So if we go for an AMD with integrated GPU are there native Windows 8 drivers for that GPU? Really wanted to avoid all proprietary ATI drivers if possible, they have just caused too many headaches in the past. I had intended to go for a separate nVidia graphics card but maybe the time has come to consider an AMD with integrated GPU (just so long as there are none of those bloody ATI drivers involved).
If the HDD is cloned to an SSD won't windows 8 detect the different hardware and require a new OEM license?
My other concern is with SSD having only a limited number of writes. For a workstation that is in use all day every day how long will it be before the SSD wears out? I wonder if it is possible to use an SSD as some sort of hot sector / read cache only.
The concern of using SSDs stem from sudden death and flaky operation; this could be due to bad power, bad memory controller, faulty silicon, faulty firmware, etc. Memory wear is only a red herring. Flash memory wears out when data is actually written to the memory. No writes, no wear. For a computer that apparently is just using Microsoft Office, the biggest source of data writes will likely be Windows Update updates.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6459/samsung-ssd-840-testing-the-endurance-of-tlc-nand
As you can see in the conclusion section of the linked article, if one assumes 10 gibibytes of data are written to a 128 GB SSD per year, the estimate lifespan is about 35 years if using MLC and 11.7 years if using TLC NANd. A gibibyte is only slightly less than a gigabyte. I doubt a computer dedicated to just Microsoft Office will have even 1 GiB written to it every day.
For office tasks, installing drivers are not strictly necessary since the most people are going to do is take time off to watch 1080p Youtube. The generic Windows drivers will indeed suffice.
Intel IGPs also have a driver that is available through Windows Update.
Cloned drives will detect the change in drives in 7 and 8 but that is all that will happen. The computer will still behave like nothing has changed. OEM licenses are tied to the motherboard, not the hard drive. Indeed, making images of hard drives is a good practice because if a hard drive does break, you can use the hard drive image to restore the system to a new hard drive.
Most business pre-built offerings don't seem to offer AMD APUs. Going Intel will not be problematic from a performance standpoint; even a Pentium G3220 will outperform many dual cores from 2010 and earlier. But if AMD is the way you want to go, the Lenovo ThinkCentre M78 SFF does offer an AMD APU and Windows 8.1.
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