AMD vs Intel for office PC

Dan0512 · Jun 11, 2011

Hello guys

I'll be building an office system for my friend's parents soon. It's been a long time since I've built my last system, so I don't know how AMD and Intel currently stack up against each other in terms of max performance per dollar.

Their budget equals to around 450$, and this includes the following (since I plan to reuse some components)

*CPU
*mobo (with integrated graphics)
*RAM
*HD
*PSU (currently researching if old one could be reused)

They plan to use the computer for daily home use, i.e. writing documents/surfing, no games, etc. The load factor is probably going to come from the 3rd party software they install for whatever devices they connect to it XD.

So which would be best suited for this purpose? Intel iSomething or the current amd offerings?

thx!

Archer0915 · Jun 11, 2011

AMD or Intel dual core would do. From my testing I have found the Athlon II to be a bit faster than the Phenom II in environments where multitasking is minimal compared. The intel G6950 in 1156 or the G6XX or 8XX in 1155 flavor are great little processors on the Intel side with plenty of pepp.

Evilsizer · Jun 11, 2011

well IMO for a office pc you cant forget VIA now, while not talked about so much. they offer enough performance for what you said they will do. as well their S3 gpu will be able to do the decoding as most newer gpu's do, H264 etc... to keep costs way down here are a few mITX's i found on newegg.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813121442
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813135290
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813176004 <-- added this one since its a atom setup with a HDMI out, you can get HDMI to DVI adapters.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813153208
sorted by price, if you dont need the HW decoding for videos i would have to say get the D525 NM10 setup for $84. coupled with a pico-psu 120WI plus 19v brick will be the way to go. going with the pico psu vs others will offer even lower power usage.

if you want to go a bit bigger for motherboards into the mATX range, look at these.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813153197
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131697
these two would be your only choices, i think for the neato factor you should build them a mITX setup.

looking over newegg there are also some barebones mini computers. these are the only two i would be looking at
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856119034
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856110101
there are E350 mini's as well but they start to get into the $200 price range.

here i put a list together using the motherboards listed above. the first four in the list the can only use 2.5in drive and slim line cd/dvd drive. you may need a slim line to sata cable, they do make them. there is also a slim line to sata adapter that plugs into the drive it self. such as this one here,
http://www.logicsupply.com/products/slimcdsatav1
should you go with a motherboard that has HDMI and you need a DVI connection
http://www.logicsupply.com/products/hdmi_f_dvi24

*edit*
it should be noted the Giada motherboard has onboard psu and newegg includes the powerbrick to go with it for free. you could then remove the 150watt psu from the case, making it lighter and give more room for cable management or hiding cables.

Dan0512 · Jun 11, 2011

Evilsizer said:
well IMO for a office pc you cant forget VIA now, while not talked about so much. they offer enough performance for what you said they will do. as well their S3 gpu will be able to do the decoding as most newer gpu's do, H264 etc... to keep costs way down here are a few mITX's i found on newegg.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813121442
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813135290
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813176004 <-- added this one since its a atom setup with a HDMI out, you can get HDMI to DVI adapters.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813153208
sorted by price, if you dont need the HW decoding for videos i would have to say get the D525 NM10 setup for $84. coupled with a pico-psu 120WI plus 19v brick will be the way to go. going with the pico psu vs others will offer even lower power usage.

if you want to go a bit bigger for motherboards into the mATX range, look at these.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813153197
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131697
these two would be your only choices, i think for the neato factor you should build them a mITX setup.

looking over newegg there are also some barebones mini computers. these are the only two i would be looking at
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856119034
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856110101
there are E350 mini's as well but they start to get into the $200 price range.

here i put a list together using the motherboards listed above. the first four in the list the can only use 2.5in drive and slim line cd/dvd drive. you may need a slim line to sata cable, they do make them. there is also a slim line to sata adapter that plugs into the drive it self. such as this one here,
http://www.logicsupply.com/products/slimcdsatav1
should you go with a motherboard that has HDMI and you need a DVI connection
http://www.logicsupply.com/products/hdmi_f_dvi24

*edit*
it should be noted the Giada motherboard has onboard psu and newegg includes the powerbrick to go with it for free. you could then remove the 150watt psu from the case, making it lighter and give more room for cable management or hiding cables.

Thanks for the insight, but maybe I should have made myself a bit clearer. I'm looking for the best performance that the 450$ would buy, excluding the case/optical drives since I would use those again.

And, I live in Europe so no newegg for me :-( .. the 450$ figure is to give you an equivalent of the budget.

regards,

daniel

Evilsizer · Jun 11, 2011

ok, well i get, getting the most performance for that dollar amount. is it some kind of loan they have to spend all of it or lose it? as you could go with simlar setups and swtich in SSD's for faster loading of apps. that right there for office work would be huge for some of them, depending on the apps. even windows will load faster on a ssd, there are other areas to consider for performance, not just cpu/ram.

sorry should have paid closer attention to your location, for some reason just thought you were in the states.

Dan0512 · Jun 11, 2011

Evilsizer said:
ok, well i get, getting the most performance for that dollar amount. is it some kind of loan they have to spend all of it or lose it? as you could go with simlar setups and swtich in SSD's for faster loading of apps. that right there for office work would be huge for some of them, depending on the apps. even windows will load faster on a ssd, there are other areas to consider for performance, not just cpu/ram.

sorry should have paid closer attention to your location, for some reason just thought you were in the states.

No problem!

Yes, they're looking to spend that amound of money. But an SSD is very interesting, I never thought about that, though I believe they still cost you an arm and a leg!

Evilsizer · Jun 11, 2011

well put it this way if the money is for the main parts minus the case/optical drive. for a ssd would almost be paid for by removing those two items. then consider you can get a 120-160gig drive in the US for around $200, give or take. an ssd would really make them think its faster then it really is when/if you go with a Atom or E350 setup.

CompuTamer · Jun 11, 2011

Intel Pentium Dual Core would probably handle that pretty well. My friend has a laptop based one one (can't remember which one. Higherish end one) that handles flash games, daily tasks, and HD Skype just fine. I'd imagine anything in an office environment wouldn't be near as demanding.

Just actually read the thread. You can actually build a Pentium Dual Core combo for less than an Atom combo right now. (Using newegg as a reference)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116381 E5700 at 3.0Ghz
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130305 MSI G41

Takes DDR3 RAM, which is currently cheaper than DDR2 over here, and it's not really a weak combo anyway. Throw in a cheapish SSD and a cheapish PSU, and you have a nice little office computer for not much money.

stunt · Jun 27, 2011

H55 1156 mobo and an i5-650 with 2x2 sticks of 1333. It's nicely upgradable and has plenty of graphics for what they need now and in the future. With a decent PSU, that should put you around 450 of less.

AMD vs Intel for office PC

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