£500 office machine?

cgk · 18 Aug 2013 at 18:34

Hi - If I self-build - what sort of office machine (office 365/internet use/bit of very light photo editing) can I put together for about £500?

I don't need OS, monitor, keyboard in the price. Also 500gb of storage is going to be plenty for me.

teppic · 18 Aug 2013 at 18:39

YOUR BASKET
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £86.99
1 x AMD A8-5600K Black Edition 3.60GHz (Socket FM2) APU Trinity Quad Core Processor **FREE SIMCITY PC GAME** (AD560KWOHJBOX) £71.99
1 x Gigabyte F2A85X-D3H AMD A85X Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £68.99
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PV38G160C9K) £53.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £49.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 200R Compact ATX Case - Black £47.95
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430w Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020058-UK) £41.99
1 x Xigmatek Gaia CPU Cooler £19.99
1 x OcUK 20x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £471.47 (includes shipping : £10.50).

1TB for the sake of £10 extra, and it'll be a faster drive.

Potty27 · 18 Aug 2013 at 18:41

YOUR BASKET
1 x Toshiba SSD HG5D Series THNSNH 7mm 128GB Solid State Hard Drive - (THNSNH128GCST) £85.99
1 x AMD A8-5600K Black Edition 3.60GHz (Socket FM2) APU Trinity Quad Core Processor **FREE SIMCITY PC GAME** (AD560KWOHJBOX) £71.99
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PV38G160C9K) £53.99
1 x ASRock FM2A75M-DGS AMD A75 Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £52.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) HDD £39.95
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020046-UK) £35.99
1 x Xigmatek Asgard Pro Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x LG GH24NSB0 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £404.98 (includes shipping : £11.75).

Should be fine for your needs

cgk · 18 Aug 2013 at 18:46

Interesting - so both of you guys are happy with the AMD? I've always used intel machines so have no experience.

Hyburnate · 18 Aug 2013 at 18:46

In this budget spectrum, AMD is a better choice.

Potty27 · 18 Aug 2013 at 18:50

cgk said:
Interesting - so both of you guys are happy with the AMD? I've always used intel machines so have no experience.

I like both Intel and AMD, but AMD suits your budget and needs perfectly

Idleman · 18 Aug 2013 at 18:52

The mobo needs a bios update but if you ask OCUK nicely, they`ll do it for you.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-3220 3.30GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £92.99
1 x Toshiba SSD HG5D Series THNSNH 7mm 128GB Solid State Hard Drive - (THNSNH128GCST) £85.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Blue 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3K2/8GX) £53.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) HDD £39.95
1 x Foxconn H67M Intel H67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £35.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020046-UK) £35.99
1 x Xigmatek Asgard Pro Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x LG GH24NSB0 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £408.97 (includes shipping : £11.75).

You can always add a cheap Gpu if you need it for Photoshop.

teppic · 18 Aug 2013 at 18:57

cgk said:
Interesting - so both of you guys are happy with the AMD? I've always used intel machines so have no experience.

You get marginally better performance with AMD, plus the boards are more up to date (USB 3, etc). The included GPU is in a different league too. I wouldn't consider Intel for a low end non-gaming machine as it can't compete overall.

cgk · 18 Aug 2013 at 19:07

teppic said:
You get marginally better performance with AMD, plus the boards are more up to date (USB 3, etc). The included GPU is in a different league too. I wouldn't consider Intel for a low end non-gaming machine as it can't compete overall.

Thanks for the advice, AMD it is.

teppic · 18 Aug 2013 at 19:13

The difference with the two AMD specs is I've put in smarter case, a CPU cooler to keep it quiet, and a modular PSU to make it tidier, and a faster and larger HDD. All adds to the cost but still well in budget.

Potty27 · 18 Aug 2013 at 19:29

The SSD is my build has 8GB more storage, speed of the HDD matters little when you have a SSD for OS/programs etc to be honest. But if you needed more space 500GB for £10 is good value.

CPU cooler may be a good idea, but personally I've always found stock coolers to be fine noise wise.

Overall the 2 AMD builds should perform very similarly and all 3 spec's should be fine for the OP's needs.