New computer

Hello:

A friend of mine at work is interested in buying a new computer and someone has offered to build her a model. Here are the specs:

Intel P4 2.8GHZ System
CPU: P4 2.8 GHZ/800 MHZ CPU
Cooling fan: Intel H/D B/B CPU fan
Motherboard: A bit Pr-478/800 FSB
IEEE: 1394 Firewire connector
Memory: 512MB DDR 266
Hard Drive: 30GB (7200 RPM) - she is requesting 60GB
16X DVD Burner
Floppy: 1.44 MB Floppy Drive
Video: ATI Rage 128 Pro
Audio: 6 Channel Audio
Lan: 10/100 MBPS Lan (O.M.B.)
Keyboard: Lite-on Turbo
Mouse: Logitec Wireless Scroll Mouse
Speakers
Case: 227 17" Performance case we/beset 450W Power Supply
USB and Audio Connectors on front of case

o/s: Windows Xp Pro
Applications: Microsoft Office, Nero - I said to ask what versions??
With 19" SVGA Monitor

What do you guys think? She is a novice user and was wondering if this is a good system or not.


I will also tell her about the free spyware programs and anti-virus that she can load on her system. Any other suggestions?

Thanks

 

You left out the Price. Kind of a small hard drive. Sounds decent but Compters built by friends don't come with the support or warranties that novice users may require.

 

The price was around $826.00.

 

Well about six months ago I got the system you see in my specs (minus the old Maxtor) for £490 - which is roughly the same as the price for the system.

The main sticking point for that price is the capacity of the Hardrive - even 60GB is pretty small these days and may end up being a bottleneck in the system when it gets full. 100+ Gig is a minimum requirement really.

Also 512mb RAM seems a little small - futureproofing would be a good idea so if you want to get the most out of the system 1Gig would be better.

However, your obviously paying for the building of the system and for "real" copies of XP Pro (I hope - for that price) which I didnt do (yes mine is not a "real" copy). Try and get the Hard Drive cpacity increased a little and see if haggling over the memory will do any good.

Kiwi

 

If the guy whos building it is honest he will give you a printout of the price of the parts and add on how much he charging for building it,that way you know at least you have new parts and can return them,its best not to wander around in the grey area of business and friendship where he is doing you a favour but you are paying him to do it

JMHO

 

That's a lot of money for a skimpy system.
You would be surprised at how good of a computer you can
get for that much money today. Even at the Best Buy/Circuit City/
Walmart type stores the deals are better than that. If you would like
a general idea of how much you can get for the money, check out
this website. If I was going to pay for a system, this is where I would
go. These guys have been around for ages, and their
reliability is well known.

http://www.cyberpowersystem.com/

 

Oh yeah, if you're not running popup killer, that site has
a great popup that comes up with the latest special
deals they are running. Usually they are pretty fantastic.


Right now, this is one of the 3 deals that popup

AMD™ Athlon™ 64 3500+ CPU
-Nforce4 SLI Chipset MBoard
-1GB PC3200 DDR400 Memory
-80GB 7200RPM SATA150 Hard Drive
-16X PCI-E Geforce 6200 TC Supporting 256MB Video
-16X DVD Rewritable Drive
-Nforce 7.1 3D Surround Sound
-600Watt Subwoofer Speakers
-Hot New! Xplorer Case 420 Watt w/ "See-Thru" Window
-Build-in LCD Temperature Display

$699


IMO, you couldn't beat that deal with a stick.

 

For just a little more, if its just for a basic computer user. 859.00

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...oductCategoryId=cat01173&id=pcmprd42700050007


AMD64 3500+
1gb Ram
250gb hard drive
Dual Layer DVD Burner
Everything you mentioned above, except a 17in CRT.

 

That would be a smoking system with a slight video card upgrade and a larger hard drive. Prices today don't justify NOT going with 200+gb. Not bad at all.

 

Definitely. And they always have really good upgrade deals.
An upgrade to a 200gb sata is only $46 extra.
You can get a 17" monitor added in for $105.
You probably would get it shipped for just about the same
price as the friend would make the much skimpier one for.

That plus you get 1 year free onsite service as well
as Half Life 2 thrown in.

 

Wow it sounds like that place cannot wait to get rid of those computers.

 

They've been in business forever. I remember them way
back when I used to get Computer Shopper in the big size,
and that's gotta be close to 15 years ago when
I subscribed to that. They're definitely doing something right.