What processor do and RAM do you need?

[sgallucci]

Hi folks,

I'm looking to buy a SurfaceBook 2 for home and working from home. My IT person at work said I'd need at least an i7 and 16MB of RAM. A SB2 with those options is *really* pricey. I'm wondering if I can get by with an i5 and 8MB.

For background, I work with Excel files that are up to 1MB in size. Projects might include:

- Pivot tables and graphs off of downloads from Salesforce that can be a thousand lines or so down and 10-15 columns.
- Budget files where 20 departmental P&L's are grouped together and then consolidated.

I've been reading online articles, but they're either geared towards gamers or home users - nothing for Excel folks. So your opinion is appreciated!

 

[mole999]

what OS will you install, 32bit and you can only use 3Gb ram, if you go 64bit, you will need 64bit office, and some add on vendors do not support. Games machines have a high spec graphics processor, which for most excel won't make a difference.

You will do better with an SSD harddrive.

i5 processors are good, choose the best from the range you can afford, faster with best on die caches