgot that one.

Should be around 300-350$.

 

Also I know the MB has no internal USB 3 header.

I would use an adapter for that, don't need fast front USB speeds, it will be on the desk anyway.

[SkywardKkalox]

-snip

AFAIK office applications are not very intesive.

Pretty good build for the money.

If you want something a bit better would be a better SSD like an MX100, or an i3 because it has hyperthreading.

[MageTank]

Since you won't be doing any gaming what so ever, then i would suggest this:

 

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/jw6Ht6

 

You get double the SSD storage space, and an SSD with a much better warranty (5 years, and its a pretty fast SSD). 

 

You will most likely not need a G3258 unless you plan on overclocking it, but since you are not really gaming, i can't see the need to OC it unless you are doing something CPU intensive that would require it. Since you only have 2 cores, i can't imagine you are doing anything work-related that would require it, so a stock G3250 should suffice if its just a cheap browser box. 

 

If you have even the slightest doubt that you would want to do some light gaming, this build for $350 would net you a GTX 750, which would be perfect for most 720p gaming, or low-medium 1080p gaming:

 

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/8x6Ht6

 

That's just my suggestions though, feel free to go with your gut on this.

[N4PSTEr17]

Yes, I think you are right. There really is no reason for a overclockable CPU, the G3250 should do just fine.

Also my PSU was overkill, the one in your list should also be more than sufficient.

I've only chosen mine for the modularity, but there will be no window anyway.

 

Any thoughts on the CPU cooler?

 

No, this will be used for business and accounting, so no gaming

 

Thanks a lot! 

[brob]

In non-gaming applications dual channel will provide somewhere between 5% and 15% better performance.

 

An i3 is a much better cpu choice. It has 4 hyperthreaded cores which makes a noticeable difference in browsing and other common office apps.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4160 3.6GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($108.95 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H81N Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($60.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($48.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Patriot Blaze 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($44.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 342 (Black) MicroATX Mini Tower Case w/400W Power Supply  ($49.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $313.91
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-06-24 13:30 EDT-0400

[MageTank]

Yes, I think you are right. There really is no reason for a overclockable CPU, the G3250 should do just fine.

Also my PSU was overkill, the one in your list should also be more than sufficient.

I've only chosen mine for the modularity, but there will be no window anyway.

 

Any thoughts on the CPU cooler?

 

No, this will be used for business and accounting, so no gaming

 

Thanks a lot! 

 

The stock Intel CPU cooler is perfectly fine for that CPU. Infact, i am using the stock Intel CPU cooler in an overclocked G3258 build at 4.2ghz, and i never go above 70C during a stress test in a mini ITX case myself. Since you won't be overclocking or gaming, you should NEVER go above 45C on stock cooling.

 

Feel free to swap out the parts you did not like out of my list, and use whichever you feel is best. The case was chosen because its cheap, but can also support a graphics card in the future if you decided to get one. The 430w PSU is more than enough to handle even a GTX 960, so it has plenty of room for growing, and is very cheap for the price. Good luck on your build, it should be a great little business machine!

 

 

In non-gaming applications dual channel will provide somewhere between 5% and 15% better performance.

 

An i3 is a much better cpu choice. It has 4 hyperthreaded cores which makes a noticeable difference in browsing and other common office apps.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4160 3.6GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($108.95 @ SuperBiiz)

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H81N Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($60.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($48.99 @ Amazon)

Storage: Patriot Blaze 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($44.99 @ Newegg)

Case: Cooler Master Elite 342 (Black) MicroATX Mini Tower Case w/400W Power Supply  ($49.99 @ NCIX US)

Total: $313.91

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-06-24 13:30 EDT-0400

 

I think OP was wanting an ITX build, not a microATX build. Either way, 4 threads makes absolutely no difference at all for browsing, not even in the slightest. I have ran over 20 chrome tabs on my G3258 with no hiccups or lag, and its still just a dual core. As for office apps, i still do not see more threads being helpful. 2 cores is plenty enough for every office scenario i could think of. Can you give me an example of an office application that would be too strenuous for a dual core? 

 

If OP truly wants an i3, and to maintain ITX form factor, he could go with this build: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/XZXct6

 

But as i stated before, i do not feel the i3 is absolutely necessary for what he is wanting to do.

[MageTank]

Please delete

[N4PSTEr17]

Ok, I will stick with a dual core, i3 is overpowered for the simple stuff I wan't to do ( mostly <5 tabs, ... )

 

Thanks a lot for all your help. Really great forum :-) 

[brob]

The stock Intel CPU cooler is perfectly fine for that CPU. Infact, i am using the stock Intel CPU cooler in an overclocked G3258 build at 4.2ghz, and i never go above 70C during a stress test in a mini ITX case myself. Since you won't be overclocking or gaming, you should NEVER go above 45C on stock cooling.

 

Feel free to swap out the parts you did not like out of my list, and use whichever you feel is best. The case was chosen because its cheap, but can also support a graphics card in the future if you decided to get one. The 430w PSU is more than enough to handle even a GTX 960, so it has plenty of room for growing, and is very cheap for the price. Good luck on your build, it should be a great little business machine!

 

 

 

I think OP was wanting an ITX build, not a microATX build. Either way, 4 threads makes absolutely no difference at all for browsing, not even in the slightest. I have ran over 20 chrome tabs on my G3258 with no hiccups or lag, and its still just a dual core. As for office apps, i still do not see more threads being helpful. 2 cores is plenty enough for every office scenario i could think of. Can you give me an example of an office application that would be too strenuous for a dual core? 

 

If OP truly wants an i3, and to maintain ITX form factor, he could go with this build: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/XZXct6

 

But as i stated before, i do not feel the i3 is absolutely necessary for what he is wanting to do.

 

I3 makes a big difference for general office work. Working with word processing documents more than a couple of pages, handling large spread sheets, and browsing. Multiple threads do make a difference when browsing, especially if one is using highly multi-threaded browsers like Chrome, loading HTML5 web pages that use web workers, using addins like Flash and other video players.

 

As to examples of pushing dual core, quite simply a re-calc on a complex spreadsheet while simultaneously doing a complex database search also doing a search for a lost document, and maybe streaming a video. While an individual at home might be quite willing to wait a minute or two, over a year or two such delays in an office environment cost far more than the price difference of the cpu. The math is quite simple. Presume 1 minute a day faster performance with an i3, a very conservative estimate. That is 260 minutes a year (5x52). At $15/hr, the slower cpu has cost the company ~$65 is lost productivity.

[MageTank]

I3 makes a big difference for general office work. Working with word processing documents more than a couple of pages, handling large spread sheets, and browsing. Multiple threads do make a difference when browsing, especially if one is using highly multi-threaded browsers like Chrome, loading HTML5 web pages that use web workers, using addins like Flash and other video players.

 

As to examples of pushing dual core, quite simply a re-calc on a complex spreadsheet while simultaneously doing a complex database search also doing a search for a lost document, and maybe streaming a video. While an individual at home might be quite willing to wait a minute or two, over a year or two such delays in an office environment cost far more than the price difference of the cpu. The math is quite simple. Presume 1 minute a day faster performance with an i3, a very conservative estimate. That is 260 minutes a year (5x52). At $15/hr, the slower cpu has cost the company ~$65 is lost productivity.

Sorry, but i think you may be slightly misinformed. Chrome is not CPU intensive, it is memory intensive. Even to that extent, i can run 20+ chrome tabs while playing Torchlight II and still only use 80% of 8GB of memory. My CPU usage is never questioned during browsing. As for the notion that office applications are CPU intensive, that is just flat out wrong. I have NEVER, in all of my years of experience, seen an Office application tax a dual core to the point in which it is at its knee's to continue working. Nowhere will you ever see this either. I see machines running on older Core 2 Duo's handle office work with ease. Laptops with low end Intel Atom's handling word documents and spreadsheets as if nothing is going on.

 

If your machine is struggling to handle these mundane tasks, i assure you its not a hardware issue.

 

Proof of my G3258 putting in work on chrome:

 

 http://imgur.com/6nyaelZ