Inexpensive office build

[stslimited84]

Building three pc's for an office environment. Primary duties involve running quickbooks and using the internet.

Looking for a efficient low cost low power build with an ssd. Already have power supplies.

Looking at these components so far. Thoughts and suggestions are welcomed and encouraged.

Cpu - I3 2120 T - $134.99

SSD - Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD2 2.5" 128GB SATA III

The rest is undecided at this point. I can't believe how much RAM has jumped up in price since XMAS. I got 16 gig of Gskill Ram 1600 for 65 bucks then, and now its closer to 90.


Thoughts?

 

[azeem40]

For regular office builds, I'd only get 4GB of RAM. I'd also just get the i3-2100.

 

[stslimited84]

Yea I wasn't planning on using 16 gig per pc, was just using that as a price comparison.

Do you think the 2120 T power savings isnt worth the price difference?

 

[g-unit1111]

Yea I wasn't planning on using 16 gig per pc, was just using that as a price comparison.

Do you think the 2120 T power savings isnt worth the price difference?

No - you won't notice it. Get the regular i3-2120. I use that in my workstation and it works great.

Try this build with everything:

Case: Cooler Master HAF 912 - $59.99 ($10.00 MIR)
PSU: Corsair Builder Series CX600 V2 - $69.99 ($20.00 MIR)
Motherboard: Asrock Z68 Extreme 3 Gen 3 - $121.99
CPU: 3.30 GHz Intel Core i3-2120 - $127.99
RAM: Mushkin Enhanced Silverline 8GB 1600Mhz 1.5V - $44.99
HD: Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB - $84.99
Optical: Lite On DVD Burner - $17.99
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 6850 - $149.99 ($15.00 MIR)
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium - $99.99
Monitor: Acer S200HL - $99.99
Keyboard / Mouse: Logitech MK260 - $26.99

Total: $902.89 - $45.00 MIR = $857.89

 

[Zero_]

^ good build, but isn't that a bit hefty for an office build that'll just run quickbooks and surf?

I'd suggest something like the $600 build in my sig, minus the graphics card and PSU. Should only cost you around $400 without monitor, keyboard, mouse and speakers.

 

[g-unit1111]

^ good build, but isn't that a bit hefty for an office build that'll just run quickbooks and surf?

I'd suggest something like the $600 build in my sig, minus the graphics card and PSU. Should only cost you around $400 without monitor, keyboard, mouse and speakers.

Yeah you could probably cut out the video card altogether and run off the Intel onboard video which this board allows you to do - but I don't recommend going cheap on the PSU.

 

[CaedenV]

For simple office builds it is hard to beat the price of an entry level Dell or HP, plus they will offer better support/warranty than going the home-brew route. Keep in mind that even my wife's Core2Duo makes for a screaming fast office machine with 4GB of ram. The real trick is to slap a small SSD in there for the OS, and it will run office and quickbooks very nicely.

Keep in mind that the speed of quickbooks depends just as much on the server that hosts it as it does the computer opening it. We have quickbooks here on our network and it is slow even though our computers are plenty fast, and it is all due to network bottlenecks. Once we get a few network issues figured out it should fly quite nicely.

 

[CaedenV]

for the SSD: Win7, office, web browsers, and a few utilities and other programs only takes ~30GB, so a small 60GB drive is more than large enough, and then put all of your documents on a server with redundancy.

 

[g-unit1111]

For simple office builds it is hard to beat the price of an entry level Dell or HP, plus they will offer better support/warranty than going the home-brew route. Keep in mind that even my wife's Core2Duo makes for a screaming fast office machine with 4GB of ram. The real trick is to slap a small SSD in there for the OS, and it will run office and quickbooks very nicely.

Keep in mind that the speed of quickbooks depends just as much on the server that hosts it as it does the computer opening it. We have quickbooks here on our network and it is slow even though our computers are plenty fast, and it is all due to network bottlenecks. Once we get a few network issues figured out it should fly quite nicely.

Yeah - that's one thing Dell / HP are good for - they may make junk PCs that can't be upgraded but their service is usually pretty good for the most part and if you run a business you certainly don't want to be spending all your overhead on new PC parts if you can possibly help it.

for the SSD: Win7, office, web browsers, and a few utilities and other programs only takes ~30GB, so a small 60GB drive is more than large enough, and then put all of your documents on a server with redundancy.

Yeah you could probably run off a 64GB M4 and be perfectly fine. Store everything else on the central servers if you have one.

 

[stslimited84]

Should have mentioned it earlier. The PSU are thermaltakes. Already have copies of Windows 7, and peripherals such as monitor and keyboard are taken care of. Really just need to pick ram, mobo, case, and settle on an SSD and CPU.

 

[stslimited84]

Recommendations for a mobo for the i3 are needed. TY!