MC bundle for office work - 9600x 16GB or 9700x 32GB for $100 more?

Posted by soontorn@reddit | buildapc | View on Reddit | 8 comments

I know I'm over thinking this, but I need help deciding on a MicroCenter bundle for office/productivity work. Video calls, Excel, Powerpoint, 100 Chrome tabs...

Do I go with the $399 9600x 16GB -OR- $499 9700x 32GB?

The current cost of RAM has me wondering if the 9700x 32GB bundle for $100 more is a better buy. I realize both are overkill in this situation but I want to put this machine into use for the next 10 years and not think about it again. I thought about going with one of the lower cost AM4/DDR4 bundles but I think I'd like to stick with newer hardware. Any suggestions?

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J4jem@reddit

No question for productivity. 8 cores + 32 GB RAM for just $100 more is what you want.

Only a gamer might get the cheaper model to funnel an additional $100 to the GPU. And even then, with RAM prices as they are I don't know why anyone would opt for 16GB vs 32GB (that is like a $200 value right now alone).

Otherwise, it's an easy decision.

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Reviews-From-Me@reddit

If all you're doing is video calls, excel, power point, and browsing on Chrome, the 9600x + 16GB of RAM should be more than enough.

For comparison, my work laptop uses an i7-1260U CPU, which is much slower than the 9600x, and 16GB of RAM. I've never had a problem running excel, PowerPoint, video calls, and a lot of chrome tabs, all at once.

However, $100 for double the ram and a faster processor is a pretty good deal and will give you flexibility to perform more intensive application's at some point.

So, personally, unless you're already over budget and the extra $100 would really hurt, I would go for the 9700x with 32GB of RAM.

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