Honestly, just grab the AMD Ryzen 5 5600G 6-Core 12-Thread Processor. Since you dont have a GPU, it makes zero sense to go with the 5500. The integrated graphics will save you so much hassle and money. For heavy Excel sheets and daily multitasking, its plenty of juice. Ive built a few office rigs with these and they handle everything perfectly. Dont overthink the cache, you definitely wont notice it.

TL;DR: Unless you find a dirt cheap dedicated GPU, just stick with an APU or you will be stuck with a fancy paperweight. I remember building a backup rig a few years back and thinking I could just snag a cheap card later. Huge mistake. When my main build died during a client presentation, I was totally stuck without an iGPU. If you are doing tons of heavy Excel, the lower cache on the 5500 can feel a bit sluggish compared to the AMD Ryzen 5 5600 6-Core 12-Thread Unlocked Processor. That said, since you are under 150 bucks and need graphics, the AMD Ryzen 5 5600G 6-Core 12-Thread Processor with Radeon Graphics really is the safer play. Just be careful with the 5500 if you dont have a spare card handy. Honestly, those integrated graphics are a total lifesaver for office work.

Man, I feel your pain with those screaming fans! I spent months trying to tweak my old office rig to stop sounding like a jet engine during Zoom meetings. Honestly, if you really want to handle those massive Excel sheets smoother, the CPU is only half the battle. I ended up grabbing the AMD Ryzen 7 5700G 8-Core 16-Thread Desktop Processor with Radeon Graphics when I found it on a quick discount and it was a total game changer for me. The extra cores really chew through those complex macros like nothing else and it keeps things super snappy. But definitely dont ignore the storage side! My spreadsheets were lagging not just because of the CPU, but because they were sitting on an old, sluggish hard drive. I eventually popped in a Crucial P3 1TB PCIe Gen3 3D NAND NVMe M.2 SSD and everything opened instantly. Seriously, that responsiveness jump was more noticeable than when I upgraded the processor itself. If you can squeeze both into your 150 dollar budget, you wont have to worry about replacing your build for a long time. Just keep an eye on those bundle deals on sites like Newegg, sometimes you can snag a chip and motherboard combo for super cheap if you catch it at the right time. You are gonna love the silence once you get this sorted out!