Half decent office pc with dual monitors? Suggestions please

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JayADee

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#268044 25-Feb-2020 11:21

Hi,

What is a half decent build for an office PC in constant use? Used mostly for Microsoft office apps (not Office 365), online cloud computing via browser but something that will last 3 plus years and feel snappy to use. Would like it to have dual monitors, they don’t need to be huge but what's a decent resolution? The current one is pretty grainy.

I was thinking 8 GB ram, SSD for the win 10 and old style office apps install, separate HD for files (doesn’t need to be large, most are stored on server).

What sized SSD drives should I be looking at? What resolution and size for the dual monitors?

Thanks for any input. I will be listing possible specs for comments once I get some specs to list. Would appreciate feedback.

xpd

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#2426803 25-Feb-2020 11:26

Whats your budget ?

Any machine these days, I'd get minimum 16GB and 480/512GB SSD.

1920x1080 for the screens, so look at 24".

XPD / Gavin

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#2426810 25-Feb-2020 11:35

You get what you pay for.

Well sell HP ProDesk 600 and EliteDesk 800 series machines for this purpose for a very good reason. They just go and go and go. Triple head video out of the box these days. NVMe SSDs. Desktop Mini options if you don't mind sacrificing a little bit of CPU power but retain full NVME SSD speeds, or AIO options (ProOne and EliteOne series) for full Desktop CPU power but reduced cable clutter, and you can tack on an additional screen. 3 year next business day on site hardware warranty.

The Elite series desktops have a second NVME slot or 2.5" bay for adding a second SSD for more internal storage with no moving parts. The ProDesk series just has a 3.5" or 2.5" bay, but your second drive for data can of course be a slower SATA SSD.

If you go with a locally assembled machine, for reliability I suggest sticking with an Intel CPU, motherboard, and SSD so you have only one direction to point the finger if it misbehaves. Just be prepared to 'send it back and wait a week or two' for the vendor to fix it and source parts if it breaks. What is the cost to your business if this happens?

“Don't believe anything you read on the net. Except this. Well, including this, I suppose.” Douglas Adams

JayADee

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#2426998 25-Feb-2020 16:36

Good stuff, thanks for the tips.

SpartanVXL

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#2427006 25-Feb-2020 17:09

Decent i5 or i7 depending on what you do. If you were more on the dev or vm side then you’d probably want a Ryzen.

Def 16GB of RAM but you could get away with 8GB

SSD would need to be at least 400GB given how much space gets chewed up, besides SSD is comparatively cheap now.

I would consider going 1440p 27”, usually Dell ultrasharps or equivalent. The screen real estate demand is increasing and as long as you don’t have vision or preference issues, 100% scaling on 27” or even 24” is good for office productivity.

Lias

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#2427064 25-Feb-2020 19:11

+1 for the HP EliteDesk stuff.. it goes forever.

I'm a geek, a gamer, a dad, a Quic user, and an IT Professional. I have a full rack home lab, size 15 feet, an epic beard and Asperger's. I'm a bit of a Cypherpunk, who believes information wants to be free and the Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it. If you use my Quic signup you can also use the code R570394EKGIZ8 for free setup. Opinions are my own and not the views of my employer.

JayADee

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#2428916 28-Feb-2020 15:44

Two of these do for general office tasks? https://www.pbtech.co.nz/product/MONPHS2437/Philips-243V7QDAB75-24-Full-HD-Super-Slim-IPS-Moni?qr=pspy&ref=pricespy

Also, I think 250GB for the OS and Office suite should be big enough? And spinning HD 500 GB.

Anyone think 250 SSD is too small?

New World

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JayADee

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#2433342 5-Mar-2020 18:55

Went for a NUC over an HP Elitedesk800 because cost and the two Philips monitors.

1 x i5 Intel NUC BEAN CANYON i5-8259U 16gb of ram with 2 x 500GB SSD

2 x Philips 243V7QDAB/75 24" Full HD Super Slim IPS Monitor. Screen Resolution:1920x1080

The Nuc comes with Wifi, ethernet, 4 x usb ports and 1 usb C port.