Building a powerful Business Computer

[Bigturbonotch]

Hey guys I am looking at building a few new computers for my business. In the past we just bought out of the box dells. This time around I am entertaining the idea of building a few. We do a lot of email, run inventory/accounting software, and some occasional Photoshop and gerber omega software. Two monitors but could be up to 3.

Looking to run windows 7 professional 64 bit

I would like the computer to be responsive and fast so I am assuming that a SSD for the operating system and some of the programs may be a good idea? If anyone would like to suggest parts or a list that would be great.

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[BlaqSnake]

Have you considered something higher end, such as a Dell Precision Workstation?

Warranty is a good thing for a business PC.

 

[TCG Member 5219]

Hey guys I am looking at building a few new computers for my business. In the past we just bought out of the box dells. This time around I am entertaining the idea of building a few. We do a lot of email, run inventory/accounting software, and some occasional Photoshop and gerber omega software. Two monitors but could be up to 3.

Looking to run windows 7 professional 64 bit

I would like the computer to be responsive and fast so I am assuming that a SSD for the operating system and some of the programs may be a good idea? If anyone would like to suggest parts or a list that would be great.

I'll sell you my PC that could run circles around anything you could buy off the shelf for pennies on the dollar.

 

[TCG Member 5219]

Just three months ago I custom built another system. It's x99 chipset based. I7 5820k running 4.6ghz. 750w psu. Two 250gb Samsung ssds in raid 0. And I just sold my 980ti gpu for the gtx1080. It's not even delivered. I can send some pics and more details of you are really interested.

Also if you need advice, this is my 5th high end PC I have built since last June.

 

[sickmint79]

i don't know your business but initial bang for the buck should be factored in to what are probably more relevant things to a business machine - support and service when shit goes south. given your application description and how powerful stuff is these days you probably don't need to go all that extreme either, my 2 cents.

 

[Fish]

Apple.

An I5 with at least 16GB of ram and a SSD should do exactly what you want it to and not have to burn the extra money for an I7.

If I built a home work PC, I personally would start with something like this.

i5 processor
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B010T6CWI2/?tag=tcg21-20

motherboard
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B014F7BQUG/?tag=tcg21-20

Ram
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TY6A1LY/?tag=tcg21-20

Power supply
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00H33SFJU/?tag=tcg21-20

250GB SSD
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OAJ412U/?tag=tcg21-20

Or 500GB if you feel you need it.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OBRE5UE/?tag=tcg21-20

HDD for storage.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005T3GRN2/?tag=tcg21-20

Case. Nothing fancy. USB3 up front.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00RORBQNW/?tag=tcg21-20

You can get a decent fan for cooling, or opt for a closed liquid setup.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005O65JXI/?tag=tcg21-20

or

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00A0HZMGA/?tag=tcg21-20

Since its more office work, I wouldnt even bother with a graphics card. You "shouldnt" need it. Onboard graphics will work ok, and that motherboard has multiple video outs for dual monitor setup.

 

[Thirdgen89GTA]

With today's computing power I'm not even sure an i5 is nessesary. For straight office/web work an i3 will have more than enough punch as long as its paired with a SSD and 8-16GB of ram.

I'd take the money saved from the i5, and put it into a larger SSD.

Don't forget though. When building your own computer it comes with zero "value added" software. Most of the time thats a benefit, no junk slowing it down. But that also means you need to purchase a copy of the OS you want to run, and any applications you might want, like MS Office.

An OEM copy of Windows 10 is about $110. MS Office is a bit more expensive. If there are any accounting apps like quicken, you'll need to buy those too. And I would also suggest purchasing a Anti-virus subscription. As well as either an online cloud backup solution, or one of the external hard drives that comes with Backup software built into it.

You absolutely do NOT want to get hit with a Locky virus. There is NO recovery from it. You cannot decrypt the files, its computationally impossible at this point. The only way to decrypt them is to pay the Ransom. Locky and other ransom ware uses a 2048bit RSA key, that randomly generates 128bit AES encryptions for each file. Each encrypted file uses a different AES key. The end result is total loss of any encrypted file.

An example. We got hit with it at work. Just a single user got the Locky virus. In just about 1.5hrs before it was reported and her computer removed from the network it had encrypted over 200,000 files. Over 200,000 business critical documents were permanently encrypted. Because we have a good backup solution, once we pulled her PC off the network, we just deleted all the encrypted files and did a restore from a known good backup to restore the missing files.

So for us, it was no biggie. But if we didn't have a backup solution? Those files would have been lost to us forever.

 

[TCG Member 5219]

With today's computing power I'm not even sure an i5 is nessesary. For straight office/web work an i3 will have more than enough punch as long as its paired with a SSD and 8-16GB of ram.

I'd take the money saved from the i5, and put it into a larger SSD.

Don't forget though. When building your own computer it comes with zero "value added" software. Most of the time thats a benefit, no junk slowing it down. But that also means you need to purchase a copy of the OS you want to run, and any applications you might want, like MS Office.

An OEM copy of Windows 10 is about $110. MS Office is a bit more expensive. If there are any accounting apps like quicken, you'll need to buy those too. And I would also suggest purchasing a Anti-virus subscription. As well as either an online cloud backup solution, or one of the external hard drives that comes with Backup software built into it.

You absolutely do NOT want to get hit with a Locky virus. There is NO recovery from it. You cannot decrypt the files, its computationally impossible at this point. The only way to decrypt them is to pay the Ransom. Locky and other ransom ware uses a 2048bit RSA key, that randomly generates 128bit AES encryptions for each file. Each encrypted file uses a different AES key. The end result is total loss of any encrypted file.

An example. We got hit with it at work. Just a single user got the Locky virus. In just about 1.5hrs before it was reported and her computer removed from the network it had encrypted over 200,000 files. Over 200,000 business critical documents were permanently encrypted. Because we have a good backup solution, once we pulled her PC off the network, we just deleted all the encrypted files and did a restore from a known good backup to restore the missing files.

So for us, it was no biggie. But if we didn't have a backup solution? Those files would have been lost to us forever.

$29 - Windows 10 Professional OEM Key | Buy on Kinguin

Its legit and I have bought two from there. One was $19 at the time.

 

[muskie]

$29 - Windows 10 Professional OEM Key | Buy on Kinguin

Its legit and I have bought two from there. One was $19 at the time.

These might be legit keys but probably someone selling Dreamspark or BizSpark keys. This is against MS ToS. Don't be surprised if they stop activating. MS has been known to shut down the accounts

 

[Thirdgen89GTA]

These might be legit keys but probably someone selling Dreamspark or BizSpark keys. This is against MS ToS. Don't be surprised if they stop activating. MS has been known to shut down the accounts

Yeah, not that I don't want cheap. But Windows 10 is more strict about security activations.

If you want cheap, you are better off installing and activating a Windows 7 OEM copy on a new machine, and going through the Windows 10 upgrade process so MS can fingerprint it.

Then it will activate forever even without a key.

 

[Fish]

With today's computing power I'm not even sure an i5 is nessesary. For straight office/web work an i3 will have more than enough punch as long as its paired with a SSD and 8-16GB of ram.

I'd take the money saved from the i5, and put it into a larger SSD.

True, I just suggested i5 due to the slow aging and need for upgrade, along with I use crappy computers at work and know how I wish I didnt. Hence why I went with i5 over the 3. 7 would be WAY overkill.

After looking at some reviews of the 3, its not terrible. Some even use it for a HTPC running plex and such.

 

[TCG Member 5219]

Yeah, not that I don't want cheap. But Windows 10 is more strict about security activations.

If you want cheap, you are better off installing and activating a Windows 7 OEM copy on a new machine, and going through the Windows 10 upgrade process so MS can fingerprint it.

Then it will activate forever even without a key.

I have used those keys over and over. I have probably reloaded W10 on my gaming PC 10 times just last month. Never had an issue. I get the digital entitlement activation everytime. No need to even put in the key once you do it one time. There is no issue with using those keys.