• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

CPU for an office PC

Peerzy

Peerzy

Peerzy

Soldato
Joined
9 Nov 2008
Posts
7,122
Hello all,

I'm looking to build an office PC on a budget for a friend who works from home. No gaming, no overclocking, no video / picture editing so the PC will just be used for MS Office 2016, email and internet.

The rest of the specs will be;

8GB DDR4 RAM
120GB SSD
Win 10

I'd normally go for an Intel i3 CPU (7100 or 8100) but seeing as this is on a budget and the motherboards for the 8100 seem a bit expensive I'd thought I'd ask about what AMD has to offer.

7100 + motherboard = £140-£150~
8100 + motherboard = £160-£170~

What is the equivalent AMD CPU performance wise? The PC will need to last 5 years but only ever doing basic tasks.
 
The Ryzen 3 2200G will be launching on the 12th,and leaked pricing from a large retailer in Spain where VAT is 21% indicates a price of £85. It also has a 512 shader Vega IGP too.

If you are not overclocking you can get a basic A320 motherboard for £50.
 
Yup, the official Ryzen 3 2200G price is $99.

So, Ryzen 3 2200G + motherboard = £135 - £150.
With infinitely higher and better GPU performance :D
 
Oh that's good, the build can be anytime in the next 2 months.

Performance wise is the 2200G better than the i3 8100?

What does having a 512 shader Vega IGP actually mean? Does it compare with the Intel HD inbuilt graphics so suitable for office based use?
 
Last edited:
Peerzy said:
Oh that's good, the build can be anytime in the next 2 months.

Performance wise is the 2200G better than the i3 8100?
Click to expand...

I don't see performance comparisons in the links provided by the other members, at http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i5-7600K-vs-AMD-Ryzen-5-2400G/3885vsm433194

Peerzy said:
What does having a 512 shader Vega IGP actually mean? Does it compare with the Intel HD inbuilt graphics so suitable for office based use?
Click to expand...

The 512-shader Vega inbuilt graphics is light years better than anything done by Intel.
 
Peerzy said:
Oh that's good, the build can be anytime in the next 2 months.

Performance wise is the 2200G better than the i3 8100?

What does having a 512 shader Vega IGP actually mean?
Click to expand...

Built in graphics processor on the CPU, means you don't need a separate graphics card which you do need with the other current crop of AMD CPUs. The advantage of this one is its likely much more powerful than the Intel built in graphics. Though for basic desktop usage it won't make a huge difference to most things, unless you're dabbling in some light gaming or other graphics intensive tasks.

As for performance vs the 8100, The 2200G will likely be a hair slower though again for most use cases you're unlikely to see a difference.

This is all speculation though as the official launch is Tuesday and we won't see real benchmarks until then.

Given what we know I'd say with the cheaper platform cost the 2200G is a better deal now, and offers better upgrade options down the line.
 
StarShock said:
in case you've not seen, the reviews have started pouring in.

https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/ocuk-ryzen-apu-review-thread.18811382/
Click to expand...

Thanks - I've had a read through a few of them and I'm unsure. In the gaming and video intensive tests the Ryzen 2200G seems to completely wipe the floor with an i3-8100. However my build is going to be just used as an office and web browsing machine where the AMD seems to not perform as well as an i3-7100 which seems disappointing. Am I missing something or is Intel still king for what I'm after?
 
Intel do still have a lead in IPC and clock speed on their high end stuff. But its not a huge difference, and the 4 cores in the 2200G and 8100 should both outpace the 7100s dual core in multi threaded applications.

Though I've just seen today that the price on the Pentium G4560 has come way back down, and it delivers fairly similar performance to the 7100 (both dual core w/ hyperthreading), just to throw another option at you.
 
The G4560 brings the whole cost down, I can get the CPU, motherboard, 8GB RAM and a 120GB SSD for < £250 which seems like good value when the equivalent AMD Ryzen 2200G / i3-8100 is a lot more (£75 for AMD, £100 for Intel).

For web browsing and basic office tasks I think the £100 is better saved in this situation?
 
Peerzy said:
The G4560 brings the whole cost down, I can get the CPU, motherboard, 8GB RAM and a 120GB SSD for < £250 which seems like good value when the equivalent AMD Ryzen 2200G / i3-8100 is a lot more (£75 for AMD, £100 for Intel).

For web browsing and basic office tasks I think the £100 is better saved in this situation?
Click to expand...

Where are you getting these costs from??

The Ryzen 3 2200G is around £30 more than the G4560,and you don't need uber fast RAM,unless you are maxing out gaming performance. If you are not overclocking,the A320 should be fine too.

Its upto you OFC,but I suppose you need to ask the question is having a 4C/4T CPU a better longterm bet than a 2C/4T CPU on a dead platform which won't have any replacement motherboards in a few years time,if it dies out of warranty. Its just utterly weird Kaby Lake can't even work on current motherboards either,and even weirder Intel still has not released the cheaper CFL ones either!!
 
Was looking through various online shops;

£199 delivered
Intel G4560
MSI Intel B250M PRO-VDH LGA 1151 M-ATX
120GB SSD (WD Green)
8GB DDR4 2133MHz RAM (Kingston Value)

I've ignored case, PSU, OS, Keyboard and mouse and optical drive as that will be the same regardless of platform.

Is there a decent 2200G build I could do for £250 or less?

I do prefer the idea of obviously using newer technologies and understand longer support. Equally the PC will be used for 5 years, never upgraded and never changed. After 5 years it'll likely be stripped for parts and then a replacement purchased.
 
Peerzy said:
Was looking through various online shops;

£199 delivered
Intel G4560
MSI Intel B250M PRO-VDH LGA 1151 M-ATX
120GB SSD (WD Green)
8GB DDR4 2133MHz RAM (Kingston Value)

I've ignored case, PSU, OS, Keyboard and mouse and optical drive as that will be the same regardless of platform.

Is there a decent 2200G build I could do for £250 or less?

I do prefer the idea of obviously using newer technologies and understand longer support. Equally the PC will be used for 5 years, never upgraded and never changed. After 5 years it'll likely be stripped for parts and then a replacement purchased.
Click to expand...

Is that from a reputable shop or one of those who drop ship,or ship from abroad and have no physical stock?? Is the VAT added?? That seems suspiciously cheap though - if it is from a reputable company it would be worth considering. Because I looked at a few reputable stores for that motherboard and the cheapest I can find that motherboard and a G4560 is £110,and the RAM tends to start at £75 even for a single stick.

Regarding Ryzen,going with a Ryzen 3 2200G,Gigabyte A320 motherboard,dual channel 2400MHZ and a 120GB SSD it will come to around £250ish if you shop around.
 
The parts were from lots of different companies - but all reputable and ones commonly used.

I'll leave the final decision with my friend as it's his money.
 
Having spent some time looking around I think I've settled on the following;

AMD Ryzen 3 2200G CPU
Gigabyte A320M-HD2 Motherboard
Crucial 8GB 2400MHz DDR4 RAM
120GB Kingston A400 SSD

That comes in at £243 inc VAT and delivery and seems like a perfectly acceptable office based build for the next 5 years. My one concern is I've read a lot about needing to flash the BIOS on motherboards before they'll work for the new Ryzen CPUs - is this the case for the motherboard I've picked and if so how can I do this without another working CPU?
 
Peerzy said:
Having spent some time looking around I think I've settled on the following;

AMD Ryzen 3 2200G CPU
Gigabyte A320M-HD2 Motherboard
Crucial 8GB 2400MHz DDR4 RAM
120GB Kingston A400 SSD

That comes in at £243 inc VAT and delivery and seems like a perfectly acceptable office based build for the next 5 years. My one concern is I've read a lot about needing to flash the BIOS on motherboards before they'll work for the new Ryzen CPUs - is this the case for the motherboard I've picked and if so how can I do this without another working CPU?
Click to expand...

This is not that much more expensive but will give better performance for the years to come:

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £297.46 (includes shipping: £10.50)
​
 
Yup - think I'm set on the 2200G, 120GB SSD and 8GB DDR4 RAM. Just need to settle on a motherboard.

The one I'd originally picked seemed nice due to HDMI, DVI, VGA (which are always useful) and USB3.1 Gen2. The ASRock AB350M loses the USB3.1 Gen2 and is about £10 more expensive (but then doesn't require a BIOS flash by the looks of things).

Edit: Actually, I can't tell if the ASRock AB350M will work with the CPU without being flashed.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom