Work PC build: $1000-ish budget

[recycledsole]

hello I will be building a PC for work (listening and translating). The main uses this will receive is Microsoft Word and a Media Player. I need a great monitor that's healthy on the eyes, hence the $1k budget. How are AMD processors these days? I think I want a SSD so my applications will run quickly, well it make a big difference.
Thanks

 

[dave_the_nerd]

SSDs for user responsiveness, i5 or i7 CPU for longevity (AMD CPUs are... everybody's hoping the ones they release next year are worth buying.) IPS display for visual awesomeness. IGP's adequate if you don't game, stock CPU cooler is fine if you don't overclock. $1k is enough that you don't really need to skimp anywhere.

If the $1k budget isn't absolutely hard, I'd go with something like this.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/999ZNG

($1015 when I posted this.)

A smaller SSD or a slightly less expensive monitor would bring it in under budget. Personally I don't think most people need optical drives, but if you're doing transcriptions, I thought maybe people are giving you CDs.

 

[freeskier93]

How big of an SSD and how big of a monitor? The above build is good but I would spend less on SSD and more on power supply.

 

[Yuriman]

i3 is plenty for this build and then some, but I'd definitely go socket 1151.

The screen linked above is nice, but you might or might not prefer a larger screen and/or a lower resolution to keep it easy on the eyes. I picked up a 1080P 27" IPS panel for my wife, and kindof want one for myself.

Lower the SSD size a bit and drop to an i3, and you can get a really outrageous screen.

Oh, and you might consider going ITX instead of ATX. An ATX midtower is going to be practically empty with a sinlge 2.5" drive and no video card. There's no sense in building a PC that's 8x larger than it needs to be.

Edit: And with those parts, a 150w-200w power supply would be plenty. 430w is just overkill and will waste power. I understand they're often not and cheaper, but I'd go with a smaller power supply too, preferably with a higher efficiency rating.

 

[Revolution 11]

Yuriman, your points are good but I disagree about the ITX case. Unless the PC will be moved often, ATX or ITX is not that important. I would go with whatever is cheaper and either pocket the savings or put them in the monitor.

OP, honestly, you can have a pretty good PC for about $400 + cost of monitor. The office PC I built for my dad for that price was a Ivy Bridge Pentium, 8 GB of RAM, IGP, and a 1 TB hard drive, and it is still pretty zippy because there are no games or intensive applications installed. Do get a cheap SSD if just for the fast bootup time.