Computer Shopper - UK (2020-05)

HOMEOFFICEPCs

ISSUE387|COMPUTER SHOPPER|MAY2020 71

peripherals,monitors,speakersandexternal

devicesatonce,furtherimprovingyour

productivity and multitasking abilities.

The best PCs offerawide range ofports

andsockets,both at the rear I/O panel and

–for convenience’s sake –onthe front of the

chassis. Faster USB ports such as USB3.1and

USB Type-C are preferable to older,slower

ones such as USB2, and while not everyone will

use all of them, it’s good to have avariety of

displayoutputs: even on basic graphics, you

can get two or even more monitors running at

once,provided you can plug them all in

individually.Ifyou have (or want) asurround-

sound speaker system, you should also make

sure the I/O panel provides additional 3.5mm

audio jacks, not just the standard line out.

All PCs can be connected to the internet

via an Ethernet cable,but Wi-Fi support is

one area where laptops win out. That said,

several of ourtested PCs come with an

expansion card that grants them 802.11ac or

802.11n Wi-Fi connectivity out of the box.

MAKING THE UPGRADE

Wi-Ficards,likededicatedsoundcards,extra

storagedrives,additionalRAMorapowerful

graphicscard,areapotentialupgradeyou

might like to make yourself further down the

line.This is the beauty of PCs: they can be

configured to your exact needs even after

you’ve bought one,and making such additions

is often easier than it might first appear.

However,the extent to which different PCs

are upgradable varies. Some maybepeppered

with empty PCI-E slots and storage drive bays

waiting to be filled, but others might be more

fully occupied. If,say,there are no spare RAM

slots but you want to add more memory,you’d

need to get rid of the existing sticks instead of

adding to them. We’ll take alook at each

system’s upgrade-friendliness in the reviews.

well as how well asystem can run asingle task
(in this case,video encoding) that nonetheless
requires the attention of multiple CPU threads.
You’ll find that chips with more cores (and
thus more threads) will have an advantage.
There’s also the issue of RAM. As always,
more RAM means smoother multitasking,
though piling on the memory won’t necessarily
elevate amiddling CPU to greatness. 16GB of
RAM should be more than enough, unless you
want to eventually upgrade your £600 system
to abona fide high-end workstation.

TICKET TO DRIVE

Besides the CPU, our other big focuswillbeon
storage.Aquality storage setup will find a
balance between capacity and speed. More of
the former lowers the chances that you’ll need
to deleteold files and applications to make
room fornew ones, while higher storage
speeds will make everything feel more
responsive by reducing the time it takes to
boot up,load applications or transfer files.
Mechanical hard disks offer higher capacity
at alowerprice,sothey’re acommonchoice
to actasasecondary drive,but we strongly
recommend the main drive –the one on which
Windows is installed –tobeafaster,more
expensive SSD.All the better if it’s an NVMe
model, as these are much faster than SSDs
that use the same SATA interface as hard disks.
Exactly how much capacity you need will
depend on how you use your PC, but agood
compromise is to have asmallSSD for
Windows (and afew of your most-used
applications) with a1TB or larger hard disk on
the side.Then again, sometimes compromises
aren’t necessary,asthe Wired2Fire Ultima WS
shows with its hefty 1TB NVMe SSD.

DOWN TO BASICS

AhomeofficePCisnot agaming PC, nor
should it be.Mostofthe sixsystems covered
here include dedicated graphics, but largely
because their chosen CPUs lack integrated
graphics of their own. We’ll run acouple of our
usual 1080p gaming benchmarks to get more
of an idea of each PC’s graphical capabilities,
but GPU muscle isn’t nearly as much of a
concern as the CPU and storage.
There are acouple of reasons forthis. One,
asking foramighty graphics card would either
push prices up,orforce severe compromises
to the other existing components. Second,
very fewhomeoffice-type tasks really benefit
from anything beyond simple graphics
hardware.Image- and video-editing software
can sometimes take advantage of GPU
acceleration to speed up the toughest
processing and encoding jobs, but forthe level
you can reasonably expect from something
costing £600, this was never going to come
intosignificant playanyway.
Indeed, the main benefit of dedicated
graphics in acheap home office PC is that
theycan add extra displayoutput options.
Connectivity is, in general, one of the single
biggest advantages aPChas over portable
devices: you can use so many more

Thisguidewillhelpyou findagreat-valuePC,butcheckout

theseperipheralsifyou’restartingahomeofficesetupfrom

scratch–they’realsocheapforthequalitytheyoffer

MONITOR

AOCQ3279VWFD8

(£198, http://www.ebuyer.com)

ThereareloadsofFullHDmonitors,somehalfasexpensive

(orless)astheQ3279VWFD8,butthisisatleastafewstepsup

onspecsandperformancewhilestillcostinglessthanmost

otherQuadHDdisplays.Thespacious31.5inscreenprovides

plentyofroomforworkingwithmultipleapplications,whilethehighresolutionmeans

everythingstayssharpandreadableintheprocess.

TheQ3279VWFD8alsousesanIPSratherthanacheapTNpanel,soviewingangles

areniceandwide,andinourtestingwerecordedanaveragedelta-Eofjust1.29,making

itsufficientlycolour-accurateforseriousimageediting.

MOUSE

MicrosoftClassicIntellimouse

(£25, http://www.ao.com)

ThisremadeandremasteredversionofthelegendaryIntellimouseExplorer

3.0isaffordable,ergonomicallycomfortableandhasaniftyBlueTracksensor.

Unlikealotofopticalmice,itwillworkwellonanysurfacesaveforglassormirror,

whichisidealifyoudon’twantorhaveroomforamousepad.

TwothumbbuttonsandcustomisablesensitivitymaketheClassicIntellimouseeven

morepractical,andthroughtheMicrosoftMouseandKeyboardCenterapplication,youcan

completelyremapanyofthefiveinputstoperformadifferenttaskentirely.It’savery

well-featuredmouseforlessthan£30.

KEYBOARD

RazerBlackWidowLite

(£61, http://www.amazon.co.uk)

Mechanicalkeyboardsarealmostalwaysbetterthanmushyrubber-dome

models,butthey’realsomuchmoreexpensive.Luckily,theBlackWidowLite

–whichusesquietbutnicelytactilemechanicalswitches–hasrecentlyshed

nearlyathirdofitsprice,turningitintoanenticingalternativetomorebasicboards.

It’satenkeylesskeyboard,sothere’snonumberpad,butatthispricethat’stheonly

thingtobeworriedabout.Thisisacomfortable,durableandcleanlybacklitmechanical

keyboardthat’sgreatforgeneraluseregardlessofRazer’sgamingpedigree.

PERIPHERAL PICKS

lorer

sensor.

assormirror,

l useeven

bber-dome

kWidowLite

recentlyshed

tomorebasicboards.