Future Proof Office PC - dual monitor

Claudio · 4 Oct 2018 at 23:45

Hi,

i am in the process to build a PC for an office (no video/photo editing) with a dual monitor setup, possibly staying below £1000, could i have your opinions on the following:

1 MB-33S-MS MSI B450 GAMING PRO CARBON AC (Socket AM4) DDR4 ATX Motherboard £119.99 £119.99
1 CP-3AA-AM AMD Ryzen 5 2400G VEGA Graphics AM4 CPU w/ Wraith Stealth Cooler £130.99 £130.99
1 MY-073-TG Team Group Dark Pro 8GB (2x4GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black/Red (TDPRD48G3200 £94.99 £94.99
1 HD-044-TS Toshiba 1TB P300 7200RPM Performance Hard Drive (HDWD110UZSVA) £32.99 £32.99
1 BU-000-SL SPEEDLINK Mechanical Gaming Bundle - Mouse, Keyboard, Headset and Mouse Mat £34.99 £34.99
1 CA-196-CS Corsair Carbide Series 100R Silent Edition Mid-Tower PC Case - Black £57.95 £57.95
2 MO-119-BQ BenQ GW2270H 22" 1920x1080 VA Widescreen LED Flicker-Free Slim Bezel Monitor - Black £89.99 £179.98
1 CA-11V-BQ be quiet! Pure Power 10 400W CM 80 Plus Silver Modular Power Supply £64.99 £64.99
1 HD-232-SA Samsung 250GB 860 EVO SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 64 Layer 3D V-NAND Solid State Drive (MZ-76E250B/EU) £55.99 £55.99
1 SW-174-MS Microsoft Windows 10 32/64-Bit (Creator Update Ver.)- USB Pen Drive - Retail (KW9-00478) £114.95 £114.95

£887.81

Thanks, much apreciated,

C.

just noticed that the monitor i choose haven't got a display port...sad

orbitalwalsh · 5 Oct 2018 at 07:27

My basket at Overclockers UK:

1 x Primo Nano i5 - Intel NUC NUC7i5BNH Core i5-7260U = £628.94
- Memory:Corsair Value 8GB (1x8GB) DDR4 PC4-17000 2133MHz 260 Pin SODIMM Kit (CMSO8GX4M1A2133C15)
- M.2 Solid State Drive:Unwanted
- Solid State Drive:Kingston A400 480GB SATA 6Gb/s 2.5" Solid State Hard Drive - (SA400S37/480G)
- Operating System:Microsoft Windows 10 64-Bit DVD - OEM (MS-KW9-00139)
- Security Software:Bullguard Anti-Virus 2017 - 1 PC 1 Year
2 x BenQ GW2270H 22" 1920x1080 VA Widescreen LED Flicker-Free Slim Bezel Monitor - Black= £89.99

Total: £836.94 (includes shipping: £28.02)

EsaT · 5 Oct 2018 at 09:34

That more expensive BeQuiet is step behind this Bitfenix in everything but modular cabling.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/bitfenix-formula-series-450w-80-plus-gold-power-supply-ca-22x-bx.html

WD Blue M.2 SSD would be £5 cheaper than that Samsung.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/wd-b...-solid-state-drive-wds250g2b0b-hd-54l-wd.html

orbitalwalsh · 5 Oct 2018 at 10:08

https://www.tomshardware.co.uk/be-quiet-pure-power-10-600w-psu,review-33932-11.html

https://www.tomshardware.co.uk/bitfenix-formula-gold-650w-psu,review-34191-12.html

not the same power but gives a quick run down on the two . Used the 500w version of the Pure 10 running engineering Samples of vega and ryzen and was fine , but for £4 cheaper, would nap the Formula - its a damn good unit and quoted as a base line on here.
though no idea on Customer Service with Benifix - only dealt with their marketing and not sure were their RMA is , Bequiet is in Germany

ExoMale · 7 Oct 2018 at 23:34

orbital got the best solution really or the alternatives to a nuc.. if its just for office stuff then no point going for more than you need for part types.

Claudio · 8 Oct 2018 at 02:19

Even if its just office stuff i would like to invest a little more and have it future proof...a responsive machine, quick boot, as little loading time for basic office applications as possible...does the nuc supports dual monitor? i see only one hdmi there...something i am doing wrong?

ExoMale · 9 Oct 2018 at 18:43

that nuc supports 3 monitors just not all from hdmi

Claudio · 9 Oct 2018 at 22:52

would you mind explaining how please?

edit: nevermind i figured it out!

So you think this NUC is quite a responsive machine? have got bad experiences with barebones in past...

Claudio · 10 Oct 2018 at 01:00

from a different shop:

8GB (1x8GB) Corsair DDR4 SODIMM Value Select, PC4-17000 (2133), Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 15-15-15-36, 1.2V £69.98Intel
NUC Barebone Kit, i7-7567U, DDR4, M.2+2.5" SATA, GbE, WiFi/BT, Intel Iris Plus Graphics 650, Thunderbolt £434.98
21.5" Benq GW2270H Monitor, VA 1920x1080, 5ms, 250cd/m2, 3000:1, 2x HDMI/VGA, Low Blue light mode, VESA Mount, Black £172.97
500GB WD Blue 3D, 2.5" SSD, SATA III - 6Gb/s, 3D NAND, Read 560MB/s, Write 530MB/s, 95k/84k IOPS, £83.99
Microsoft Windows 10 Home, w/ Creators Update, 32/64-bit, English International, USB Pendrive, 1 License, £104.99

Total: 878.40

for a newer NUC mounting an I7 7567U, is it worth for the sake of £30/40 more?

orbitalwalsh · 11 Oct 2018 at 10:06

Claudio said:
from a different shop:

8GB (1x8GB) Corsair DDR4 SODIMM Value Select, PC4-17000 (2133), Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 15-15-15-36, 1.2V £69.98Intel
NUC Barebone Kit, i7-7567U, DDR4, M.2+2.5" SATA, GbE, WiFi/BT, Intel Iris Plus Graphics 650, Thunderbolt £434.98
21.5" Benq GW2270H Monitor, VA 1920x1080, 5ms, 250cd/m2, 3000:1, 2x HDMI/VGA, Low Blue light mode, VESA Mount, Black £172.97
500GB WD Blue 3D, 2.5" SSD, SATA III - 6Gb/s, 3D NAND, Read 560MB/s, Write 530MB/s, 95k/84k IOPS, £83.99
Microsoft Windows 10 Home, w/ Creators Update, 32/64-bit, English International, USB Pendrive, 1 License, £104.99

Total: 878.40

for a newer NUC mounting an I7 7567U, is it worth for the sake of £30/40 more?

https://ark.intel.com/products/97539/Intel-Core-i5-7260U-Processor-4M-Cache-up-to-3-40-GHz-

https://ark.intel.com/products/97541/Intel-Core-i7-7567U-Processor-4M-Cache-up-to-4-00-GHz-

both 2 cores 4 threads

if you were doing editing, the i7 due to speed! good 1ghz over but for office stuff, get what ever is cheaper - could £40 be spent else were ?

Claudio · 17 Oct 2018 at 15:59

mmm not really convinced by the NUC solution as in the long term i cant see it getting upgraded in any way apart from the ram.

any thoughts about this below?
My basket at Overclockers UK:

1 x Toshiba 1TB P300 7200RPM Performance Hard Drive (HDWD110UZSVA)= £36.95
2 x BenQ GW2270H 22" 1920x1080 VA Widescreen LED Flicker-Free Slim Bezel Monitor - Black= £89.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 10 32/64-Bit (Creator Update Ver.)- USB Pen Drive - Retail (KW9-00478)= £114.95
1 x AMD Bundle - AMD Ryzen 5 2600, Gigabyte X370-Gaming 3, Team Group RAM *FREE 240GB SSD* *ONLINE ONLY* = £319.97
- Memory Capacity:Team Group Vulcan T-Force 8GB (2x4GB) DDR4 PC4-24000C16 3000MHz Dual Channel Kit - Grey (TLGD48G3000
1 x Corsair Carbide Series 100R Silent Edition Mid-Tower PC Case - Black= £57.95
1 x be quiet! Pure Power 10 400W CM 80 Plus Silver Modular Power Supply= £64.99
1 x Asus GeForce GT 1030 OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card= £89.99
1 x Akasa Flexible DVI-D to HDMI Adapter - Black= £7.99

Total: £897.91 (includes shipping: £25.14)

MartinPrince · 17 Oct 2018 at 22:50

Claudio said:
mmm not really convinced by the NUC solution as in the long term i cant see it getting upgraded in any way apart from the ram.

I agree, I don't think the NUC solution is for you. The 2600 based system you listed should give you what you want and feel nice and nippy plus give you option to upgrade should you feel in a few years. I'd prefer 2x 24" to 22" but that's more down to personal preference.

Claudio · 18 Oct 2018 at 09:46

Although would be great to have 2x 24", i am trying to keep the costs under £900 (so my boss thinks i still saved some ££ LOL),

I am also thinking instead of a dual screen, having 1x 27" IPS like the one belowMy basket at Overclockers UK:

1 x Acer R271bmid 27" 1920 x 1080 IPS Widescreen LED ZeroFrame Monitor - Black (UM.HR1EE.001)= £169.99

Total: £180.49 (includes shipping: £10.50)

Any thoughts?

MartinPrince · 18 Oct 2018 at 18:32

For productivity I would go with the dual monitors - it would kill me to go back to a single monitor, no matter how large it is.

Claudio · 19 Oct 2018 at 00:03

think the 1030 is too much for office only usage? should i stay on a 730?

MartinPrince · 19 Oct 2018 at 00:18

Claudio said:
think the 1030 is too much for office only usage? should i stay on a 730?

Actually I've got a 720 and that is perfectly fine for desktop/office work. It's also has a passive heatsink so doesn't add anything to the sound envelope.

Claudio · 19 Oct 2018 at 00:34

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/pali...ddr3-pci-express-graphics-card-gx-024-pl.html

this will do!

bremen1874 · 19 Oct 2018 at 00:54

Not read the thread in detail, but why are you looking a graphics cards at all?

It'd make more sense to use a motherboard and cpu with onboard graphics.

For office work I'd never bother building a PC. Something off the shelf with a proper warranty and support makes far more sense.

Claudio · 19 Oct 2018 at 01:43

uhm...i like a responsive computer...and office builds off the shelves are , or budget solutions that usually lasts couple of years for probably 2/3rd of the price of the build above, or insanely pricey cause they are meant for photo-video editing...i would rather invest building a computer with the specs above that most likely will last a decade...

Personally, my actual comp has 8 years and still runs most recent games on high settings, the only 2 things i changed since day 1 are ram(from 4 to 20gb) and graphic card(from 570oc to 1060 6gb).
Still a very responsive machine, and has still got room for decent OC (i7 2600k, had it stable at 4,5mhz when was playing video games).

bremen1874 · 19 Oct 2018 at 02:48

The only reason an off the shelf machine wouldn't last is if you cheap out on the specification. It isn't necessarily going to save any money, but you will save on the hassle.

Company policies allowing I'd buy a decent specification ex corporate machine. Even if you need to upgrade the memory and install a SSD you'd save enough to allow you to have two good monitors of a decent size.