Classic but different focused question

[slaves123]

Well, some of you will hate me for this more than common and known question... but i want to focus this on a different way.
I'm am really concerned about the answer, and I would really aprecciate answers from people who have real experience in the subject, that means, employees who use office computers every day, offices and middle sized enterprises owners who keep their systems up to date, and do analyse the prices, because they are important when we are talking from 5 to 50 computers... and any other of you who is used to this subject, do not tell me about the public opinion, or about things we hear every day, but of things you've realized using and buying computers, from both AMD and Intel chip makers... a little bit about motherboard would be helpful... but mainly on the processors.

I know that todays processor are much more powerful than what the office tasks really need, but i refuse to buy (I mean sell, because I'm a reseller) old processors from suspecious places or used processors with a very little (or inexistent) warranty.

I will add a poll, i hope it to work, but the comment will be more considered than just a simple vote.

Thank you, and i hope to help someones with this poll.

-Mauro-

 

[MDE]

You explained the background of your question pretty well but never actually asked the question, so what is the question? If you want to know what's better for office tasks, then any Celeron or Duron\Sempron will do what you need.

 

[ribbon13]

I didn't see a single question mark, but my answer reamins the same.
AMD. Budget socket 754 systems should do any office task easily.

Support innovation!

 

[stevty2889]

Even an old cyrix or original pentium can run office aps pretty well..so the only real cosideration is price, so AMD is the best choice in that department, and when it comes to A64, it's the best for price and performance.

 

[slaves123]

True! I apologize because the answer is not clear.
Which present processor would you choose for an office computer (or lots of them)?????
If yoy have to supply processors for different enterprises, which one would you choose??? The cheapest? More expensive? Is the difference worth? How much time are they able of working without problems?

Those are my questions

 

[MDE]

Originally posted by: slaves123
True! I apologize because the answer is not clear.
Which present processor would you choose for an office computer (or lots of them)?????
If yoy have to supply processors for different enterprises, which one would you choose??? The cheapest? More expensive? Is the difference worth? How much time are they able of working without problems?

Those are my questions

Probably the cheapest. A Pentium III or Athlon classic could easily handle any office task so it's near pointless to go for a 3GHz CPU when a 1.2GHz Thunderbird (or PIII) with 1GB RAM could do the same thing and probably seem just as fast to anyone using it.

 

[Sunbird]

AMD Sempron 2200+'s would be good for any normal office task, coupled with at least 256MB DDR and a nice 40gig 7200RPM Harddrive. It would give you a very responsive system for cheap.

My dad's office has Celeron 1700's, with 256MD PC133 RAM and 30gig 5400RPM drives, and man, do they suck. Startup is so slow, switching between users is slow, opening a application for the first time is so slow. Its fine for office use, I guess, but compared to that cheap Sempron, no way I would want to work on it everyday.

 

[zakee00]

why ANYONE would build a new computer based on a P3 is beyond me...for a 1GHz they are $88
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=19-114-137&depa=0
or for a bit more money you can get a sempron 3100+ which is MUCH better for office apps
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=19-104-207&depa=0

i just upgraded from a P3, and it blew_ass for everything. even iTunes was choppy...word worked OK i guess, but it took forever to start up. plus with the sempron at least you have some kind of upgrade path, its S754...intel did away with the p3 like 4 years ago


i just see no point in getting such an outdated processor nowdays, for any reason besides hitting with a hammer.

 

[Zebo]

This is all you need for a very long time.
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-138-241&depa=0
Think price/performance.. Any P4 or A64 will set you back $200-$300 just for CPU and motherboard and offer you nothing for common office tasks in relation to what I linked for $90 total

Even the differences between AMD 64 and Intel P4 are so miniscule in most benchmarks you should always buy on price.

 

[MDE]

Originally posted by: zakee00
why ANYONE would build a new computer based on a P3 is beyond me...for a 1GHz they are $88
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=19-114-137&depa=0
or for a bit more money you can get a sempron 3100+ which is MUCH better for office apps
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=19-104-207&depa=0

i just upgraded from a P3, and it blew_ass for everything. even iTunes was choppy...word worked OK i guess, but it took forever to start up. plus with the sempron at least you have some kind of upgrade path, its S754...intel did away with the p3 like 4 years ago


i just see no point in getting such an outdated processor nowdays, for any reason besides hitting with a hammer.

What office tasks require iTunes? Also, I never once said to buy a Pentium III, only that it could accomplish any office task out there. How much RAM was in your PIII system? I'm willing to bet it was 256MB or less and your new system probably has 1GB. There's a huge difference between hearing your hard drive wail away furiously swapping MS Word into pagefile and just running everything from RAM. If an ancient Pentium III will accomplish these mountainous tasks, then why couldn't the slowest Athlon\Duron\Sempron\Pentium 4\Celeron out there today do it just as well?

 

[kranky]

Even the lowest-end brand-new CPU on the market will be more than sufficient for typical office use. I wouldn't even worry about Intel vs. AMD - if you want to save money, get whatever is cheapest.

For office use, what is more important than speed is stability. I'd get a cheap name-brand mobo and CPU, either Win2K or XP (again, whatever is cheaper), and splurge a bit for a quality HDD and quality PSU. The latest and greatest CPUs only make it more difficult to manage the cooling - and that's one more headache you don't need.

If you save even $200 on a new system but have to rebuild it in a year because the PSU or HDD died, you'll have wasted more than the $200.

The PC I'm using at work is over 6 years old (P2-266) and it has never needed service. It's quiet, it's cool, has a great PSU and the SCSI HDD runs like a tank. Not that I would recommend buying P2's, but it's the other components which are much more likely to fail and I'm just saying that's where I would invest in quality.

Again, Intel vs. AMD doesn't really enter the picture.