I work in a small company that needs a workstation that is always online, basically as a server.
It will gather information from 5+ different POS, but it does not need to be online for the POS to work. It will also run excel every now and then. Excel is probably heavier than the POS software.

Today we use my old gaming computer from late 2012 wich has never failed or bluescreened.
i5-3570K 3.40 GHz
8 GB RAM
Windows 7 Pro
256GB SSD - 400MB/s Read and write speed
NVIDIA GeForce GTX660

We are looking to buy a new one that can do the same job, without spending too much $ and without upgrading to an actual server (seems quite pricy compared to a computer).
I was thinking:
i5 or i7 Gen8
16GB Ram
256GB SSD

Size does not matter too much.
Any suggestions for maximum €1000?
Would a Dell OptiPlex series be plug and play?

I don't really have any brand preferences.
Needs to run Windwos 10.
I do not need soundcard or wireless.
No need for overclocking
I do not need screen/mouse/keyboard
Shipping is not really relevant, as most shops offer free delivery if you spend more than €300-400.

If current one works fine why upgrade?

Unless its for compliance reasons and you need to update due to warranty being out, security being not compliant, O/S etc...

Why not keep what you got?

This post was edited by Cactuar_NOM on Mar 7 2019 09:11am

I’m running some excel files with a fair bit of formulas. It can handle it, but its starting to go slower. If I update or sort something at the same time as the software checks for updated revenue (every 10 minutes now, will be more often with new software) it freezes for 5-10 seconds. Not a huge issue, but enough to annoy me.

Fair enough, honestly if you are wanting a "server," you typically don't run Excel on a server unless it is a terminal server. Not to mention Servers and Server operating systems don't typically run NON server applications optimally.

It really just sounds like you need a simple tower with decent processor/Ram/Office but unless there are some super super complicated formulas that are being calculated per cell you shouldn't be getting issues like that.

Have you thought about maybe clean installing Windows 10 on your current rig and just installing Office and restoring files you need?

Not saying to not buy something new, but just trying to be cost effective.

Thank you for the feedback. It’s a shared computer where a few admins can pull some data when needed, ie. sales for a period, detailed sales, taxes etc. I write server-ish because it will not have mouse/keyboard/screen connected to it, it will be used through remote desktop. We tried this with someone who offers this kind of service too, but that ended up beeing slower and fairly expensieve.

I will see if a clean install can solve the lag/freeze issue

If it doesn't help, let me know and we can throw together a build.