Cpu for new office build....

[crashtech]

If future CPU upgrades are seriously being contemplated, it might be useful to use a 9-series motherboard (H97 or Z97) since these are the boards that are purported to be compatible with socketed Broadwell CPUs.

 

[Davidpaul007]

Heck, the way cpu prices have been not really trending down the last few years by the time i would think about upgrading the i7s will still be pricey

 

[Yuriman]

One point for the i3 is that it has a faster iGPU, if that'll matter at all for the "light" gaming your family does.

A Celeron will probably do fine though, and it'll be rather easy to pick up a second-hand Intel chip down the road and swap it out if you need more.

 

[DrMrLordX]

If future CPU upgrades are seriously being contemplated, it might be useful to use a 9-series motherboard (H97 or Z97) since these are the boards that are purported to be compatible with socketed Broadwell CPUs.

Hardware.fr reports that Broadwell won't be compatible with current LGA1150 motherboards, Z97 or no. Or so it would seem.

 

[crashtech]

Hardware.fr reports that Broadwell won't be compatible with current LGA1150 motherboards, Z97 or no. Or so it would seem.

I tried bringing this up in the Broadwell thread. I would encourage you to do the same, until we get more straight answers I'm afraid the picture might not be perfectly clear.


EDIT: A snip from the original VR-Zone article:

This presents a number of backwards compatibility issues, and means that only motherboards that support refreshed Haswell will be compatible with the 9-series Broadwell chips.

Read more: http://vr-zone.com/articles/intels-9-series-will-support-broadwell/53203.html#ixzz3G4GNcbqa

 

[escrow4]

Why would you even need Pentium over Celery for that kind of stuff? They're essentially the same chip!

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Celeron G1840 2.8GHz Dual-Core Processor ($46.98 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($48.99 @ Mwave)
Memory: Kingston 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($38.49 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: A-Data Premier Pro SP600 64GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($40.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($53.98 @ OutletPC)
Case: BitFenix Merc Beta (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($29.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24F1ST DVD/CD Writer ($14.99 @ Amazon)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 - 64-bit (OEM) (64-bit) ($90.26 @ OutletPC)
Wireless Network Adapter: Edimax EW-7811Un 802.11b/g/n USB 2.0 Wi-Fi Adapter ($8.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $393.64
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-10-13 09:19 EDT-0400

The mobo is rubbish, especially for a 5yr old system, 4GB won't last either, and that 64GB SSD is dog slow. I'd recommend:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116945

i3 4330, with HD 4600. 2 strog hyperthread cores hammering along at 3.5GHz.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128712

Gigabyte's H97-D3H, full ATX, plenty of room for expansion, has ALC 1150 which is currently the best onboard audio (and it really is good), and it can support 3 display's at once, including HDMI 1.4a. Plus an Intel NIC and decent build quality.

Add an 8GB RAM kit at least and at least a 250GB/500GB SSD (5yr time-frame in mind) with a fat HDD for bulk storage.

 

[eton975]

The mobo is rubbish, especially for a 5yr old system, 4GB won't last either, and that 64GB SSD is dog slow. I'd recommend:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116945

i3 4330, with HD 4600. 2 strog hyperthread cores hammering along at 3.5GHz.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128712

Gigabyte's H97-D3H, full ATX, plenty of room for expansion, has ALC 1150 which is currently the best onboard audio (and it really is good), and it can support 3 display's at once, including HDMI 1.4a. Plus an Intel NIC and decent build quality.

Add an 8GB RAM kit at least and at least a 250GB/500GB SSD (5yr time-frame in mind) with a fat HDD for bulk storage.

I agree with most of that. But if it's just simple office work, why bother with i3, unless simple office apps and web browsing will be different in 5 years? Haswell Celerons are very powerful... and he Pentium G3258 is a nice OCable chip...

What makes the mobo so rubbish? Is it a high failure rate (show me proof!)? Is it because it's H81 (Why would OP need a better chipset? They don't need more than 4 SATA ports or SLI/CFX).

Given how powerful modern CPUs are, and that OP most likely does not need the advantages of Intel LAN over Realtek LAN (he/she is not running FreeNAS!), I don't see why Intel LAN is needed.

I also don't see how a high-end audio codec is needed unless OP is running a surround-sound system.

I'm not sure if OP really needs to spend $45 more on a mobo for just these basic tasks, unless there is a real advantage that will affect his/her experience.

 

[escrow4]

^^^^

Its a 5yr build. You want longevity hence the i3, you want quality and expansion hence the mobo, you don't want to start out with bargain basement parts. And no box is just simple office work. Sooner or later you'll be using it for something heavier and you'll appreciate the onboard sound as soon as you use it.

A Haswell celeron is a 2014 E8500. Its not powerful and OC for an office box is a bad idea.

 

[Davidpaul007]

I really appreciate all the feedback. After hearing everyone's opinions I'm going to look for a smokin deal on an i3 and spend a few extra bucks for cool/powerful and save the overclocking for my own pc.

 

[Davidpaul007]

I love this time of year for pc building...

 

[crashtech]

The i3 is a good all-round chip that is probably a bit of overkill for an office machine, but it will mean that you have to check it for bloatware less often since the resources are there to soak it up. They are what I like to use when I know I won't see the machine again for a long time.

 

[eton975]

The i3 is a good all-round chip that is probably a bit of overkill for an office machine, but it will mean that you have to check it for bloatware less often since the resources are there to soak it up. They are what I like to use when I know I won't see the machine again for a long time.

Wouldn't RAM and HDD speed be much more important for bloatware?

 

[Insert_Nickname]

Wouldn't RAM and HDD speed be much more important for bloatware?

Yup. One sure cure for bloatware is an SSD. Coupled with 8GB memory, you don't really notice it.

I really recommend going 8GB at this point, as 4GB is beginning to be just on the low side. Remember the IGP (if you use it) uses main memory for graphics, and so has to fit in there too.

 

[monkeydelmagico]

The i3 is a good all-round chip that is probably a bit of overkill for an office machine, but it will mean that you have to check it for bloatware less often since the resources are there to soak it up. They are what I like to use when I know I won't see the machine again for a long time.

+1

i3 4130 for $109.- is one of the better deals.

 

[crashtech]

I guess some people have never seen add on programs hog up an entire core for extended periods? Storage can't fix that, which is why these days lower-end dual cores should be carefully managed.

 

[AnonymouseUser]

I guess some people have never seen add on programs hog up an entire core for extended periods? Storage can't fix that, which is why these days lower-end dual cores should be carefully managed.

I have, and it was really bad on the old single-core P4 system before I replaced it with a Lenovo dual-core Celeron system similar to the Pentium system I linked earlier. The Celeron handles it much better since it only hogs one of the two cores now, but a 4-thread CPU would do even better. Of course buying a new license (~$800-$1000) for the outdated software (circa 2007) would likely make the biggest improvement, but that's not up to me, I was just providing tech support. Adding additional 2GB RAM to that system was also necessary.

 

[AnonymouseUser]

You know, if you really want a low-cost computer that can game, you should look into the AMD APUs. Those GPUs are vastly superior to Intel's, and a quad-core APU system would be cheaper than a Core i3 system and better overall than a Pentium system.

 

[Davidpaul007]

You know, if you really want a low-cost computer that can game, you should look into the AMD APUs. Those GPUs are vastly superior to Intel's, and a quad-core APU system would be cheaper than a Core i3 system and better overall than a Pentium system.

Show me an amd chip that can compete with a $60 G3258 or a $110 i3 4150.

 

[crashtech]

An A8-5500 would probably game better, but that's not what this machine is for.

 

[AnonymouseUser]

An A8-5500 would probably game better, but that's not what this machine is for.

Actually, it is:

When i say office machine i should have been more clear: this is for my stay at home wife to surf facebook, pinterist, etc, store gobs of photos and videos of our children, and the little ones to do light gaming.

Basically just an all around house computer that probably won't see a ton of gaming for a couple years. My wife (and I) both highly value "snappy". (Hence the req for an ssd).

Thinking down the road a couple of years this could definitely turn into a gaming machine for one of my kids.

I'd consider myself an ethusiast, so actually building the system myself is enjoyable and future upgradability is important (thus the preference for not going pre-built route). But we all know that sometimes by the time you're needing an upgrade the cpu sockets have changed and need a new mobo/ram combo.

Show me an amd chip that can compete with a $60 G3258 or a $110 i3 4150.

In the only benchmarks that would actually matter for your requirements (gaming), the AMD chips absolutely trounce those Intel chips ***. The only time the Intel chips make sense is if you add discrete graphics, but that only makes the AMD chip an even better bargain.

So to answer your question, the A8-6600K is currently $85 w/promo code.

*** i3 4130 = HD 4400, i3 4330 = HD 4600, so the 4130 would be slightly slower than the 4330.

 

[Abwx]

So to answer your question, the A8-6600K is currently $85 w/promo code.

If it is available at nearby price the A8 7600 is the best of the lot perf/price wise, it has a turbo up to 3.7-3.8 , with 10% higher IPC than Richland it should be as good, this is surely the best chip for little PCs using the IGP but i can only insist, like everybody, about the necessity of a SSD, a 128GB is enough as it s better to add a little HDD, 500GB-1TB, for mass storages.

Among other the 7600 can hardware decode H265 easily thanks to its HSA features, i dont think that other CPUs have this capability.

 

[AnonymouseUser]

If it is available at nearby price the A8 7600 is the best of the lot perf/price wise, it has a turbo up to 3.7-3.8 , with 10% higher IPC than Richland it should be as good, this is surely the best chip for little PCs using the IGP but i can only insist, like everybody, about the necessity of a SSD, a 128GB is enough as it s better to add a little HDD, 500GB-1TB, for mass storages.

Among other the 7600 can hardware decode H265 easily thanks to its HSA features, i dont think that other CPUs have this capability.

You're right that the 7600 is better, and for some reason it didn't show in my search on Newegg, but they do have it for $110 currently. Despite being the same price as an i3 4130, it's GPU is much better for gaming.

 

[frozentundra123456]

If you want to turn it into a competent gaming machine just add a discrete card a couple years down the road.

 

[Davidpaul007]

I don't care if the amd chip has slightly better igp than an Intel chip...if this machine where to ever be used as a kids game computer i would stick a discrete card in it. When I asked for an amd chip that could compete with intel for price/performance it was with the intent of a home do-it-all office type machine--though honestly fit that purpose out probably wouldn't matter between the two. That said, I am biased towards intel though perhaps unfairly!

 

[Abwx]

You're right that the 7600 is better, and for some reason it didn't show in my search on Newegg, but they do have it for $110 currently. Despite being the same price as an i3 4130, it's GPU is much better for gaming.

The cost adder is not specialy the APU, the problem is to find a cheap mini itx MB , and that s for both i3 and A8, as the retailers know that this is a very desirable feature for a lot of people, hence much exagerated prices in comparison of uATX boards that are inadequate given the low power constraints.

CPU wise surely that a SSD with about any CPU will be much more responsive and pleasant to use than a HDD coupled with a significantly more powerfull CPU, it would be interesting to have some opinions about this though.