AMD E1-2500 (1.4GHz) enough for office work?

[monstercameron]

I didn't read the whole thread, but I'll reply based on my experiences with an A6 1450 APU in my Acer V5 122P. That A6 1450 would barely cut it for what you're describing, and the E1 is a slower part. The A6 struggles with Youtube 720p, struggles with multiple browser tabs, etc.

It'll be light and quiet, with low power use, to be sure, but I'd look for something with a little more performance if I was in your shoes. Perhaps they sell an AIO device with a Haswell i3 or Celeron base?

a bit off topic but I have found the best way to consume flash media on low end apus has been through IE, FF and chrome just seem to be dog slow...although IE has its fair share of issues.

 

[podspi]

I don't have it anymore, but when I had an E-350 machine I thought it was great. Certainly the newer Kabini's are not slower than that?

Was it super-fast? No. But it was not a painful experience (at least for me), and this was running Office as well as some statistical analysis software (ok that was painful -- but that was just for when I needed to do something quickly on the road).

 

[monstercameron]

I don't have it anymore, but when I had an E-350 machine I thought it was great. Certainly the newer Kabini's are not slower than that?

Was it super-fast? No. But it was not a painful experience (at least for me), and this was running Office as well as some statistical analysis software (ok that was painful -- but that was just for when I needed to do something quickly on the road).

having used c-50, e-350 and the a6-5200 I can tell you that the e1-2500 should be faster than the e-350 and passable for web browsing, light audio editing in audacity, windows movie maker, ms office and non-demanding programs, also hd video.

As for whether is is recommended for that specific price [or other small details] I wouldn't venture down that rabbit hole.

 

[Arkaign]

On the topic of value, AIOs from both Intel and AMD tend to sort of suck $ for $.

Saw this earlier at TD store :

Add a $59 128GB SSD and $99 21.5" Display, and for the same price you have a spectacularly improved system on every level. And bonus points for not having to chunk the whole thing in the trash if the mobo dies or something like that.

 

[Bateluer]

a bit off topic but I have found the best way to consume flash media on low end apus has been through IE, FF and chrome just seem to be dog slow...although IE has its fair share of issues.

I haven't tested IE much on the V5 at all, its just too slow in general, even on my i5 desktop. Isn't most of YouTube HTML5 now?

 

[monstercameron]

I haven't tested IE much on the V5 at all, its just too slow in general, even on my i5 desktop. Isn't most of YouTube HTML5 now?

HTML5? the player? I believe that can be forced or is default if flash isnt installed on videos without ads or other restrictions.

aside, the v5 is pretty decent, odds are that your hdd is your bottleneck [in terms of experience that is], ever tried an ssd?

OT: OP what is your budget? and where do you normally shop?

 

[suklee]

Guys, thanks for all the suggestions and comments! lively discussion taking place, sorry if I haven't replied to your post directly.

In case you missed it, I ended up getting the Dell 2020 w/ Touch screen, pretty much this one: http://www.dell.com/us/p/inspiron-one-20-2020-aio/pd?oc=fddntp1305&model_id=inspiron-one-20-2020-aio

It's got a Intel® Pentium® processor G2030T(2.6GHz, 3MB), 4GB RAM, and a 1TB hard drive. It is going to be used for a long time to come (hopefully, if it doesn't break down - I got the 3 year warranty option) so I'm glad you guys steered me away from the E1 CPU.

Are there really office jobs that only require email and you never open up a word or excel document? That's mind boggling to me.

She is the boss of her own company
That, plus she really doesn't KNOW how to use Excel/Word... she barely knows what a web browser is and can barely manage to do a Google search, lol... but she knows her way around an email client!

 

[krumme]

Guys, thanks for all the suggestions and comments! lively discussion taking place, sorry if I haven't replied to your post directly.

In case you missed it, I ended up getting the Dell 2020 w/ Touch screen, pretty much this one: http://www.dell.com/us/p/inspiron-one-20-2020-aio/pd?oc=fddntp1305&model_id=inspiron-one-20-2020-aio

It's got a Intel® Pentium® processor G2030T(2.6GHz, 3MB), 4GB RAM, and a 1TB hard drive. It is going to be used for a long time to come (hopefully, if it doesn't break down - I got the 3 year warranty option) so I'm glad you guys steered me away from the E1 CPU.



She is the boss of her own company
That, plus she really doesn't KNOW how to use Excel/Word... she barely knows what a web browser is and can barely manage to do a Google search, lol... but she knows her way around an email client!

Looks like the right decision ! - i am sure she will be happy with it.

 

[mikeymikec]

Someone said on this thread that all-in-ones only seem to have tablet-type processors, I've seen an all-in-one with a Core i3 Ivy. It wasn't a cheap system, but anyway.

 

[Magic Carpet]

It's terrible. I mean it. It's HORRIBLE.

How bad is it? I rebuilt a Pentium 4 2.8Ghz Dell from 2003 the other day, and IT was faster and more capable.

Yeah, it's just too slow.

I'm looking to get an all in one (due to limited desktop space) for my mom to use at work - is the AMD E1-2500 (1.4GHz) CPU going to cut it for Windows 8.1, strictly for office work? It'll be used for emails basically 90% of the time and occasional web surfing. Word/Excel won't be used much if at all.

Thanks!

PS. Rest of the specs: 4GB RAM, 500GB HD, integrated Radeon 8240 http://shopping.hp.com/en_US/home-of...C-ENERGY-STAR-

Why not get something like this instead?

Celeron 2955U is quite capable and low power

 

[beginner99]

I had the "pleasure" to do some maintenance on a laptop with this CPU last weekend. Paired with a regular 750GB 5400RPM HDD and 4GBs of RAM. It made me want to throw it out the window - that's how nice it is to work on. It was a relatively fresh Windows 8.1 installation without much running in the background.

Well often these issue are also caused by the ultra-slow 5400 RPM HDDs. I bet with an ssd the whole experience would be way better.

But else I agree. You can get celeron/pentium laptops based on Ivy bridge or Haswell for like $300. And these are way, way faster than an E1.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

Well often these issue are also caused by the ultra-slow 5400 RPM HDDs. I bet with an ssd the whole experience would be way better.

Not really. Brazos+SSD just takes it from agonizing to barely tolerable. And that was a few years ago...

 

[VirtualLarry]

Not really. Brazos+SSD just takes it from agonizing to barely tolerable. And that was a few years ago...

This. (I have several Brazos-based rigs, with SSDs. They're not horrible, but they are a tad underpowered compared to what I prefer. My Celeron 1007U netbook is worlds faster.)

 

[Towermax]

This. (I have several Brazos-based rigs, with SSDs. They're not horrible, but they are a tad underpowered compared to what I prefer. My Celeron 1007U netbook is worlds faster.)

Exactly. I got a Celeron 1007U netbook for my wife and even with a 5400rpm spinner, it seems just as fast or faster than my E-350 netbook with a 128GB SSD.

 

[genrichs]

The AMD E1-2500 is a lower end APU, but that doesn't mean it won't perform well under most day-to-day circumstances.

I believe the main problem when coming to slow computers with modern low end CPUs, is badly mantained computers full of malware, low on memory and with slow or with little space hard drives.

Right now I'm writing this reply on a AMD E1-2500 and had no problem whatsoever surfing the web, using office applications, running the anti virus, and so on. I wouldn't demand this APU good (not even proper) performance for modern games.

I read things in this thread that refer to AMD A6 chips, or even Intel i5 CPUs for office work. That is absolutely ridiculous. The E1-2500 performs excellently under this demand. Just make sure the RAM is 4 GBs or more, and don't install intrusive anti-virus software such as Norton or Spyhunter, the use up a lot of resources!.

 

[genrichs]

The AMD E1-2500 is a lower end APU, but that doesn't mean it won't perform well under most day-to-day circumstances.

I believe the main problem when coming to slow computers with modern low end CPUs, is badly mantained computers full of malware, low on memory and with slow or with little space hard drives.

Right now I'm writing this reply on a AMD E1-2500 and had no problem whatsoever surfing the web, using office applications, running the anti virus, and so on. I wouldn't demand this APU good (not even proper) performance for modern games.

I read things in this thread that refer to AMD A6 chips, or even Intel i5 CPUs for office work. That is absolutely ridiculous. The E1-2500 performs excellently under this demand. Just make sure the RAM is 4 GBs or more, and don't install intrusive anti-virus software such as Norton or Spyhunter, the use up a lot of resources!.

 

[genrichs]

Oops, sorry for the double post

 

[crashtech]

The problem is that most users will install excess resource hogging software unless the machines are carefully managed. Virtually every machine I work on is bogged down with user installed crap. The E1-2500 is a very marginal performer under the best of circumstances, and has no headroom for running extraneous tasks. The end result of this will be that the experience will be perceived poorly almost from the start.

 

[janeuner]

Hey guys, I'm going to build a computer that will have a monitor hooked up but it will always be turned off. No one will ever use it, and it won't be connected to the internet.

Will an E1-2500 work, or should I join the irrationality being displayed in here by buying an Intel i7 and a solid gold CPU cooler?

 

[genrichs]

The problem is that most users will install excess resource hogging software unless the machines are carefully managed. Virtually every machine I work on is bogged down with user installed crap. The E1-2500 is a very marginal performer under the best of circumstances, and has no headroom for running extraneous tasks. The end result of this will be that the experience will be perceived poorly almost from the start.

I can't possibly agree more with you, although I find your statement "almost from the start" a little bit exaggerated. However, I would agree with that last statement in the quite often case where the computer comes with all the crap that the builders (HP, Acer, Asus, Packard Bell...) include as pre-installed software.

Not only the E1-2500 is marginal, it is possibly the lowest end CPU (APU in this case) you can possibly find in the market, along with some Intel Atom CPUs.

In a properly mantained PC, and for the tasks that are in mind which refer to web surfing and office, it should still do more than fine (and does, as my first hand experience proved). Office applications usually require little resources, unless in your job you use things like Photoshop or video editing software.

Even for publishing software it proved to me solvent, including some illustration software. It is not my choice though, since I'm a heavy user, but for my daughter is fairly more than enough for a student workstation (and this way I keep her away from gaming, :awe:, hehehe evil me).

 

[genrichs]

Hey guys, I'm going to build a computer that will have a monitor hooked up but it will always be turned off. No one will ever use it, and it won't be connected to the internet.

Will an E1-2500 work, or should I join the irrationality being displayed in here by buying an Intel i7 and a solid gold CPU cooler?

Clearly that depends on the use you want to give to the PC. If it is going to be an all-purpose computer, forget it. If it is to be a work tool, like office, emails and web surfing, then go for it.

For little more you have more AMD options (you don't have to go Intel to have great performance, but to go for the best performance).

The AMD FX Series provides very cheap CPUs with proper to great performance in all environments. Intel CPUs are mostly quicker but you will only be in the need of that power in case you render complicated graphics, hi-res photo processing, video conversion, etc.

Check www.cpuboss.com if you want to compare CPUs and check specially the part related to price/performance, where AMD has the gold medal, and make your choice. Obviously if you are considering the E1-2500 it means that you might be in a tight budget.

I hope this helps.

PS: If my English sounds weird sometimes, sorry, my mother language is NOT English.

 

[cbn]

Not only the E1-2500 is marginal, it is possibly the lowest end CPU (APU in this case) you can possibly find in the market, along with some Intel Atom CPUs.

The E1-2100 is an even lower spec (1GHz Kabini dual core with 300 MHz 128 GCN stream processor iGPU). I have one myself, but have only run under Linux. It definitely works better with Chromium (open source version of Chrome Browser) compared to Firefox, but can be slowed down with content heavy websites even at lower resolutions.

 

[genrichs]

The E1-2100 is an even lower spec (1GHz Kabini dual core with 300 MHz 128 GCN stream processor iGPU). I have one myself, but have only run under Linux. It definitely works better with Chromium (open source version of Chrome Browser) compared to Firefox, but can be slowed down with content heavy websites even at lower resolutions.

Indeed Chromium is a solution for this kinda crappy CPUs. Although I prefer to use Lubuntu (XCe) for low specifications machines. It gives so much software and performs excellently, as shown on my Pentium II and my iMac G4 1.4 GHz machines.

I'm not sure if E1 CPUs can be software overclocked (via Catalyst can't, but AMD Overdrive software?), as most AMD APUs. It would be interesting to see how they would perform at its peak.

 

[crashtech]

Hey guys, I'm going to build a computer that will have a monitor hooked up but it will always be turned off. No one will ever use it, and it won't be connected to the internet.

Will an E1-2500 work, or should I join the irrationality being displayed in here by buying an Intel i7 and a solid gold CPU cooler?

According to this post, you could buy a brick and paint it to look like a computer, if it will alway be off and no one will ever use it. Or is it actually going to be doing something?

 

[MiddleOfTheRoad]

I have a Asus netbook with a E2-1800 which is pretty similar. It came pre-installed with Windows 8 and was really sluggish. I upgraded the netbook to Ubuntu -- and it is quite snappy now. These E1/E2 CPU's do seem to struggle under Windows 8, I'd recommend a little more processor if you are planning to use that OS.