Computer designed for Excel

[Macro007]

Hi,

I'm looking to purchase a new PC, would be running Windows 7 with Excel 2007.

I'll probably upgrade to Excel 2010 in the future.

I have some rather large files which take a long time to calculate and they need to be updated quite regularly. I've already gone through the file and done my best to optimze the calculations. I've manged to bring down calc time from 1/2 hour to only 2 minutes by just changing the formulas. I don't know all the specs on that computer, but it's a 5 year old laptop w/ a single core Intel M processor (I think....).

But I want it to be FAST. Super fast.

I'm willing to spend between $1000-$1500. I'll even build the PC myself if I know what parts to look for. I've only built one PC before, and my knowledge is very limited, so when replying please imagine you are talking to a complete newbie.

This PC will be used for nothing other than Excel and some light web browsing.

Any advise?

Thanks!

 

[Richard Schollar]

xl2007 can handle some multi-threaded calculations so you would benefit from at least a dual core processor (I have this feeling that 2007 may only be able to take advantage of max 2 cores, but 2010 may be able to take advantage of more, so you may consider a quad is preferable). I've also seen reports that Intel processors are better at office tasks, but again can't corroborate that. Get plenty of memory to remove any need for the PC to make use of the harddrive if it runs out of memory. 2010 may be available in 64 bit versions, which would require a 64bit OS (2007 is 32bit only). A fast HD (eg even a solid state one if you can afford it) will improve load times of large files.

Otherwise, office tasks are never going to require much in the way of PC hardware. $1000 would be more than enough for a desktop.

 

[Macropod]

Hi Macro007,

For $1000 you'd be hard-pressed to find a PC, including a laptop from any of the mainstream manufacturers, that can't run rings around your 5-yr old laptop. Even more so with $1500 to play with.

Note: For Office, you don't need a graphics card with any fancy capabilities - what you need most is a decent CPU and plenty of RAM. Although, as Richard says, some Intel CPUs may outperform those from other makers, for a given price point the performance is likely to be comparable. An advantage of buying a laptop over a desktop PC is that you don't have to worry about potential data loss/corruption from power outages - laptops have their own built-in UPS.

 

[BrianB]

Get plenty of memory to remove any need for the PC to make use of the harddrive

In older versions of Excel (like wot i've got) Excel had its own memory manager - so matter how much system memory we have, it can only use so much.

Is that restriction now removed in later versions ?

 

[Macropod]

Hi Brian,

AFAIK, the only version of Excel that could be said to have had its own memory manager was the version that came with a runtime copy of Windows 2 - way back when.

Perhaps you're thinking of the max workbook size limitations that were based on how much memory Excel could address, but this had nothing to do with how much memory Windows might use or emulate.

In any event, your reference to having an older version of Excel suggests that whatever hardware you upgrade to won't be fully exploited by your existing copy of Excel, which probably also lacks the calculation optimisations that have been introduced in the more recent versions.

 

[BrianB]

Early versions of Excel had their own memory managers.
FWIW Excel 2000 is limited to about 80 megabytes, no matter what the system memory - which does not mean we can open workbook files of that size.
It looks like later versions can use full system memory.