New Office build help please

will56

Hi. My father in law is looking to get a new PC for his office and is considering a custom build instead of buying off the shelf. Is there much of a saving/benefit or with the price of windows office etc is it better to buy of the shelf.
It will mainly be used for general office programs along with sage, some photo editing, web browsing and watching HD movies.

[font=Open Sans, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]I'm thinking an SSD along with the expand-ability of a custom build would be the best advantages over buying one in PC World ?[/font]
[font=Open Sans, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]I'm thinking I5 Skylake and building round that ?[/font]

1. What is your budget? 4/500+ No definite budget, but I figure for what he'll use it there is a limit to how much you'd need to spend
2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? Office, Sage, browsing, some photoshop, HD movies
3. Do you need a copy of Windows? Yes/No. He has a PC with a genuine version of Windows, any chance this can be transferred to a brand new build ?
4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? May be able to take HDD
5. Do you need a monitor? No
6. Do you need any of these peripherals? No
7. Are you willing to try overclocking? No
8. How can you pay? [Bank Transfer/Credit Card/Laser]
9. When are you purchasing? In the coming months
Need recommendations for a case as well. Case need to be quiet and have room for expansion - extra drives etc
not mad expensive either and not too big

Any help would be greatly appreciated

will56

** Cheeky Bump **

This is his current PC
Operating System: Windows 7 Professional 64-bit SP1
CPU: Intel Core i7 3770 @ 3.40GHz Ivy Bridge 22nm Technology
RAM: 12.0GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 798MHz (11-11-11-28)
Motherboard: FUJITSU D3171-A1
Graphics: GeForce GT 630
Storage: 2TB Seagate

Its going to be used as a back up/second office computer.

This is what I've come up with for around €620 including Delivery

I5 6500
Asus H110M
16GB HyperX Fury
Corsair VS 550
WD Blue 2TB
WD Blue 2TB
120GB Sandisk Ultra
Cooler Master SIL352 M Silencio

He likes the idea of a PC he can add to and upgrade as he wants.
I know from the Off Topic thread that he might not see any improvement going from the older I7 to the I5 but I assume it won't be a step back ?

Also can anyone recommend a mid range motherboard that will support RAID ?

ct5amr2ig1nfhp

For an office PC like you described, is it not overkill? Would you consider just adding an SSD into his current PC?

will56

Lilly Panicky Tonsillectomy wrote: »

For an office PC like you described, is it not overkill? Would you consider just adding an SSD into his current PC?

I need to have a proper chat with him about it, but he wants a second computer in the office so its more than just upgrading this one.

K.O.Kiki

will56 wrote: »

** Cheeky Bump **

This is his current PC
Operating System: Windows 7 Professional 64-bit SP1
CPU: Intel Core i7 3770 @ 3.40GHz Ivy Bridge 22nm Technology
RAM: 12.0GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 798MHz (11-11-11-28)
Motherboard: FUJITSU D3171-A1
Graphics: GeForce GT 630
Storage: 2TB Seagate

Its going to be used as a back up/second office computer.

This is what I've come up with for around €620 including Delivery

I5 6500
Asus H110M
16GB HyperX Fury
Corsair VS 550
WD Blue 2TB
WD Blue 2TB
120GB Sandisk Ultra
Cooler Master SIL352 M Silencio

He likes the idea of a PC he can add to and upgrade as he wants.
I know from the Off Topic thread that he might not see any improvement going from the older I7 to the I5 but I assume it won't be a step back ?

Also can anyone recommend a mid range motherboard that will support RAID ?

It's hard to find exhaustive benchmarks, but his old i7-3770 beats the i5-6500 on everything except TDP.

Heck, you could probably run 2 VMs off it and it would still get the same performance.


The motherboard is micro-ATX, so IMHO you'd be better off with:

• PCI-e RAID card
• New, bigger case.
• SSD(s) + HDD(s)
• New PSU (optional)

will56

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

It's hard to find exhaustive benchmarks, but his old i7-3770 beats the i5-6500 on everything except TDP.

Heck, you could probably run 2 VMs off it and it would still get the same performance.


The motherboard is micro-ATX, so IMHO you'd be better off with:

• PCI-e RAID card
• New, bigger case.
• SSD(s) + HDD(s)
• New PSU (optional)

Would someone notice the difference moving to the I5 from the I7 ?
The I7 PC will be used as a second PC/backup in the home office

K.O.Kiki

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Z170-H170-H110-B170-Q150-Q170---What-is-the-Difference-635/

Only Z170, H170 and Q170 boards support RAID.

For light office work?
Could probably even drop down to i3 & make a really frugal, quiet system.