PCPartPicker
  • Log In
  • Register
Blog/

$730 Office/Productivity Live Build

Recent Posts

April 2019

October 2018

September 2018

March 2018

February 2018

December 2017

November 2017

October 2017

September 2017

August 2017

July 2017

June 2017

May 2017

April 2017

March 2017

February 2017

January 2017

December 2016

November 2016

October 2016

September 2016

August 2016

July 2016

June 2016

May 2016

April 2016

March 2016

February 2016

January 2016

November 2015

October 2015

September 2015

August 2015

July 2015

June 2015

May 2015

March 2015

February 2015

November 2014

October 2014

September 2014

August 2014

July 2014

June 2014

May 2014

April 2014

March 2014

February 2014

January 2014

December 2013

November 2013

October 2013

August 2013

July 2013

June 2013

May 2013

April 2013

March 2013

January 2013

December 2012

November 2012

October 2012

September 2012

August 2012

July 2012

April 2012

March 2012

Post

philip Oct. 21, 2015

Join us Thursday 2pm Central time for our weekly live stream, where we'll be putting together Jenny's office build.

After a few (rather expensive, cough) gaming and rendering systems, it's time to build a more modest system for general office and productivity software use. Jenny handles our retailer relationships, and with the move to the new office we wanted to put together a new system for her. She's not an avid gamer, so we decided to skip external graphics and go with the CPU on-board GPU chipset instead. However, we didn't want it to be a plain ugly box, so we spent a bit more for the nice Silverstone case. Here's the full part list:

PCPartPicker part list

Type Item Price
CPU Intel Core i3-4350 3.6GHz Dual-Core Processor $151.98 @ Newegg
CPU Cooler CRYORIG C1 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler Already had on-hand
Motherboard Gigabyte GA-H97N-WIFI Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard $112.00 @ B&H
Memory Kingston HyperX Fury White 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory $46.99 @ Amazon
Storage Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive $84.89 @ OutletPC
Case Silverstone FT03S-MINI Mini ITX Tower Case $142.08 @ Amazon
Power Supply Silverstone 300W 80+ Bronze Certified SFX Power Supply $48.99 @ SuperBiiz
Keyboard Microsoft Designer Bluetooth Desktop Bluetooth Wireless Slim Keyboard w/Laser Mouse $79.98 @ Amazon
Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
Total $666.91
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-10-21 22:02 EDT-0400

Comments Sorted by:

wildskiller 10 points 42 months ago

This computer is the devil!

click here for image

Permalink
190n 2 Builds 2 points 42 months ago

lol

Permalink
Emmettdogg 1 point 41 months ago

Ha

Permalink
190n 2 Builds 3 points 42 months ago

The livestreams are weekly now?

COOL!!!

Permalink
mike9409 7 Builds 3 points 41 months ago

Chess boards will never look the same again...

Permalink
[comment deleted by staff]
PorkyDonut 2 points 41 months ago

Not best, for a few reasons:

i3

Man, use Team Elite memory, its cheaper.

Permalink
PorkyDonut 1 point 40 months ago

This computer costs like my gaming build. My gaming build is at over here

Permalink
Psyckosama 1 point 39 months ago

Lets see...

i3? Less than ideal.

Expensive ram?

An 150 dollar case? Really?

Permalink
philip staff submitter 10 Builds 1 point 39 months ago

Really!

Permalink
Psyckosama 1 point 39 months ago

Really excessive.

With some wiser parts selection this build could have easily been reduced in cost by an easy 200 dollars... or have had that money put into improvements that would have benefited it performance wise.

Permalink
philip staff submitter 10 Builds 1 point 39 months ago

Just a heads up - this was not a build guide. This was a personal build for our office. Sure, we could have changed the case and saved money or spent it elsewhere, but we chose not to. We were comfortable spending extra to get the aesthetics we wanted.

Permalink
Psyckosama 1 point 39 months ago

Fair point. Though still, a 150 dollar case strikes me as a needless excess.

That said I tend to run along the lines of ITX cases exist to be tucked away out of site and out of mind.

Permalink
philip staff submitter 10 Builds 2 points 39 months ago

I understand you feel it is excessive.

I've built with $50 ITX cases, $100 ITX cases, and got to see this one up close. Yes, it's $150, but it's also really well built. When you spend more on a case like this one, you'll often notice substantial differences in build quality. Seriously, it's a really nice case, and it's really nice to build in. (Didn't you just recommend a not-cheap Enthoo recently due to the ease of working in it?) It's not my personal build, but I like it. It looks really clean on the desk and takes up minimal space. It's super quiet.

Regarding the choice of CPU, the i3 is plenty capable for what the build is being used for. She's not gaming on it. She's not doing heavy number crunching. Just basic productivity apps and tasks.

At the end of the day, Jack and Ryan put together this part list for Jenny's work computer. I didn't give them a budget, but let them splurge where they wanted to. I think that's ok, but I also recognize not everyone has that luxury. We just ended up optimizing for personal preference rather than trying to squeeze the most out of every dollar.

Permalink
PorkyDonut 1 point 39 months ago

If there is no gpu, buy a A10-7870K or A10-7850K instead! Same price, a little bit more electricity, but is worth the gpu.

Permalink
philip staff submitter 10 Builds 1 point 39 months ago

We didn't need the extra graphics capability.

Permalink
piemancoder 0 points 42 months ago

Office builds are cool, I think it's smarter to omit an external GPU. Can't wait to watch the replay, as I'll be in a long car ride during the live stream, but it's one day before the monotony data limit resets!

Permalink
[comment deleted by staff]
[comment deleted]
[comment deleted by staff]
[comment deleted by staff]
[comment deleted by staff]
[comment deleted]
philip staff submitter 10 Builds 1 point 42 months ago

If I remember correctly, we ordered the parts for her build before the non-K variants of Skylake were available.

Permalink
[comment deleted]
[comment deleted by staff]