2 office PC builds - Need The Build Checking

[AndrewWinter291]

I'm an old school PC builder, retired now but have been tasked with providing two office type PC's for a couple of old guys who want a PC to last them for life. Their budget is up to £800 and this build is £600 but I'm not sure of the parts as a graphics card is really just a bonus, not gamers just office type work. The case just needs to be black, nothing special, psu I always gor for around 700w for surety and reliability but the new type cpu's matching mb's etc. I'm a tad left behind. I don't want any software just bare w11.

Any tips are appreciated.

Case
PCS PULSE MID TOWER CASE (PWM)
Promotional Item
Get a discount code for 20% off select peripherals at Corsair.com
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 4500 Six Core CPU (3.6GHz-4.1GHz/11MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® PRIME B550-PLUS (AM4, DDR4, PCIe 4.0)
Memory (RAM)
32GB PCS PRO DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
4GB MSI GEFORCE GT 1030 OC - HDMI, DP
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (3300 MB/R, 2900 MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W CX SERIES™ CX-750 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
STANDARD AMD WRAITH STEALTH COOLER
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND APPLICATION
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
Wireless Network Card
NONE OR ONBOARD Wi-Fi (MOTHERBOARD DEPENDENT)
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Google Chrome™
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (6 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)

 

[sck451]

Getting a custom PC for these purposes is very questionable. You end up with old or cheap hardware, which goes out of support sooner, and will not be of enormous benefit to you over, say, a laptop or a mini PC. If you really want this kind of system, it can be done (the key is to get a CPU with an iGPU on it, like the 5600GT), but I would never buy it myself.

 

[AndrewWinter291]

thanks for the reply, I've gone along the am4 route to lessen costs as the 'clients' are erm quite aged and we don't want to waste money on new technology they probably won't see out but it is a valid point. It's the gpu info I kind of need really as I wouldn't buy one but feel it may benefit in this situation rather than have a card in thats not getting used (purely household/office use).

 

[sck451]

thanks for the reply, I've gone along the am4 route to lessen costs as the 'clients' are erm quite aged and we don't want to waste money on new technology they probably won't see out but it is a valid point. It's the gpu info I kind of need really as I wouldn't buy one but feel it may benefit in this situation rather than have a card in thats not getting used (purely household/office use).

No point whatsoever in getting a discrete GPU for those tasks. But then there's no real point in getting a full size desktop PC either.

As an example (and I wouldn't buy this system either, not least as it's an Intel CPU), you could get a compact PC like this one, which would perform just as well, and also be more likely to be supported by software for longer. What you don't get is modularity and upgradability, but it doesn't sound like these will be useful to you anyway...

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ Ultra 5 14 Core Processor 125H (Up to 4.5 GHz) 18M Cache
Motherboard
Integrated AZENA Motherboard
Memory (RAM)
16GB PCS PRO SODIMM DDR5 5600MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
INTEGRATED GRAPHICS ACCELERATOR (GPU)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SOLIDIGM P41+ GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 4125MB/sR, 2950MB/sW)
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Sound Card
Intel® HD Audio via Headphone/Mic Jack
Wireless Network Card
WIRELESS REALTEK RTL8852BE Wi-Fi 6 + BT v5.2
USB/Thunderbolt Options
4 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 1 x USB 3.2 PORT (10Gbps) TYPE-C
Operating System
Windows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10/11 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Chassis
PCS AZENA USFF Ultra 125H
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 6 to 8 working days
Price: £673.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/pcs-azena-nuc/SnPM0APzy6/

 

[BlessedSquirrel]

Just be aware, that processor is affected by the silicon degredation issue on Intel, it's just a rebranded 14500 with reduced clocks and limited voltages.

Reports have started coming in about replaced Intel processors dying already since last Septembers debacle, that's running the microcode "fixes" with voltage limitations. There are also reports of people who've always run the boards under even what the microcode applied as baselines breaking.

So that's the same just over 6 month timeline between being new and being so unstable they're unusable, same rough timeline that occured after they were first released and Intel replaced broken ones. That's worst case, but shows that the microcode updates haven't corrected the issue.

It's nothing to do with voltages, the silicon is compromised at a structural level.

So it likely will die earlier than it should do.

 

[sck451]

Just be aware, that processor is affected by the silicon degredation issue on Intel, it's just a rebranded 14500 with reduced clocks and limited voltages.

So it likely will die earlier than it should do.

I'd have posted the AMD one if it was in stock!

 

[AndrewWinter291]

cheers for the time spent researching this sck451, these pc's are replacements for two old guys both in their 70's who are set in their ways and used to their "tower". If I turned up with a micro pc I'd be shown the door lol. I went for 32gb ddr4 as all builds seem to have 16gb in and I felt I was future proofing. Its the ddr5 16gb where I'm lost off being retired, is that the same as 32gb ddr4? I doubt it but to an old man it wouldn't make a difference anyway. Every prebuilt system I've looked at has 16gb ram in it and these days I'd have thought 32 would be the main build option hence the post.
The am4 build is just to keep the cost down, it's all brand new so under warranty. I just feel giving an older person the latest hardware and spending more is a waste of resources. As for rebranding, that's a new thing to me and I only found out about it a couple of years ago and for the life of can't understand the need but that's not my issue.

 

[sck451]

Get a mini PC and put it in a big box, then.

It seems very foolish to me to spend money on buying outdated hardware, which will go out of support (nb not warranty) sooner, which performs worse, and which is smaller on your desk.

I consider what you're doing fundamentally misconceived, so I'm not going to suggest a spec, but for goodness' sake if you do go down the AM4 road, get the 5600GT and use its iGPU.