CPU, computer build for Excel Calculations
I need some advice regarding a new PC build. And I can’t find the answer on general hardware forums. I need recommendations based on experience, so the best place to ask my question is here .I know it is somehow an outside topic but please bear with me.
My build will be mainly for general heavy office work.
I’m looking for a durable (5-7 years), on-budget build.
What I will not do with this build:
NO GAMING NO VIDEO/Photo Editing rendering ripping…
NO overclocking
What I will do with this build:
Long heavy text editing: all Microsoft office suite with heavy usage mainly Word, PowerPoint and Excel.
Excel: heavy complex financial calculation with spreadsheets not exceeding 100MB.
1080p, 4K video playing.
Browsing: 6 windows of (Chrome, Firefox) with 20 tabs each.
I use software’s like R, SPSS, Macro’s in Excel and Maybe some Matlab in the future.
I just want to be able to do (in a comfortable way) some complex (but on a small scale) calculations.
I really need your help, guys. Thank you all in advance.
You don't need much. I have a shitty minibook(think a Chromebook or equivalent) that chugs on Excel but can easily do everything else. For that usage anything that runs at the 500 USD range or above should be fine as long as it has a decent amount of memory and anything that's not an i3 processor. Keep in mind that for this work the single biggest performance boost you can have will be realized by having a solid state drive. Also larger monitors pay dividends when working on complicated spreadsheets, although you may be better served by taking some of that cash and putting it into a secondary monitor.
Processor and memory all day. More cores + more RAM = faster excel. I'd say any Core i7 above 2ghz along with 16gb of RAM would be sufficient for the heaviest of excel applications. I have specs in that range and my excel runs fast even through a virtual machine.
Yeah, quad core i5 or i7 with 16 gb memory will do wonders.
I also suggest getting an SSD, they are much cheaper nowadays and well worth that 50x speed.
What's your budget?
For huge data sets and parallel processing, more GPU power will be beneficial, if the tools you're using support it.
GPU? There's no 3D graphics involved in excel. A stock intel Graphics chip will be perfectly fine.
Chrome rips through RAM. Excel is CPU taxing.
Don't bother getting a GPU for what you want. Get a solid i5/i7, 16GB RAM (you probably won't need more than that, and an SSD. SSD is getting ridiculously cheap, and you're not gaming so you're probably not going to eat through 250/500GB of that unless you hoard movies.
As for 4k, I don't know why you'd want the overpriced monitors for mainly excel work. You're probably better spending that extra money somewhere else in the build. Also, 4k is 2160p: http://i.rtings.com/images/resolution-4k-ultra-hd-size.png
I would focus on IPC (instructions per clock) when looking at what CPU to buy. You'll want to look at the newest generation of processors (Intel's Skylake microarchitecture). Also, when buying RAM, focus on DDR4 memory. Get an SSD to top it all off and you can skimp on the rest of the components. That should set you up for a couple years.
Also, don't just buy any Core i5 or Core i7 that you see for a good price. Intel has been using the i5/i7 branding since the Nehalem generation of CPU's debuted in 2006 (and there have been a bunch of generations of CPU's since then, including but not limited to Westmere, Sandy Bridge, Ivy Bridge, Haswell, Devil's Canyon, and now Skylake).
nvmd
The real question here is how many monitors are you planning on utilizing. If its less than two I wouldn't suggest building your own PC unless you have a connection for software. If you are going to be utilizing more than two monitors you will need a dedicated GPU. While 4K will work fine on a built in GPU for just desktop usage if you plan on having more than one 4k monitor you will need a dedicated GPU purely because on board GPUs wont have enough ports that are 4k bandwidth capable.
I haven't looked at computer hardware in a few years but last time I checked the higher end CPUs didn't even come with on board GPUs. I would suggest something like a GTX 950 or 960 anyway just for the ability to add additional monitors with out having to buy those stupid powered feed split boxes for additional monitors.
Sorry for the misunderstanding. When i talked about 4K it was about pc able to PLAY 4K since it requires a decent amount of CPU power (case of integrated graphics). Regarding monitors the latest CPU’s integrated graphics can manage up to 3 monitors so I don’t think that I need a dedicated graphic card. For the idea of getting a dedicated graphic card to help in calculations (CUDA…) I won’t get up to this level of complexity and data analysis. Just call this build an amateur financial workstation. I don’t think I need an I7 in fact I don’t think there is a real performance gain in buying an I7 in comparison to an SSD or just software and coding optimization. Anyone have tips on how to get the best of a workstation in terms of Excel calculations and any other financial modeling software’s?
thank you all
The CPUs might be able to handle upto three video feeds. But it is rare to find a motherboard that will be in your price range that can actually handle that, along with having the other things you are looking for. So you are stuck buying those stupid powered feed split things that cost only slightly less than a decent low end GPU.
You then run into the situation where a sizeable chunk of your CPU resources are dedicated to the graphics and an even bigger chunk of your ram resources are dedicated to the graphics. It isn't a zero use situation the processing power has to come from somewhere. You can either buy more ram, a beefier CPU and a powered feed split or you can buy a $150 GPU and buy a less expensive CPU, less ram, and ditch the split device. It will really come to about even.
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