Office PC - Build or Prebuilt? ($400 budget)

[CowsGoMoo32]

I am in a volunteer organization that is looking to upgrade their PC's. The PC's are used for basic task mainly cloud based services like Quickbooks.

 

I was looking at building the 2 PC's we need with this build: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/mLLRCb

 

Current PC Specs:

Pentium Dual Core CPU - 2GB Ram - Windows 7 32 bit with a 200gb hard drive.

 

But when I was taking to a friend in the IT field he said to look into prebuilts for small offices instead of building a PC.

 

Thoughts on the build? Prebuilt or build? 

[CowsGoMoo32]

Just now, huilun02 said:

$400 for both or per computer?

Any monitor or peripherals required? Windows license?

$400 per PC. No monitor or peripherals needed. No windows license needed. 

[Mello]

The link is not working, can you post another one?

[brob]

Any particular reason for including an optical drive?

[CowsGoMoo32]

6 minutes ago, Mello said:

The link is not working, can you post another one?

PCPartPicker part list: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/mLLRCb
Price breakdown by merchant: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/mLLRCb/by_merchant/

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 3 2200G 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($98.69 @ OutletPC) 
Motherboard: MSI - B450M PRO-M2 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($64.99 @ B&H) 
Memory: G.Skill - Aegis 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  ($55.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Western Digital - Blue 500GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive  ($84.99 @ Amazon) 
Case: Rosewill - FBM-X1 MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($26.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: Corsair - VS 500W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply  ($22.98 @ Newegg) 
Optical Drive: Asus - DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer  ($21.85 @ OutletPC) 
Total: $376.48
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-10-08 14:05 EDT-0400

[CowsGoMoo32]

1 minute ago, brob said:

Any particular reason for including an optical drive?

Receive training information on CD's still. Many companies in our field still run on outdated methods. 

[brob]

Case selection is pretty important for an office unit. It should not have a window or fan grill on the top. Windows tend to scratch easily and begin to look unsightly. Open fan grills on top are simply accidents waiting to happen.

 

A good psu is important. Cheap psu tend to fail and often contribute to system instability.

 

Ryzen cpu tend to prefer faster memory. It's also a good idea to take advantage of the small performance improvement offered by dual channel memory operation.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 3 2200G 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($98.69 @ OutletPC) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte - B450M DS3H Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($69.89 @ OutletPC) 
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2800 Memory  ($65.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: ADATA - Ultimate SU650 480GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($66.99 @ Newegg) 
Case: Cooler Master - MasterBox E300L MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($34.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: Corsair - CX (2017) 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($45.00 @ Amazon) 
Optical Drive: Lite-On - iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer  ($13.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Total: $395.54
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-10-08 14:10 EDT-0400

[GoldenLag]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 3 2200G 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($98.69 @ OutletPC) 
Motherboard: ASRock - B450M-HDV Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($68.38 @ OutletPC) 
Memory: G.Skill - Aegis 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  ($57.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Inland - 480GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($62.99 @ Amazon) 
Case: Rosewill - SRM-01 MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($22.99 @ Newegg Business) 
Power Supply: Corsair - CXM (2015) 450W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($29.99 @ Newegg) 
Optical Drive: Asus - DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer  ($21.85 @ OutletPC) 
Total: $362.88
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-10-08 14:20 EDT-0400

 

Small changes for the better, its also cheaper. 

[Optane^]

19 minutes ago, GoldenLag said:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 3 2200G 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($98.69 @ OutletPC) 
Motherboard: ASRock - B450M-HDV Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($68.38 @ OutletPC) 
Memory: G.Skill - Aegis 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  ($57.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Inland - 480GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($62.99 @ Amazon) 
Case: Rosewill - SRM-01 MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($22.99 @ Newegg Business) 
Power Supply: Corsair - CXM (2015) 450W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($29.99 @ Newegg) 
Optical Drive: Asus - DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer  ($21.85 @ OutletPC) 
Total: $362.88
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-10-08 14:20 EDT-0400

 

Small changes for the better, its also cheaper. 

This is actually pretty good. I'd spend the extra cash on a better PSU tho. Still worried about the CM Corsair PSU's...

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/product/XxvZxr/evga-b3-450w-80-bronze-certified-fully-modular-atx-power-supply-220-b3-0450-v1

[VEXICUS]

2 hours ago, CowsGoMoo32 said:

I am in a volunteer organization that is looking to upgrade their PC's. The PC's are used for basic task mainly cloud based services like Quickbooks.

 

I was looking at building the 2 PC's we need with this build: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/mLLRCb

 

Current PC Specs:

Pentium Dual Core CPU - 2GB Ram - Windows 7 32 bit with a 200gb hard drive.

 

But when I was taking to a friend in the IT field he said to look into prebuilts for small offices instead of building a PC.

 

Thoughts on the build? Prebuilt or build? 

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 3 2200G 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($98.69 @ OutletPC) 
Motherboard: ASRock - B450M-HDV Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($68.38 @ OutletPC) 
Memory: G.Skill - Aegis 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  ($57.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Kingston - A400 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($39.99 @ Amazon) 
Case: Rosewill - FBM-01 MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($19.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: Corsair - CXM (2015) 450W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($29.99 @ Newegg) 
Optical Drive: Lite-On - iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer  ($13.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Total: $329.02
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-10-08 16:18 EDT-0400

[grss1982]

3 hours ago, CowsGoMoo32 said:

I am in a volunteer organization that is looking to upgrade their PC's. The PC's are used for basic task mainly cloud based services like Quickbooks.

 

I was looking at building the 2 PC's we need with this build: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/mLLRCb

 

Current PC Specs:

Pentium Dual Core CPU - 2GB Ram - Windows 7 32 bit with a 200gb hard drive.

 

But when I was taking to a friend in the IT field he said to look into prebuilts for small offices instead of building a PC.

 

Thoughts on the build? Prebuilt or build? 

Lots of big companies because the support contracts that go along with it like X years of warranty on parts and service.  But this companies tend to buy them in bulk though.  Your friend is probably from one such company.

[MandoPanda]

Of course almost everyone on this forum would encourage you to go with a self built system (myself included). But have you considered Chromebooks? If they only do webapps, you can get away with these. But since you already have monitors and keyboards and the like going for a desktop won't hurt anybody.

 

Do you intend to install Windows 7 on the PCs using the license they already have?

 

Here are a few amendments to your build that I thought was mostly good. Your RAM was a little slow, so I gave you faster RAM in dual channel.

Quote

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 3 2200G 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($98.69 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: MSI - B450M PRO-M2 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($64.99 @ B&H)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2666 Memory  ($71.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: ADATA - Ultimate SU650 480GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($66.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Rosewill - FBM-X1 MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($26.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair - CXM (2015) 450W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Optical Drive: Asus - DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer  ($21.85 @ Amazon)
Total: $401.48
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-10-08 20:45 EDT-0400

 

[CowsGoMoo32]

6 hours ago, brob said:

Case selection is pretty important for an office unit. It should not have a window or fan grill on the top. Windows tend to scratch easily and begin to look unsightly. Open fan grills on top are simply accidents waiting to happen.

 

A good psu is important. Cheap psu tend to fail and often contribute to system instability.

 

Ryzen cpu tend to prefer faster memory. It's also a good idea to take advantage of the small performance improvement offered by dual channel memory operation.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 3 2200G 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($98.69 @ OutletPC) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte - B450M DS3H Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($69.89 @ OutletPC) 
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2800 Memory  ($65.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: ADATA - Ultimate SU650 480GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($66.99 @ Newegg) 
Case: Cooler Master - MasterBox E300L MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($34.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: Corsair - CX (2017) 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($45.00 @ Amazon) 
Optical Drive: Lite-On - iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer  ($13.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Total: $395.54
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-10-08 14:10 EDT-0400

3

Really like these improvements. I am going to go with this build. Thank you for the help. 

13 minutes ago, MandoPanda said:

Of course almost everyone on this forum would encourage you to go with a self built system (myself included). But have you considered Chromebooks? If they only do webapps, you can get away with these. But since you already have monitors and keyboards and the like going for a desktop won't hurt anybody.

 

Do you intend to install Windows 7 on the PCs using the license they already have?

 

Here are a few amendments to your build that I thought was mostly good. Your RAM was a little slow, so I gave you faster RAM in dual channel.

 

They really like a desktop hard to get older people to switch what they want. Plus already have decent monitors and peripherals. 

 

I will install windows 10 from a code I have.

 

The RAM will be the G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2800 Memory from above.