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Cpu for new office build....

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Davidpaul007

Member
I'm looking at building my wife a desktop pc for office use and not real sure what my best option is. I'm currently debating between a G3258 and oc'ing a bit (snagged a 212 cpu cooler for $17) or maybe going with a i3 4150.

Thoughts? Better options?
 
Well, i had be a nice cooler just sitting around...and the g3258 is very economical at $70 (sometimes cheaper), the.i3 chip i mentioned is $120.
 
Just go for the Pentium. For basic office use, you won't notice the lack of Hyper-Threading and will save $50.
 
Question: since i need a discrete graphics card with the pentium setup dies it make sense to buy a chip/mobo that has integrated graphics?
 
The nice thing about a Hyper 212 cooler on a dual core is you can set the fan on its lowest setting, and never overheat, unless you are doing a radical overclock. I have my old 212 mounted so that convection will bring air through the fins, it runs fanless on a G1620 traffic analyzer PC, never exceeding 50°C even running Linpack.
 
I recommend not overclocking an office PC. Just because an overclock is stable in stress tests for hours and hours does not mean it will be stable in normal usage or it does not mean that you will not have weird issues crop up in programs or Windows. I had weird issues crop up before even with a mild overclock so now I don't overclock.
 
Whatever you do, make sure you grab an SSD. That is worth way more than upgrading to an i3 if all it will be used for is basic pc stuff (office,web, email, video). Just grab the cheapest 2 core intel cpu (celeron). Again, let me repeat. **GET AN SSD**
 
Enigmoid said:
A pentium without any overclocking is fine for office use.
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Nope. This is a set it and forget it box. It likely won't be upgraded and will be run into the ground. You want some grunt on tap, hence i3 4330 + H97 minimum. Anything lower than an i3 is not worth it for anything. i3's can be re-used and re-sold, a poky old Pentium pffft.
 
escrow4 said:
Nope. This is a set it and forget it box. It likely won't be upgraded and will be run into the ground. You want some grunt on tap, hence i3 4330 + H97 minimum. Anything lower than an i3 is not worth it for anything. i3's can be re-used and re-sold, a poky old Pentium pffft.
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:\ Pokey old Pentium? Do you know how high you can OC a G3258 on the STOCK cooler? Seriously dude. It is NOT pokey. At all.
 
The i3 has hyperthreading right? What instances would that be used? Maybe not at all in office/internet type use?

My wife might do light video editing for home videos of the kids....even if that good utilize hyperthreading not sure the added cost of the i3 could be justified.
 
escrow4 said:
Anything lower than an i3 is not worth it for anything. i3's can be re-used and re-sold, a poky old Pentium pffft.
Click to expand...

mistersprinkles said:
:\ Pokey old Pentium? Do you know how high you can OC a G3258 on the STOCK cooler? Seriously dude. It is NOT pokey. At all.
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I'm going to have to agree with escrow4 here. No matter how high you OC that Pentium, in a few years (if not already) you're going to regret not having not having the 2 additional threads of the i3. This is particularly true if its a machine that'll have a 5-10 year lifespan.

Just as an example, I've got several old 4C Athlon2's running, but every single 2C Athlon2 has had to be upgraded. 2C/2T just doesn't cut it any more, unless you have extremely simple needs.

It a very bad idea to OC an "office" PC BTW...

Davidpaul007 said:
The i3 has hyperthreading right? What instances would that be used? Maybe not at all in office/internet type use?

My wife might do light video editing for home videos of the kids....even if that good utilize hyperthreading not sure the added cost of the i3 could be justified.
Click to expand...

If there is any chance of video editing, get the i3. Simple as that. You'll not regret it, certainly not a few years down the road.

As others have mentioned, get an SSD too. That'll matter far more for "daily" performance then the CPU.
 
I suspect I am one of the few people that disagrees with the entire premise of buying low end stuff for the office. I can make my poor compute die with some basic graphing in open office and the average website gets pretty sluggish with the low end CPUs. Slow computers today are the absolute garbage of tomorrow and its my opinion that most office computers are too slow for what people end up using them for. Our picture of the office user is a bit of Word and maybe excel, but actually they are often using some heavy accounting software, some custom software, awfully written websites and a host of other things that we don't see.

Since most office machines are run to the ground, well beyond the point where they are too slow its often better to at least equip them with more RAM and a bit more CPU grunt than you might otherwise do to make their end of life period a lot less painful.
 
As a computer lover, I'm definitely not opposed to spend a.little extra for some more 'grunt' if it's warranted. Myself, I have an i5 oc'd to 4.5ghz (and ssd) that i use daily.

I just didn't want to spend the extra $60 or so and out be a complete waste. Also, this computer will likely have a 4-5yr life cycle.
 
BrightCandle said:
Since most office machines are run to the ground, well beyond the point where they are too slow its often better to at least equip them with more RAM and a bit more CPU grunt than you might otherwise do to make their end of life period a lot less painful.
Click to expand...

SSDs are rare on office machines. That would make a bigger difference.
 
I work in a research lab and we make fairly heavy use of excel and access, including some graphing in excel. We are still running a core 2 E8400, and I have never really noticed significant slowdowns with it.
I think a Pentium would be more than adequate unless you are doing some really unusually heavy type of office tasks.
 
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