$500 office/work - critique my build

[Vageetasjn]

It's been over 2 years since I built a computer. How's this for a $500 office desktop? Can you recommend any better components which cost a similar amount?
http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=26972012

Also: are there any barebones systems worth a damn that would save me a couple hours of my labor slapping this thing together?

 

[Yuriman]

If you can get away with not having an optical drive, or would be fine with a small external USB drive, an Intel NUC might suit you very well.

Here's one with a Broadwell i3, which includes case/mobo/PSU/CPU:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856102093R

There are smaller versions available that will only accept a M.2 SSD, and cheaper versions with Pentiums and Celerons instead, if you don't feel you need that much performance. Personally, I see the days of the full-sized desktop as basically at an end.

 

[mvbighead]

If you can get away with not having an optical drive, or would be fine with a small external USB drive, an Intel NUC might suit you very well.

Here's one with a Broadwell i3, which includes case/mobo/PSU/CPU:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856102093R

There are smaller versions available that will only accept a M.2 SSD, and cheaper versions with Pentiums and Celerons instead, if you don't feel you need that much performance. Personally, I see the days of the full-sized desktop as basically at an end.

Gaming/extended storage and a number of other items would make the NUC type systems not suitable for everyone. A lot of people can use them, but I doubt the desktop PC will ever completely go away.

 

[Yuriman]

Gaming/extended storage and a number of other items would make the NUC type systems not suitable for everyone. A lot of people can use them, but I doubt the desktop PC will ever completely go away.

"Full-sized desktop"

ITX can take care of 95% of the rest of the market.

 

[Vageetasjn]

Can the NUC run dual monitors?

 

[Yuriman]

Can the NUC run dual monitors?

AFAIK, yes, but it has one HDMI and one Display Port, so you'd need an adapter if neither of your screens take DP.

 

[Vageetasjn]

Sidenote: I would buy another Dell if they offered SSDs, but they don't unless you spend over $1K. Are there are any brands that put SSDs in budget systems?

 

[Beer4Me]

What you have looks solid to me, assuming you don't have any servers or plan to join to domain later on...

I have that same Fractal Core 1000 case with Asrock H97M-Pro and CoreI5 for my ESXi whitebox, and its wonderful for the price.

 

[SeanFL]

Yes, I run two monitors on my NUC i5. Works great. Use them for office tasks and audio editing.

 

[guidinggod]

@OP I think a Dell factory certified refurb like this one would serve you better http://outlet.us.dell.com/ARBOnlineSales/Online/SecondaryInventorySearch.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dfh&cs=22&puid=333e6d6f
$409 for a Haswell core i5 + win 8.1 pro upgradeable to win 10 + 1yr hardware warranty + 500 gb 7200rpm hdd + 4 gb ddr3
Just add in these: another 4 gb ram stick + Crucial 250gb ssd for another $101 http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3Pkxqs

Total: $510 for a vastly better system

 

[Blue_Max]

Just be sure to get the larger-sized NUC which gives you a laptop hard drive option instead of limiting you to an M2 SSD.

Unless, of course, you really don't need much storage and a 120-256GB SSD is sufficient. (For additional storage, I'm a big fan of the Seagate hybrid SSHD drives. So-so-speed 5400RPM laptop drive for storing tons of data, but 8GB of SSD caching for booting and the stuff you use all the time like Office and web browser.) My 2¢

 

[Charlie98]

I built a very similar G3220-powered system for my inlaws a few years ago in a Core 1000, about the only difference (besides your newer components) would be a 500GB HDD for backup images... because I always expect an SSD to fail at any time... but that could be handled by a portable external HDD.

The NUC looks like a good option, but it's inability to expand (USB ports, for example...) would make it a niche item. But if it works, it works.

 

[ultimatebob]

I'd pony up another $25 for a 256 GB SSD. You're going to run out of space pretty quickly with just 120 GB.