Dual Monitor Office PC

[The_Sandman]

Hey everyone 

 

 

I want to build an office PC with a dual-monitor Setup. The PC will be used for daily office work that includes working with MS Office, accounting and some light photo editing work. Since i have only built gaming systems until now, i have a question about the multi-monitor setup.

 

My questions is: Does this PC need a graphics Card (and if so which one would you suggest?) or can you run 2 monitors with onboard graphics?

 

Sorry if this is a dumb question, i know that you can run multiple monitors with onboard graphics but the problem is, that i would like to connect the monitors via HDMI and i haven't seen any motherboards that have 2 HDMI outputs. So i was thinking about putting a video-card in there, because then there would be no problem connecting 2 monitors via HDMI.

 

 

Also if you would like to suggest a build, that would be awesome  

 

Criteria:

• Budget: 1500$ (including 2 monitors / if needed i can raise the budget a little)
• Usage: Daily Office Work, MS Office, Accounting, light Photo Editing
• Dual-monitor Setup (24")
• WLAN
• SSD Storage (500GB or more)
• Silent
• Should last a couple of years

 

Thanks in advance for your help guys!

 

[mikat]

an i5-6500 should be fine, my mom uses that processor on her office build with 2x1080p monitors and it's fine

my dad uses the i5-4590 (worse gpu mainly, since its haswell) for photoshop and lightroom (professionally) and it's fine

so no you don't need a dGPU

for your hdmi problem: you can just connect 1 monitor via hdmi and the other via vga

 

mom's build:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($198.88 @ OutletPC) 
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler  ($29.99 @ Newegg) 
Motherboard: Asus H110I-PLUS/CSM Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($78.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  ($38.88 @ OutletPC) 
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($94.00 @ B&H) 
Storage: Western Digital Blue 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($69.49 @ OutletPC) 
Case: RAIJINTEK Metis (Blue) Mini ITX Tower Case  ($59.99 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: Silverstone 450W 80+ Bronze Certified SFX Power Supply  ($69.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Monitor: Dell SE2216H 21.5" 60Hz Monitor  ($116.85 @ Amazon) 
Monitor: Dell SE2216H 21.5" 60Hz Monitor  ($116.85 @ Amazon) 
Total: $873.91
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-09-17 03:56 EDT-0400

 

about the case: it requires alot of patience to build in, it's really small, if you want to pick another case that's also a good option

[The_Sandman]

Just now, mikat said:

an i5-6500 should be fine, my mom uses that processor on her office build with 2x1080p monitors and it's fine

my dad uses the i5-4590 (worse gpu mainly, since its haswell) for photoshop and lightroom (professionally) and it's fine  

 

Thanks for the quick reply!

 

What motherboard do they use? How are the monitors connected?

[mikat]

Just now, Camastral said:

 

Thanks for the quick reply!

 

What motherboard do they use? How are the monitors connected?

I updated my post, and one is connected through vga and one through hdmi

[Mark77]

Will you have on-site IT support or a relatively sophisticated user infront of it all the time?  Or will there be a relative computer neophyte using it?

 

The reason I ask is that you might consider getting a board that supports Intel AMT or vPro, so if the user needs support, you can remote in on an 'out of band' basis and make whatever adjustments are necessary. 

[Glenwing]

Plenty of motherboards have 1 HDMI and 1 DVI, just use a DVI to HDMI adapter for one of the monitors.

[Mark77]

Boards are coming with DisplayPort as well.  Especially these days when there are some pretty solid reasons to have DisplayPort capability.

[The_Sandman]

45 minutes ago, Mark77 said:

Will you have on-site IT support or a relatively sophisticated user infront of it all the time?  Or will there be a relative computer neophyte using it?

 

The reason I ask is that you might consider getting a board that supports Intel AMT or vPro, so if the user needs support, you can remote in on an 'out of bound' basis and make whatever adjustments are necessary. 

 

It is a friend of mine that runs his own business, but he lives right next to me so if he should run into problems it should be easy for me to help, but thanks for your suggestions!

 

44 minutes ago, Glenwing said:

Plenty of motherboards have 1 HDMI and 1 DVI, just use a DVI to HDMI adapter for one of the monitors.

 

41 minutes ago, Mark77 said:

Boards are coming with DisplayPort as well.  Especially these days when there are some pretty solid reasons to have DisplayPort capability.

 

Yeah i was also thinking about getting an adapter to connect both displays. Thanks for your reply!

 

 

I think i will go with a motherboard with HDMI and DisplayPort output and an i5 6500 but no graphics card (because it's apparently not needed in this case).

 

Thanks for your help guys!

[Mark77]

Might still be worth going for a "Q" motherboard, especially since this isn't for gaming/overclocking.  You never know when remote management capability is going to be important, even if its just for the owner of the machine wanting it. 

 

"Q" boards only cost what, $20-$40 more or so?