Computer build for heavy Excel

[omarsrv]

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.

Should I go with Skylake CPU’s for future proof?

I really need your help, guys. Thank you all in advance.

 

[AliGW]

You don't say what the budget is ...

 

[omarsrv]

You don't say what the budget is ...

Yes about the budget. Let’s says 700 euros.

But the idea behind my question is that I don’t want to pay for something that I will not need.
I think there is an inflation in CPU performance. I’m sure I will not need an i7 though I know it will be faster that an I5. But it will be just for small scale modeling. I’m not working on valuating my company’s holdings during the last 5 years.
It more about testing and using the build to make some personal but professional investment choices.

 

[AliGW]

Thanks for clarifying. If you are cross-posting on other forums, it is customary to provide a link to those other posts.

 

[omarsrv]

Thanks for clarifying. If you are cross-posting on other forums, it is customary to provide a link to those other posts.

I don’t know how to answer this.
why the budget is that important! This is an absurd question. If I ask for a build for web browsing and if I have a 10k$ budget does it mean than I should go for Xeon CPU instead of an I3 or a Pentium?!!

If, to do what i need to do with this build, I "really" need to pay 10k$ I will pay for it or consider changing my hobbies. But if I can get a build that will respect all the criterias for 100$ why not?!!

 

[AliGW]

I asked because you mentioned an "on-budget" build without mentioning what that budget was. Why did YOU mention it if it is not important? What happens if someone comes along and says, "You could do with x, y and z", and then you come back and say, "Yeah, but it's beyond my budget"? I would not have asked had you not mentioned it in the first place. Perhaps I should apologise for trying to help?

 

[mole999]

for best scope, 64 bit operating system, and 64 bit install of excel, that way you can access much bigger amounts of memory. If you use specific excel related software you want to also run, then make sure its available as 64 bit. memory and SSD drives could be the best way to go

 

[omarsrv]

I asked because you mentioned an "on-budget" build without mentioning what that budget was. Why did YOU mention it if it is not important? What happens if someone comes along and says, "You could do with x, y and z", and then you come back and say, "Yeah, but it's beyond my budget"? I would not have asked had you not mentioned it in the first place. Perhaps I should apologise for trying to help?

I think my description was clear.

When I’ve said on budget that means: a build that respect all the criteria for the lowest price.

The problem with the budget criteria is that every time you give this information everyone will try to get the most of the budget based on the “BEST” component and tend to forget the OTHER MOST important criteria’s and by the way totally ignore if they can recommend something respecting the criteria’s with half the budget!

So from another perspective my question is:

What is the best CPU architecture for scientific calculation and Excel modeling?

Is Excel advantage of some type of instructions set that we could find in some CPUs?

Does Excel take advantage from 8 cores CPUs vs quad core CPU vs strong dual cores?

What amount of RAM Excel can use while calculating worksheets of 100Mb?

Is it better to go with an SSD + 8gb RAM than HDD + 16gb RAM?

 

[shg]

I don't think an SSD buys you anything in terms of Excel performance if you have sufficient RAM - my choice would be 16GB. Better in every other respect, though. Hybrid drives are rising in popularity.

HDDs are so large now (north of 1TB) that size doesn't matter unless you store lots of video. My backups (company & personal, data only, about 13,000 files) only requires about 10GB.

Excels will use all CPU cores available to calculate, so the more the merrier until you run out of money.