Looking for advice for powerful CPU to deal with Excel Spreadsheets! :-)

S

SCGrounds

New Member
Looking to buy a new CPU for work that is quick and has good memory to work on excel spreadsheets..

Do we need 32/64GB of RAM, AND a high GHz for speed?? And do we also need a high SSD? 512GB?

Is there any particular brands/models that are best to look for??

We have found similar computers that are to these specifications which are "gaming" computers - would these be okay or have people got suggestions to use/not to use gaming computers for a business environemnt?

Assistance appreciated :)
 
Are you looking for pre-built computers or are you looking into building yourself from parts?

In terms of ram, 32gb is way more than enough. 16gb is still more than enough for most business uses. Any particular software other than Excel you're using that you think maybe performance demanding?

Can't comment on the size of SSD, it's more dependent on if you're going to fill that up or not. More is always better.

There's nothing wrong with using computers marketed towards gamers in a business environment so long as it satisfies your needs.

Any specific budget you're targeting to be under?
 
In a business environment, gaming computers are way overkill since they tend to emphasize graphics performance. Powerful graphics performance usually isn't required for a business machine.

Excel spreadsheets don't normally require a lot of CPU power.
 
Intel_man said:
Are you looking for pre-built computers or are you looking into building yourself from parts?

In terms of ram, 32gb is way more than enough. 16gb is still more than enough for most business uses. Any particular software other than Excel you're using that you think maybe performance demanding?

Can't comment on the size of SSD, it's more dependent on if you're going to fill that up or not. More is always better.

There's nothing wrong with using computers marketed towards gamers in a business environment so long as it satisfies your needs.

Any specific budget you're targeting to be under?
Click to expand...

Thank you for that :)

We're looking for a pre-built computer - we basically just need it to have the power to process changes on excel super fast as we are using excel tools all the time, and most of our machines struggle as we also have other programs running in conjunction with excel (and sometimes multiple excel sheets open at one time that have add-ins pulling the data from Sage etc) but it is primarily excel that we need it for.

Do you have any recommendations regarding any particular machine and model with should consider??

We found one through who we normally get them with, with a very high spec for £2,700, but this is quite pricey so hopefully less than this!!

Thanks!
 
Intel_man said:
Do you happen to know the system specifications of your current computers?
Click to expand...

Our quickest computer has the following processor: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E3-1225 v5 @ 3.30GHz, 3312 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 4 Logical Processors.

Installed Physical Memory 32.0GB with 23.3GB available (so its likely we dont need this much memory??)

If that helps??

Thanks :)
 
Note! If it is for business-use, DO NOT BUY CONSUMER PRODUCTS!

Every PC-maker has a "business-line" with fast, stabile and RELIABLE computers..
Every retailer of business grade computes will help you to find a suitable model for your specifik use! Use that help!

The main difference is that business grade computers do have RELIABLE components that are built to last and has stabile, reliable drivers, whereas consumer computers often focus om new, untested components where the drivers might need to updated often due to reliability issues...

Saving a few $ by buying consumer products to use in business use might cost more in the end! There ARE reasons to why every bigger organization only buys business-grade computers..
 
SCGrounds said:
Our quickest computer has the following processor: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E3-1225 v5 @ 3.30GHz, 3312 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 4 Logical Processors.

Installed Physical Memory 32.0GB with 23.3GB available (so its likely we dont need this much memory??)

If that helps??

Thanks :)
Click to expand...
The E3-1225 v5 is pretty powerful for Excel already. It boosts to a decent clock speed and I'm not confident Excel will be using multithreading much. You can try enabling multi-core in the options and see if your cpu usage still gets pegged to very high % usage. If not, I'm not sure how much you'll gain from upgrading to new computers.
TheRealSwede said:
Note! If it is for business-use, DO NOT BUY CONSUMER PRODUCTS!

Every PC-maker has a "business-line" with fast, stabile and RELIABLE computers..
Every retailer of business grade computes will help you to find a suitable model for your specifik use! Use that help!

The main difference is that business grade computers do have RELIABLE components that are built to last and has stabile, reliable drivers, whereas consumer computers often focus om new, untested components where the drivers might need to updated often due to reliability issues...

Saving a few $ by buying consumer products to use in business use might cost more in the end! There ARE reasons to why every bigger organization only buys business-grade computers..
Click to expand...
Dude, that's horrible advice.
 
TheRealSwede said:
Note! If it is for business-use, DO NOT BUY CONSUMER PRODUCTS!

Every PC-maker has a "business-line" with fast, stabile and RELIABLE computers..
Every retailer of business grade computes will help you to find a suitable model for your specifik use! Use that help!

The main difference is that business grade computers do have RELIABLE components that are built to last and has stabile, reliable drivers, whereas consumer computers often focus om new, untested components where the drivers might need to updated often due to reliability issues...

Saving a few $ by buying consumer products to use in business use might cost more in the end! There ARE reasons to why every bigger organization only buys business-grade computers..
Click to expand...
Have you ever worked in a corporate environment?
 
Darren said:
Have you ever worked in a corporate environment?
Click to expand...

OH! I am SO familiar with the great number of amateurs here who always claim they know best..

And YES! If the computer is to be used in business use, a business grade computer IS to be favored (That goes without saying)

And YES! That is for the very same reasons that ALL larger organizations are choosing business grade computers, although ALL of them have budgets to follow…

In the long run, this has proven to be the most reliable option, and often a really reasonable priced option as well..

You might gain a % in performance by choosing a gaming-computer (consumerproduct) but when the reliability issues occur you might regret it.. (And note that I say “Might regret”)..

As a professional since 20yrs I would NOT EVER recommend any business to buy consumer grade gaming computers etc..

Most business grade computers (in Sweden at least) has a “Next day servicing” warranty included..
And in any business use.. every day of not being able to work due to a broken component in a computer costs a lot more than you “save” in buying consumer-grade stuff… This is an aspect that most amateurs do not comprehend... But an aspect that us professionals do understand…
 
TheRealSwede said:
You might gain a % in performance by choosing a gaming-computer (consumerproduct)
Click to expand...
Not all "consumer grade" computers are for gaming.
TheRealSwede said:
Most business grade computers (in Sweden at least) has a “Next day servicing” warranty included..
Click to expand...
That is exactly what I was talking about in my previous post. They aren't buying a better grade of hardware, they are buying the support contract. If this is a personal machine, why pay extra for that? If it's a business machine, why isn't the business supplying it?
 
TheRealSwede said:
OH! I am SO familiar with the great number of amateurs here who always claim they know best..

And YES! If the computer is to be used in business use, a business grade computer IS to be favored (That goes without saying)

And YES! That is for the very same reasons that ALL larger organizations are choosing business grade computers, although ALL of them have budgets to follow…

In the long run, this has proven to be the most reliable option, and often a really reasonable priced option as well..

You might gain a % in performance by choosing a gaming-computer (consumerproduct) but when the reliability issues occur you might regret it.. (And note that I say “Might regret”)..

As a professional since 20yrs I would NOT EVER recommend any business to buy consumer grade gaming computers etc..

Most business grade computers (in Sweden at least) has a “Next day servicing” warranty included..
And in any business use.. every day of not being able to work due to a broken component in a computer costs a lot more than you “save” in buying consumer-grade stuff… This is an aspect that most amateurs do not comprehend... But an aspect that us professionals do understand…
Click to expand...
Just out of curiosity, what sort of hardware do you think is in a "business-grade" computer. Apart from using buzzwords, I don't think you really know what's actually inside those machines.

i.e. are you suggesting processors like Intel Core i series are "unproven" processors compared to the Xeon line up? What are you specifically saying here?
 
I've been using and designing Lotus 123 then Excel worksheet (with VBA and graphic UI) for the past 30+ years until I retired. This is new to me. Since Pentium came on in early 90's and business machine came with more than enough ram and HHD.

If you're are having problem with a 10 year old machine handling your Excel, you should examine the way you designed your worksheet/workflow. There is no reason you need anything special for Excel, or Access or Word.
 
ssal said:
I've been using and designing Lotus 123 then Excel worksheet (with VBA and graphic UI) for the past 30+ years until I retired. This is new to me. Since Pentium came on in early 90's and business machine came with more than enough ram and HHD.

If you're are having problem with a 10 year old machine handling your Excel, you should examine the way you designed your worksheet/workflow. There is no reason you need anything special for Excel, or Access or Word.
Click to expand...
Any large datasets in Excel can run out of memory in the 32 bit version. The 64 bit version of Excel is suppose to stop that from happening. However, most addon apps for Excel does not work in 64 bit... which is why 32 bit is still the go-to version unless you NEED crazy amounts of memory to store all the data.
 
ssal said:
I've been using and designing Lotus 123 then Excel worksheet (with VBA and graphic UI) for the past 30+ years until I retired. This is new to me. Since Pentium came on in early 90's and business machine came with more than enough ram and HHD.

If you're are having problem with a 10 year old machine handling your Excel, you should examine the way you designed your worksheet/workflow. There is no reason you need anything special for Excel, or Access or Word.
Click to expand...

According to Microsoft, there's no hard limit to excel (64 bit) file sizes; stating that Workbook size is limited only by available memory and system resources
If you had a massive workbook that was many Gigs in size it will only open if you have a certain amount of RAM installed, otherwise it would just plain not open/crash
Also, processing power can get hogged by performing advanced functions on said data within workbook
That being said, to your point, the need of having a file like this in excel is a bit questionable at best from a workflow point of view

SCGrounds said:
Thank you for that :)

We're looking for a pre-built computer - we basically just need it to have the power to process changes on excel super fast as we are using excel tools all the time, and most of our machines struggle as we also have other programs running in conjunction with excel (and sometimes multiple excel sheets open at one time that have add-ins pulling the data from Sage etc) but it is primarily excel that we need it for.

Do you have any recommendations regarding any particular machine and model with should consider??

We found one through who we normally get them with, with a very high spec for £2,700, but this is quite pricey so hopefully less than this!!

Thanks!
Click to expand...

I assume the limitations here are hardware related and not related to network speed-
For excel applications you will want a machine with plenty of ram and beefy processing power, especially if you handle multiple workbooks, worksheets, datasets etc at once
Having a good CPU will also help with compression, if you zip files for sending/saving onto a network

hope this helps,
 
Intel_man said:
Any large datasets in Excel can run out of memory in the 32 bit version. The 64 bit version of Excel is suppose to stop that from happening. However, most addon apps for Excel does not work in 64 bit... which is why 32 bit is still the go-to version unless you NEED crazy amounts of memory to store all the data.
Click to expand...
When I designed worksheet and if there is a database over thousand of records or permanent in nature, I would not do it on the spreadsheet because it is a ram base product. The chance of error and lost of data was too great. Other than power failure and crash, there is accidental erase and row or column deletion. I used Access as the database bucket and have Excel's GUI and VBA to access it. The database bucket (Access file) is password producted and hidden on the server.

Also if there is a large enough data, break them up into multiple sheets, or even multiple files. VBA can execute any sophisticated command and criteria.

If the worksheet has to access data thru the network, you're limited by the internet/network speed which is far slower than a Pentium base machine.
 
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