New Desktop PC [Archive] - Thoughts Media Forums

Paul Martin

06-14-2004, 07:42 PM

I'm in the market for a new desktop PC. It's been a while since I've looked, so I'm now lost in the Athlons & Intels with knowing what I need. My needs are pretty simple. I'm not a heavy gamer, so I don't need the latest and best. Just a little websurfing, some web design and graphics work, and playing with our digital camera. Any sites you'd recommend where I can do a little research? Thanks.

Jason Dunn

06-14-2004, 07:59 PM

Do you prefer to have a name-brand box (Dell, etc.) or are you more interested in a do-it-youself or local place building a box based on the specs you want?

Sven Johannsen

06-14-2004, 08:04 PM

If you just have basic requirements, I'd go to Dell.

Dimension 2400
Pentium® 4 Processor at 2.66GHz with 533MHz front side bus
Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition
128MB Shared DDR SDRAM at 333MHz (Performs at 266MHz for 400FSB systems)
40GB Ultra ATA/100 7200RPM Hard Drive
Free 2-Day Shipping!
FREE CD-Burner Upgrade - Online Only!

Featured at
$499
After $100 Mail-in Rebate!

Get a bigger drive wherever and some more RAM at Crucial and you're in business. You could even let them keep their monitor for $50 less.

What I find you lose in the low end systems is bay space to add stuff. This looks like it only has one external 5.25 bay, but you can get a DVD +- R/RW for under $150, and that would cover about everything.

You can easily get a great system for under $1000, ready to run, as long as you are not a gamer. You would then be required to build your own to avoid ridicule by your peers.

The Yaz

06-14-2004, 08:09 PM

I've been looking at getting a good desktop for my son for a reasonable price. I assumed that anything would be faster than the P3 750mhz that he is currently working with, and the games he is playing with work fine as is.

I wanted to be able to save data on cd/dvd since for his generation its a must. Also I wanted accessability for his MP3 player and digital camera.

What I chose was the HP A430N. It is a 2.2ghz Athlon XP3200 with 512mb ram, 160gb hard drive, Nvidia GeForce4 (64mb) video card, and a 4x DVD+RW/CD-RW combo drive.

The best part of this system is that it has 5 USB 2.0 ports, 2 1394 ports, and a 7 in 1 card reader. All for $579.99 USD at your local Sears on clearance.

Not bad at all..

Steve 8)

Paul Martin

06-14-2004, 08:18 PM

Jason - I currently have a Dell and have been happy with it. I probably could build a system,...just not sure I would really save much money for an inexpensive box, while I wouldn't object to a whitebox, I'd probably go with Dell or HP. I have bad memories of the first Compaq I owned.

Sven - I looked at a similar system over the weekend. I wasn't sure...would I really notice that much difference in a 2.66G compared with some 3+ units. Also, for my uses do I need to be concerned about the Shared DDR SDRAM...I know Dell's 4600 uses Dual-Channel. While I'm sure it's better, do I need it?

Not that it's that significant, but I have a DVD-Rom and 52x CD-RW to contribute from my older system.

The Yaz - Thanks for the tip. I'll have to check that out. What I don't understand is that the Athlon XP line is running at the lower 2.1G range. Can I make a direct apples to apples comparison to Intel's faster chips?

Thanks guys...this is helpful stuff!

arnage2

06-14-2004, 09:20 PM

http://cyberpowerpc.com or http://apple.com

The Yaz

06-14-2004, 09:51 PM

I do not pretend to understand the AMD vs. Intel speed comparisons. You can look at this link that supposedly tests PC and Mac processors:

http://web.ask.com/redir?bpg=http%3a%2f%2fweb.ask.com%2fweb%3fq%3dathlon%2bversus%2bpentium%26o%3d0%26page%3d1&q=athlon+versus+pentium&u=http%3a%2f%2ftm.wc.ask.com%2fr%3ft%3dan%26s%3da1%26uid%3d0F5F4F55264C0EC04%26sid%3d1D78BF55264C0EC04%26qid%3dFD47A3EC9B127D45B94D0775121BA284%26io%3d1%26sv%3dza5cb0db6%26o%3d0%26ask%3dathlon%2bversus%2bpentium%26uip%3d0c2a3f15%26en%3dte%26eo%3d-100%26pt%3dPentium%2bvs%2bApple's%2bG4%2bvs%2bAthlon%26ac%3d30%26qs%3d0%26pg%3d1%26ep%3d1%26te_par%3d103%26te_id%3d%26u%3dhttp%3a%2f%2fwww.barefeats.com%2fpentium.html&s=a1&bu=http%3a%2f%2fwww.barefeats.com%2fpentium.html&qte=0&o=0

I don't have another 2+ ghz machine to compare to, but the HP seems to do photo and simple video stuff without any problem. I'm just not sure if having a good video card makes the processor look good.

Steve 8)

Paul Martin

06-14-2004, 10:01 PM

I do not pretend to understand the AMD vs. Intel speed comparisons. You can look at this link that supposedly tests PC and Mac processors...

Thanks, Steve. I'm not much of an Apple guy, but I'll check out the link.

ARNAGE2, thanks for the cyberpower link. I'm specing out a system now.

milkman dan

06-14-2004, 11:33 PM

ug. please for the love of computers do not buy a dell. Good PPC's, half descent laptops, but their desktops always have and always will be compleate crap. Even their (overpriced) gaming boxes are crap. They use propietary everything, 128 megs of SHARED(ie.ob video) ram isn't even enough to run 2000 hapily, if your powersupply goes, you need to fork over about 250CAD for a new one, becuase it is a stupid propietary dell powersupply. you don't get a floppy drive (which do come in handy), your virus software is a 90 day trial, your looking at shipping of WELL over $100, a wait time of anywhere from 1 week to two MONTHS, and when you finally get it, customer support will analy rape you if anything goes wrong with it. No joke. dead motherboard? sure... they will do the labour for free... but the part will cost you anywhere from 200-700 dollars, no joke! What I do for a living is fix computers (primarly laptops) and trust me, you don't want to go with dell. Not only are they nazi's, but they are choking the life out of small computer stores, forcing them to charge higher prices just to stay alive. Ask some friends around your neighbourhood, and get a few quotes from some local computer stores. Service is much much faster that way, you can get QUALITY parts in your pc (you don't need a p4, a celeron will do fine and is not in ANY WAY "less stable" or any of that other junk ignorant people will feed you) and you peice of mind knowing you supported a good cause :D

on a side note, you might be fine with an apple. be prepared to pay about twice the price for half the system, but apples do what the do WELL, and osx is a quite snazy alternative to windows, so you might find yourself a part of the 1-button-is-all-we-need-crew. Dunno what ppc support is like for apples tho :/

Paul Martin

06-15-2004, 12:05 AM

ug. please for the love of computers do not buy a dell.

Don't hold back. Tell me how you really feel. :wink:

maximus

06-15-2004, 01:41 AM

Dell desktop/workstation/servers, we used that a lot in the office/home. All I can say is that these machines are built to last. I still have a dell dimension XPS with pentium 133 mhz at my parent's home, for email PC. I remembered purchasing that machine back in 1995 in Austin :D

Now, 9 years life span for a PC is like a lifetime for us humans. I know that most people do not plan to use a PC for 9 years, but it shows the quality of dell's desktop/workstation/server line. I think PCs for our non-techie family (mother, father, sons, daughters) should be a branded PC, because they tend to last longer.

As for my current personal PCs, I built them from scratch with my barehand (and screwdriver) :wink: . Picking up the parts and choosing them personally are what creates a great machine :wink:

milkman dan

06-15-2004, 05:08 PM

Old dell computers only lasted that long, becuase every component inside a computer was built to last alot longer than they are today. I still have my IBM pentium 75, which was my first computer, and to this day it still works perfect. New age brnaded PC's are junk. On a plus side dell used to get asus and intel to build their mobo's for them, but every other part of their systems were rubbish. Hell, even the good ol compaq deskpro's were well built systems :) I would honestly say that the ONLY hardware built to last anymore is mac hardware. Back in networking class, we had what we called the "door mac", it was a mac classic that we used to hold out classroom door open. My friends and I managed to get a hold of it and we toted it to his backyard where we shot the screen with a pellet gun for a half hour. After not even scratching it we lost interest. two months, and one thunderstorm later, our friend decided to plug the sucker in to see if it would light, and what do you know, the little bugger booted up no problem :D

Janak Parekh

06-20-2004, 04:25 AM

ug. please for the love of computers do not buy a dell. Good PPC's, half descent laptops, but their desktops always have and always will be compleate crap. Even their (overpriced) gaming boxes are crap. They use propietary everything, 128 megs of SHARED(ie.ob video) ram isn't even enough to run 2000 hapily, if your powersupply goes, you need to fork over about 250CAD for a new one, becuase it is a stupid propietary dell powersupply. you don't get a floppy drive (which do come in handy), your virus software is a 90 day trial, your looking at shipping of WELL over $100, a wait time of anywhere from 1 week to two MONTHS, and when you finally get it, customer support will analy rape you if anything goes wrong with it.
Whoa, hang on there for a minute. Some of what you say is true for a few, but certainly not all, Dell models. We got a pile of Dimension 8300s at work, and they have been solid workhorses. Well-built, standard, top-of-the-line parts (with no shared memory and with a floppy drive). We had one unit with trouble and we got it repaired just fine. As for antivirus, most companies now only bundle the 90-day versions.

I'm sorry to hear about your support troubles, but not everything else is always the case. ;)

Not only are they nazi's, but they are choking the life out of small computer stores, forcing them to charge higher prices just to stay alive. Ask some friends around your neighbourhood, and get a few quotes from some local computer stores.
Now, in my case, that was the way to get a crappy machine built. I worked in a family consultancy many years, and we built good computers, but I can't tell you how many times people brought in other locally-built computers that were a total piece of crap. ;)

--janak

milkman dan

06-20-2004, 06:00 AM

There is a HUGE difference between the home and buisness sections of dell. for a corperate client, dell is great, but for a home user, dell isn't. I do compleatly agree with you that small computer stores can build crappy computers, and alot of them do (you get what you pay for), thats why I suggested he ask around and go with one with a good rep. The dimension series is one of dells more expensive systems, and cost CONSIDERABLY more money than an equivelant system built by a tech. Here is a standard dell system, the kind of dell most home users would buy when they pick one up

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=19&kc=6V613&l=en&oc=D24TVP&s=dhs

those are the kind of dells I am talking about

Janak Parekh

06-20-2004, 06:35 AM

There is a HUGE difference between the home and buisness sections of dell.
OK, I'll believe that a corporate rep helps, although note that we bought Dimensions, not Optiplexes, which is what I'm assuming you meant when you talked about the "higher end" units.

--janak

milkman dan

06-20-2004, 09:34 PM

not at all, by higher end units I simply mean their more expensive models, the optiplexes are pretty cheap units but do their job well (untill the mobo dies, lol)

bkerrins

06-21-2004, 05:38 PM

We are redoing our kitchen and my wife wants to have the PC reside in the pantry. She would like to have a monitor with a TV on the other side of the kitchen. I would guess it's about 15-20 feet away. Do we have to have the monitor connect directly to the PC? Is there a bluetooth monitor so I can do this without wires? A key board and mouse I know I can find, but not sure about a monitor.

Looking for:
Thin/flat panel
TV connectivity
wireless (BT or Wifi)

maximus

06-23-2004, 02:03 AM

hmm ... a PC in kitchen. An interesting idea :D

We recently moved into a new apartment with large kitchen/dining area, and we cant seem to properly fill it. There are still some empty spaces that doesnt look right. Perhaps it will make a good place for a PC too :D

yslee

06-23-2004, 04:33 AM

PC in the kitchen sounds like a bad idea to me. Aren't you all worried about the oil getting to it?

Kati Compton

06-23-2004, 05:18 AM

PC in the kitchen sounds like a bad idea to me. Aren't you all worried about the oil getting to it?
You oil your computer???

;)

We have a computer in the kitchen, but it's a bit away from the cooking area.

maximus

06-24-2004, 02:10 AM

Instead of oil, I am more afraid of the fume, humidity and airborne particles coming out of the cooked food. Oil spills are accidental, but fume and humidity will be there on daily basis :mrgreen:. Must install an exhaust fan near the PC.

Yeah, I think it will be nice to view PDF recipes on a flat screen while cooking, instead of having to print them first =) Eating salads/ice cream while browsing the net ...

We have a computer in the kitchen, but it's a bit away from the cooking area.

Just curious. What is the main usage of the PC ?

GoldKey

06-24-2004, 02:45 AM

I have had very good luck with e-machine models. Probably the best bang for buck out there.

ntractv

06-27-2004, 07:58 PM

I just bought a new desktop PC manufactured by Northgate. It was on clearance at my local Staples. The salesman told me that Northgate used to build for Dell before they decided to build there own. Had never heard of them, but, for the price I leaped on faith.

Pentium 4
4.25 Ghz
120GB Harddrive
512 MB RAM
DVD +RW
No "A" floppy drive (probably slap the one on my HP Pavilion 8490 in)
5 in 1 Card Reader
5 USB ports
17" CRT monitor

$688.00 with $99.00 added two year warranty

Falstaff

06-27-2004, 11:49 PM

Pentium 4
4.25 Ghz
120GB Harddrive
512 MB RAM
DVD +RW
No "A" floppy drive (probably slap the one on my HP Pavilion 8490 in)
5 in 1 Card Reader
5 USB ports
17" CRT monitor

$688.00 with $99.00 added two year warranty

Sounds like a great machine. Did you include the $99 into the $688? What kind of case did it have? That looks like about what it would cost to build the machine yourself, well, except for the 4.25 GHz CPU, that might be hard to find.... What is the CPU in the computer (I'm assuming 4.25 is a typo)?

ntractv

06-28-2004, 12:11 AM

maximus

06-28-2004, 12:25 PM

It was advertised as running at 4.25 Ghz, but, under system properties it states 2.50 Ghz. Oh, the $99 was an add on to the price for the warranty.

Well, if it is advertised as 4.25 ghz, you could probably sue them for fraudulent advertisement, because the fastest Pentium 4 today is still running at 3.6 ghz.

This reminds me of the all-famous michael-computer scam (http://www.tomshardware.com/column/20040317/index.html) allover again.

Iznot Gold

06-28-2004, 01:19 PM

milkman dan

06-28-2004, 08:41 PM

maximus

06-29-2004, 01:26 AM

Hi guys,

I too am looking to buy a new PC & was considering a Dell. They're about to start shipping the Intel 925X Express chipsets in their new 9400 series here in the UK.
Does anyone have any useful comments about this and does anyone know if Mobos built with this chipset will support the 64bit P4 processors which are supposed to be being shipped by Intel later this year?

Cheers
David

64 bit Pentium ? Are you referring to the Nocona Core ? I think it is for the Xeon family, which means that it will have different pin configuration from the regular P4, and it will cost you an arm (and a leg) to get.

Iznot Gold

06-29-2004, 08:56 AM

Hi Maximus,

I was referring to this story:

"Intel will formally announce 64-bit Pentium 4 processors on 1 August - just over a month after launching the first Xeon CPU with its EM64 technology"

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/05/28/intel_64b_prescott/

& this one:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/06/04/intel_p4_stepping/

Thanks
David

yslee

06-29-2004, 09:11 AM

Instead of oil, I am more afraid of the fume, humidity and airborne particles coming out of the cooked food. Oil spills are accidental, but fume and humidity will be there on daily basis :mrgreen:. Must install an exhaust fan near the PC.

That was my point.. the fumes are laden with oil, unless you don't use oil in your cooking. If you're not careful there's going to be a nice change of colour for that PC.

milkman dan

06-29-2004, 02:05 PM

I bet the 64bit enabled chips will benchmark terribly, just a hunch

ntractv

06-29-2004, 03:04 PM

wow, you stop beign a computer tech for 6 months and a 4.25 GHz processor appears! For under $1000 I can promise you that it is a P4 2.5GHz, as I haven't even heard of P4 4GH'z yet, and if they were there they would retail for well over $600 US a peice!

Spoke with the manager and told it was a misprint on their part. I wasn't so sold because of the Mhz, but, for the 120GB HD and 512MB of RAM along with the DVD RW+. Something inside me said that's gotta be a misprint. I went with that because right next to it was a Dell CPU only, no DVD RW+, and only 80GB HD.

Took my chances. It's been almost a week and no problems.

Janak Parekh

06-29-2004, 05:13 PM

That was my point.. the fumes are laden with oil, unless you don't use oil in your cooking. If you're not careful there's going to be a nice change of colour for that PC.
If you've got good ventilation (hood, etc.), it's actually not that bad. There's a lot of oil in our kitchen, but we have a strong fan in the hood to draw the fumes away and the peripherals around the kitchen haven't stained noticeably after several years.

--janak

maximus

06-30-2004, 01:29 AM

Yup. In my case, it has to be a really strong fan, because cooking is one of my hobby :D But the problem is, exhaust fan will greatly increase the electricity bill, since the kitchen is airconditioned. The typical temperature down here is around 33-37 centigrade during the days and 30-35 centigrade at nights. So airconditioning is required.