Workstation CPU preference

[Caldren]

I'm wondering what is a processor people would recommend for a general office type workstation. No heavy video editing, just plain old web browsing, document editing, emailing, file server accessing office computer.

Ive mostly dealt with Intel, but have been impressed with some builds (and old laptops) I've used that have AMDs. I do know RAM and a GPU help a lot, (comments on those also gratefully accepted), but should I be shooting for more cores, GHz per core, L2 cache, etc? Been using i3 4130, and 4160s mostly, so not looking for an i7 level, but i5 (or AMD equivalent) isn't shooting too high.

[Vegetable]

for what you said, a ryzen 5 1400 would knock it out of the park but i'd wait for ryzen 3 if you want the BEST price/performance. 

[HKZeroFive]

I'd keep it simple; a Pentium G4560 with its integrated GPU would be more than enough. Get a SSD as well... a 1TB HDD would be unnecessary unless you need to store a substantial amount of data.

[Damascus]

Get a ryzen 5 1400 and a cheap display adapter, the r5 is basically an i7 (4c/8t) for the cost of a low end i5.  Only downside is you need a gpu (even like a $20 one of craigslist) or it won't work

[Changis]

37 minutes ago, Caldren said:

I'm wondering what is a processor people would recommend for a general office type workstation. No heavy video editing, just plain old web browsing, document editing, emailing, file server accessing office computer.

Ive mostly dealt with Intel, but have been impressed with some builds (and old laptops) I've used that have AMDs. I do know RAM and a GPU help a lot, (comments on those also gratefully accepted), but should I be shooting for more cores, GHz per core, L2 cache, etc? Been using i3 4130, and 4160s mostly, so not looking for an i7 level, but i5 (or AMD equivalent) isn't shooting too high.

depends on how often you change it out.. if its every year or every other year, go for a cheaper i3 or even celeron, if you won't change it for 5 years, get an i5 or equivalent amd so you won't be lagging behind on performance in 4 years

[NoMercy]

45 minutes ago, Caldren said:

No heavy video editing, just plain old web browsing, document editing, emailing, file server accessing office computer.

I dont see anything other than that G4560 worth putting in, R5 is totally overkill. Even 4GB of RAM would be sufficient. Ofcourse 8GB will do better if you have more budget.

[Caldren]

As an example. The builds I've done for the most part have been an i3 4130, 8GB HyperX Fury, Gigabyte Micro ATX B85 board, and a 256GB SSD, in a InWin CE 650 case (form factor). They run pretty well, but I noticed a computer made by someone else years ago with an ASUS ATX board (don't remember the #) 4GB kingston RAM, an SSD, and an AMD Phenom II black edition or something, seemed to run considerably better. (I don't think it has a GPU, but if it did it would be small and older)

Do ATX boards run better because of power?

Why would this matchup be this way?

Is it just really well built and well matched hardware?