New home office PC (workstation or custom?)

[cowface3]

Background: My last custom built home office PC finally died, and the PC market seems to have changed a lot recently even. I am a realtor and will be doing basic internet browsing with lots of windows open at once, multiple monitors, Microsoft, excel, office, video conferencing, basic graphic design, photo editing, and maybe some light video editing but nothing complicated etc. I have a solid gaming rig and if need be I can use that for anything more intensive.

Reliability is most important. No overclocking or anything. Budget is around $700 not firm on that - give our take. If you think I can do it for less that would be great as well, but I don't want to cheap out at the cost of reliability. I previously bought a refurbished dell at the recommendation of someone here in 2019 and it already died in 3 years with barely any use(I never use the office). This is for my home office and main work PC and needs to be better. The last one I built lasted 6 years without any issues until it died.

Main question: Is it worth it to custom build a work pc right now or is buying a Dell workstation my best bet in terms of value? Also I have an old copy of windows 10 to use, but will that soon become obsolete with windows 11? They usually only give free upgrades to newer copies of the previous operating system version, so I will need to factor that into my cost estimates.

Any basic advice on processor type, motherboard etc. To get me started in the right direction is appreciated and I'll go from there. Or if you have a specific workstation you recommend. Any advice is appreciated to get me going. Thanks!


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[burninatortech4]

$700 is a tough price target these days. How about something like this? 8 Zen 3 cores, small, relatively low power consumption, 16GB of fast RAM (for SODIMM's anyway), 1TB Hynix SSD. Hard to beat.



CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5700G 3.8 GHz 8-Core Processor ($289.00 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL18 Memory ($100.00 @ Newegg)
Storage: SK hynix Gold P31 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($109.99 @ Amazon)
Custom: ASRock DESKMINI X300W Mini / Booksize Barebone System ($172.98 @ Newegg)

Total: $671.97

ASRock > DeskMini X300 Series

The upside of the X300 is you get power supply, case, WIFI all in one package. The Wraith Stealth will fit if you remove the shroud.

I have an old copy of windows 10 to use, but will that soon become obsolete with windows 11?

Windows 10 isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

 

[VirtualLarry]

The upside of the X300

Downside, is no PCI-E x16 slot for a desktop-style GPU.

I agree though, a DeskMini with an APU is a solution. Not entirely sure that a DeskMini will take newer than a Renoir, however. Otherwise, they might end up more popular than they currently are, which is a tad obscure.

 

[burninatortech4]

Downside, is no PCI-E x16 slot for a desktop-style GPU.

I agree though, a DeskMini with an APU is a solution. Not entirely sure that a DeskMini will take newer than a Renoir, however. Otherwise, they might end up more popular than they currently are, which is a tad obscure.

A300 tops out at 4750G. X300 goes up to 5700G.

 

[VirtualLarry]

X300 goes up to 5700G.

Good to know! Thanks.

 

[cowface3]

$700 is a tough price target these days. How about something like this? 8 Zen 3 cores, small, relatively low power consumption, 16GB of fast RAM (for SODIMM's anyway), 1TB Hynix SSD. Hard to beat.



CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5700G 3.8 GHz 8-Core Processor ($289.00 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL18 Memory ($100.00 @ Newegg)
Storage: SK hynix Gold P31 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($109.99 @ Amazon)
Custom: ASRock DESKMINI X300W Mini / Booksize Barebone System ($172.98 @ Newegg)

Total: $671.97

ASRock > DeskMini X300 Series

The upside of the X300 is you get power supply, case, WIFI all in one package. The Wraith Stealth will fit if you remove the shroud.



Windows 10 isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

Thanks for putting that together for me, but I decided to up my budget a bit and go with pre-built for convenience.

I went with this Dell XPS at $938.82 after $100 AAA member coupon, tax, and free shipping:

XPS Desktop with up to 12th Gen Intel Processor

Take creativity up a notch, with the expandability, elite performance, fast speeds, improved thermals and liquid cooling options of the XPS Desktop.

www.dell.com

• 
  
  12th Gen Intel® Core™ i5-12600K (20 MB cache, 10 cores, 16 threads, 3.70 to 4.90 GHz Turbo)
• 
  
  Windows 11 Home, English
• 
  
  Intel® UHD Graphics 770
• 
  
  16 GB, 2 x 8 GB, DDR5, 4400 MHz; up to 128 GB (add'l mem sold separately)
• 
  
  512 GB, M.2, PCIe NVMe, SSD
• 
  
  460W Night Sky Bezel Chassis not including optical drive

I hope the PSU is half decent, but otherwise I'm happy with the specs for the price. I have a 1 TB HDD and an optical drive I can add. Couldn't have built it cheaper really. Anyways thanks for the advice

 

[burninatortech4]

That PSU is going to limit your options for DGPU's in the future. But the CPU is great and you get PCIe 5.0. Probably a good choice overall.

EDIT

If you can cancel your order and redo it the 750W Chassis option is a no-brainer. You're really limiting yourself with 460W. Only $50 extra.

 

[cowface3]

That PSU is going to limit your options for DGPU's in the future. But the CPU is great and you get PCIe 5.0. Probably a good choice overall.

EDIT

If you can cancel your order and redo it the 750W Chassis option is a no-brainer. You're really limiting yourself with 460W. Only $50 extra.

View attachment 59365

Well, I was going to do that at first until I saw you have to add optical drive for another $50, which I don't need. It's a bit misleading. So it's actually $100 more. I have no intention of adding a DGPU. Is the any other reason to get the higher wattage? I can still cancel, but as long as the 460w will last the same amount of time with those components I have no need to add a DGPU for my purposes. And if so I'd probably just buy a PSU for less than $100 (assuming it can fit in their case) later on.

 

[burninatortech4]

Well, I was going to do that at first until I saw you have to add optical drive for another $50, which I don't need. It's a bit misleading. So it's actually $100 more. I have no intention of adding a DGPU. Is the any other reason to get the higher wattage? I can still cancel, but as long as the 460w will last the same amount of time with those components I have no need to add a DGPU for my purposes. And if so I'd probably just buy a PSU for less than $100 (assuming it can fit in their case) later on.

No. No other reason besides DGPU. In that case you're fine

Enjoy your new PC!