Fast and reliable energy efficient Home Office desktop ($1000-$2000)

GreenPC

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I'm looking to purchase a system ASAP (preferably within the next few weeks) as cost effectively as possible (pref. < $2000) that will be extremely reliable, responsive, and energy efficient, for home office use.

I don't have the bandwidth to build and debug the system myself from scratch, so am hoping for recommendations for who to buy the system from (Maingear? Ibuypower? Dell? HP?) and what to ask of them or any other option that would be very reliable and require as little of my work time as possible. Or failing that, just to get a good sense of what components I should be looking for...

I'd really appreciate any recommendations and advice!
Dave.

What I'm looking for with respect to performance is:
*To be able to have many apps running and over a hundred windows/tabs open and the computer not significantly slow down

*Extremely stable (almost never slowing or crashing) with high data security (e.g. won't lose anything if HD dies).

*For apps to open very quickly (Outlook (w/several Gig of messages stored).

*For files and emails to be indexed and searched very quickly (I have 10,000's of files and msgs, with new ones arriving all the time, that I often need to do searches over).

*For the computer to go in and out of standby and hibernate modes very quickly and easily

*For video performance, to support the 2560x1600 Dell monitor I have now and be able to do things like video editing and video conferences smoothly. This isn't for games however, and it wouldn't be worth it to me to pay lots in terms of $'s or energy usage for video performance that would only be applicable to gaming...

With respect to energy efficiency:
*The system should have as efficient a power supply as possible
*The system should use minimal power in standby mode (<1W ideally)
*The system should use minimal power during operation (<100W ideally)
*The system should be very quiet and release minimal heat into the room
*The system should meet the highest Energy Star requirements, and ideally, EPEAT Gold or higher

My thoughts with respect to components
*The new i7-4770K processor unless there’s some reason not to get that.

*A GPU that is sufficient to handle any business need (e.g. hundreds of windows, smooth videos, etc.) while minimizing cost and energy consumption.

*16G RAM (ideally upgradeable beyond that) with 64-bit Windows 7

*High performance SSD boot drive w/enough space for MS Office and apps (current usage is 115G wW7), with other drive(s) for data and media storage. And what are the pros and cons for the secondary data storage drives to be in a RAID 1 configuration for data security if I have both online and physical external backup systems? Also, what are the pros and cons of using “hybrid” (SSD/conventional) drives?

*DVD player and Blu-ray burner

*Media card reader (multi format)

*Fax modem

*Lots of USB 3 ports, gigabit ethernet, good sound and video ports, etc..

*Extremely efficient and quiet power supply and fans

*Ideally, room to expand (drives, memory, etc.) and easy to do so

*No keyboard, mouse or monitor needed

*Good support package
 

Bexx

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May 9, 2013
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I would suggest building it yourself, it's really not hard because even I managed it lol! I was very big on speed when building mine so I think an SSD is obviously essential for you, put your OS on there with your most often used bits and everything will be lovely and fast.

AMD I think may be your best bet for a budget build and your needs, you could probably easily use the quad core FX-4300 or the 6 core FX-6300. 16GB RAM might be too much in my opinion you'd be fine with 8GB. I don't know much about intel but I know everyone recommends i5 over i7 as there is almost no difference at all and for less $.

I've never suggested parts to anyone before so you'll probably get better results from other people but here's some of my thoughts anyway :)

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-4300 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor ($109.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Corsair Neutron Series 256GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($196.82 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Rosewill Tachyon 550W 80 PLUS Platinum Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($139.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: LG UH12NS29 Blu-Ray Reader, DVD/CD Writer ($49.98 @ Outlet PC)
Total: $496.78
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-06-14 14:00 EDT-0400)
 

g-unit1111

Titan
Moderator
I don't have the bandwidth to build and debug the system myself from scratch, so am hoping for recommendations for who to buy the system from (Maingear? Ibuypower? Dell? HP?) and what to ask of them or any other option that would be very reliable and require as little of my work time as possible. Or failing that, just to get a good sense of what components I should be looking for...

You don't need it. Most of the big box vendors sell junk systems and overload the OS with so much extra software that it's almost unusuable.

For just basic MS Office programs you don't need a 4770K for that. Unless you're factoring in heavy duty audio and video editing, then I would recommend it. Otherwise it's MASSIVE overkill for your uses. An AMD A10-6800K would be more suited to your build since again, you won't need a dedicated GPU for your uses. The onboard video of the A10 will be perfectly fine for Outlook and other uses. I don't really recommend BD-R on PC because it's more of a pain to setup and actually use than it's worth. If you need something for large backups use an external hard drive.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-4300 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor ($109.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Corsair Neutron Series 256GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($196.82 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Rosewill Tachyon 550W 80 PLUS Platinum Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($139.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: LG UH12NS29 Blu-Ray Reader, DVD/CD Writer ($49.98 @ Outlet PC)
Total: $496.78
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-06-14 14:00 EDT-0400)

Case? Motherboard? RAM? :heink:

Here's what I would suggest for such a build for the OP's uses:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD A10-6800K 4.1GHz Quad-Core Processor ($149.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock FM2A75 Pro4 ATX FM2 Motherboard ($85.97 @ Newegg)
Memory: Mushkin Blackline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($64.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: OCZ Vector Series 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($128.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 430W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($65.98 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($17.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $655.88
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-06-14 14:08 EDT-0400)
 

The Kasafist

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Mar 20, 2013
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I am going to do my best to rcommend certain things to you try for more cores rather than newer model CPU. Multimedia, programs and apps especially benefit from more cores unlike gaming at the time where a quad core is just fine your pc should have 6 considering the amount of data you got to deal with like the i7 3930K Hex Core (that's 6 cores just to be sure) :) 16GB RAM is a smart idea preferrably (2x8GB) minimum 1600MHz Corsair Venegance is just fine don't pay more than $130 though for 2 sticks of 8GB or depending on your motherboard you may even benefit from doing 4GB sticks and do 16GB @ (4x4GB) some motherboards have quad channel memory. my recommendation would be the Asus Ramapage IV Extreme if you want to utilize the most of your GPU (video card) especially if later down the road you decide to pop another on in there and SLI or Crossfire them. As far as a power supply goes sounds like you need lots of power to prevent having to spend money later on when you add more to this pc and you don't want that so go with 1200W or higher with no less than Gold certified, platinum would be even better but are hard to come by. I know corsair has a 1200W Platinum PSU and Rosewill has a 1300W Gold PSU. Newegg carries both. If am not mistaken the Rosewill is a great bang for your buck also. On top of tossing in that extra 100W plus it has lots of nice colored LEDs that color code what's what LOL if that matters at all! An SSD will make things much faster as far as when accessing files directly on the SSD and help your boot time also but right now Crucial has the best price per GB ratio at this time they're 960GB is only $600 they're 480GB is like $395 but that 960GB is definitely the best price per GB ratio on the market right now as far as reliable brands go anyhow! Your GPU is the tough part hmm....pushing multidia and massiv amounts of apps and such on top of editing and the whole 9 your pc would benefit from higher VRAM where in video games this is not the case 2GB is more than enough for gaming but with everything you got to deal with I say a minimum of 3GB the new GTX 700 series from standard at 3GB but if you want to save a little cash there is nothing wrong with that since the 700s are like $600 plus dollars you can a GTX 670 FTX+ 4GB VRAM for like $440 on neweeg at the time (even if you're not gaming heck it comes with a free game too so what the hey right give it as a gift to family or enjoy it yourself! I cannot justify getting a 1K GPU like the Titan or the GTX 690 when VRAM matters but the Titan is literally more than double the 670 and that 670 has like 60% of the VRAM the Titan does at its 6GB VRAM. the GTX 670 FTW+ will support your monitors resolution also ;) just in case you were wondering I didn't forget. Note: may not include the DVI cable you need to utilize that resolution if I am not mistaken so be aware of this. As far as a case goes don't know cases are for style really all that matters is you get a case that can fit an E-ATX motherboard like the Asus Ramapage IV Extreme or Asus Rampage IV Formula at least which the formula should be just regular ATX. ATX is a form facter another word for size! If you choose the Rampage IV Extreme I recommend the cooler master storm stryker (beautiful white case lots of space) or storm trooper (black version of the stryker), if not then the Cooler Master HAF X is huge with hotswapable drive bays which you might benefit from. You shouldn't need a case bigger than that. Not by a long shot. Blu-Ray burners are a bit pricey like near $100 but if that's what you need then do it nowadays everything stream but when talking about multimedia you should get things you feel are necessary or are a must have. Not stopping ya! Remember multimedia unlike gaming benefit from more VRAM, RAM and Cores. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise I know this because my fiancee does graphic designing and photoshopping and the whole dang 9 yards and then some and her lousy pre-built iMac is not even a year old and already slacking!!!!! She tried mine with similar parts to what I recommended and was surprised! (pshh and i'm only gaming on that thing at the time) anyhow yes I to spent near 2K and with what you will be using this for you will benefit even more than I. I don't even have the hex core cause it pointless for my gaming but you will definitely benefit. I truly hope that I have helped you in your decision if I forgot something please don't hesitate to ask OH YEA and a Raid 1 is best to back up your files. SSDs are known to actually perform worse when in Raid 0.
 

GreenPC

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Thanks for the suggestions! The reason I'm asking for 'overkill' components is because every PC I've ever owned slows to a crawl and I'm sick of that. I think it's because I am running so many applications simultaneously, that the CPU is getting taxed from process switching, the RAM is being used up (I can see that happen), etc. I even wonder if having so many windows open taxes the GPU (though I obviously don't need capabilities that are game specific). In any case, I would much rather pay for 'overkill' than risk having my PC being slow!

Re: building myself, I'm very worried that something will go wrong (I'll miss a connection, won't have the correct drivers, etc.), and I have no time at all to spare to take away from work and family obligations. So, though I would enjoy the process, I am very willing to pay extra for someone else to take the time and responsibility to make sure that everything is working perfectly smoothly the first time I turn it on!
 

GreenPC

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Thanks for the advice re: more cores. My concern there is energy efficiency, since what I've seen is that the higher core processors use much more energy.

Any recommendations for an energy efficient high-core processor?

Re: GPU: I also didn't know that I'd need a lot of RAM if not using for gaming. Again, my question would be which would be the most energy efficient solution that would meet my needs.
 

The Kasafist

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VRAM favors multimedia over gaming is what I meant to say my apoligies!
 

g-unit1111

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s far as a case goes don't know cases are for style really all that matters is you get a case that can fit an E-ATX motherboard like the Asus Ramapage IV Extreme or Asus Rampage IV Formula at least which the formula should be just regular ATX. ATX is a form facter another word for size! If you choose the Rampage IV Extreme I recommend the cooler master storm stryker (beautiful white case lots of space)

Why? A $450 motherboard is not worth purchasing on any build. Especially for the OP's purposes - this is an office workstation, not a gaming rig. Spending $450 on a motherboard will not make a system "future proof", and that's not what the OP is going for here. Overpaying on components for an MS Office build is completely unnecessary.

I know corsair has a 1200W Platinum PSU and Rosewill has a 1300W Gold PSU. Newegg carries both. If am not mistaken the Rosewill is a great bang for your buck also. On top of tossing in that extra 100W plus it has lots of nice colored LEDs that color code what's what LOL if that matters at all!

You will never need or use 1200W or anything above - there is no GPU that needs that these days. Even a GTX Titan only puts out about 250W on maximum usage. Don't worry about extra fancy lighting - that's the sign of a poorly manufactured power supply.

cannot justify getting a 1K GPU like the Titan or the GTX 690 when VRAM matters but the Titan is literally more than double the 670 and that 670 has like 60% of the VRAM the Titan does at its 6GB VRAM. the GTX 670 FTW+ will support your monitors resolution also ;) just in case you were wondering I didn't forget.

You don't need a $1,000 GPU for a MS Office build. If you were using Photoshop or After Effects you could justify the purchase but the OP is not using this PC for this case. Plus the GTX 670 has been replaced with the 770, and the 680 has been replaced with the 780.

Thanks for the suggestions! The reason I'm asking for 'overkill' components is because every PC I've ever owned slows to a crawl and I'm sick of that. I think it's because I am running so many applications simultaneously, that the CPU is getting taxed from process switching, the RAM is being used up (I can see that happen), etc. I even wonder if having so many windows open taxes the GPU (though I obviously don't need capabilities that are game specific). In any case, I would much rather pay for 'overkill' than risk having my PC being slow!

That most likely has to do with software rather than hardware. If you build it yourself you'll get a far better system than anything you could purchase pre built. Both of my rigs have lasted far longer than anything I would have ever got from Best Buy.

Re: building myself, I'm very worried that something will go wrong (I'll miss a connection, won't have the correct drivers, etc.), and I have no time at all to spare to take away from work and family obligations. So, though I would enjoy the process, I am very willing to pay extra for someone else to take the time and responsibility to make sure that everything is working perfectly smoothly the first time I turn it on!

There's plenty of guides out there that can help you build a system. Even this site here.
 

The Kasafist

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He asked for room to upgrade I figure something that won't bottleneck the GPU will well the budget is pretty large and he will benefit from more cores I still stand by my suggetions but I totally agree that a pre-built will definitely not do him justice. he will need more VRAM he mentions multimedia and editing somewhere up there probably near the beginning of this post and he's accessing a remendous amount of files simultaneously I feel he'll benefit fromt he cores yes the Asus Ramapage IV Extreme might have been too excessive you're right not knocking you there but still this is about massive amounts of applications running on top of multimedia and what not. I also agree the blu-ray drive might not be the best choice but didn't want to knock on what he feels will be necessary personally like you said the external should do! He also mentioned room for upgrading I am not trying to future proof the system but more like leave him lots of cushion to upgrade and slap in there what ever he wishes without ever pushing the PSU within 90% of if max power.
 

g-unit1111

Titan
Moderator
He asked for room to upgrade I figure something that won't bottleneck the GPU will well the budget is pretty large and he will benefit

Yeah but pretty much no CPU will be a bottleneck for a GPU these days. I honestly don't recommend spending money when you don't have to. Unless the OP is going X79 there's no reason to purchase that CPU as you're overpaying by about $300 for no real performance gain.

I feel he'll benefit from the cores yes the Asus Ramapage IV Extreme might have been too excessive you're right not knocking you there but still this is about massive amounts of applications running on top of multimedia and what not.

But you most likely won't make use of the extra cores unless you need it for some other purpose (IE video / photo editing, rendering, etc).

I am not trying to future proof the system but more like leave him lots of cushion to upgrade and slap in there what ever he wishes without ever pushing the PSU within 90% of if max power.

There's no such thing as future proofing a build. A 1200W PSU won't do it. In fact the trend is actually going in reverse - things are becoming far more energy efficient than they once were. Like I said even the $1K GTX Titan won't put out more than 250W on a full output.
 

g-unit1111

Titan
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Depends on the GPU and what programs are going to be used. If you've got, say a 780 and you're using some heavy duty After Effects work, then yeah you'll need a bit more of a heftier PSU. But if you're just using a Radeon 7750 you won't need more than a 450 or 500W PSU.
 

GreenPC

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Our house is net zero energy and I'm working on the desktop sometimes 15+ hours a day. And in the summer, the heat from the desktop can warm up my entire office....

And, BTW, of course I'd like to get as small a power supply as needed. My current system has a 380W power supply (with same design constraints from 3 years ago)
 

The Kasafist

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What I'm looking for with respect to performance is:
*To be able to have many apps running and over a hundred windows/tabs open and the computer not significantly slow down

*Extremely stable (almost never slowing or crashing) with high data security (e.g. won't lose anything if HD dies).

*For apps to open very quickly (Outlook (w/several Gig of messages stored).

*For files and emails to be indexed and searched very quickly (I have 10,000's of files and msgs, with new ones arriving all the time, that I often need to do searches over).

*For the computer to go in and out of standby and hibernate modes very quickly and easily

"*For video performance, to support the 2560x1600 Dell monitor I have now and be able to do things like video editing and video conferences smoothly. This isn't for games however, and it wouldn't be worth it to me to pay lots in terms of $'s or energy usage for video performance that would only be applicable to gaming..."

jus thought if you want a computer that performs this kind of stuff you won't get it with the builds mentioned above and if heat is an issue my pc practically blows out cool air when not overclocked with a simple closed loop liquid cooling system will keep things from getting hot. The one thing that gets hottest is the GPU and Artic Accelero Hybrid can take care of that I can cut cost for the parts going AMD with the CPU and such but you want to do a ton with this and I don't everyone fully read what you want to do with this pc.
 

The Kasafist

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Just though I would mention more cores because the one thing that gamers don't usually go for these is cores in their CPU because they won't benefit from them but with video editing at those resolution while running tons of applications simultaneously will put pressure on a cheap CPU by that I mean cheap in the sense of performance not cost. You want a CPU that's not expensive but has the cores to push the pc to prevent the issues you're are encountering perhaps at least a AMD FX 8250 will help this has 8 cores and it's like $200 ball park.
 

GreenPC

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The PC does not need to be built around video editing as that is a very rare activity for me. More common is to simply be working in lots of windows and office applications simultaneously, and perhaps doing video conferencing...
 

The Kasafist

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OOOOOOHHHHHH ok well since its rare then you should go with the pc that g-unit 1111 mentioned then that's totally fine. But be warned that video editing even on occasion will be horrible with on board graphics I would still recommend that you get a dedicated GPU I am sure that g-unit 1111 has the perfect solution for that though take it away g-unit 1111!
 

GreenPC

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Keep in mind that I'm willing to pay a premium for a highly rated company to build and guarantee performance and reliability for the system. Performance, reliability, energy efficiency, and not having to spend any time installing/debugging are all more important to me than budget...

That said, who do I go to in order to get this, and what components should I tell them I want?

 

The Kasafist

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If you really don't want to toss this together yourself and you we would really hate to see you spend too much I cannot in my good heart recommend anyone other than digitalstorm.com tell them what it is for and tell them about your heat issue at home as well a simple closed loop liquid cooling system will keep things nice and cool in your pc. Mention the parts that g-unit 1111 mentioned and see what they can do for you. I have met very experienced seasoned techs who always build their own pc went to digitalstorm cause time was an issue with their work and lifestyle and I tell they were not disappointed. They say at "retail prices" digitalstorm will only run you about $60 more than building it yourself! Lots of good reviews come from them I have even seen articles here on Tom's Hardware about them!!!!!