Computer Prices (Help)

[Blake]

My father and I are planning on splitting the cost of a new computer. Considering having limited means for purchasing one, would this be a good price for the computer? I've done some searching on the web and havent found a better price. If someone could direct me to another site for other computer prices or give me some advice, it would be appreciated.


Price: $629.00

Pentium® 4 Processor at 2.53GHz with 533MHz front side bus
Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition¹²

Save $100 with mail-in rebate. Price shown before rebate.

256MB Shared DDR SDRAM at 333MHz (Performs at 266MHz for 400FSB systems)

40GB Ultra ATA/100 7200RPM Hard Drive

No Floppy Drive Included

48x CD ROM Drive

FREE UPGRADE! New 48x/24x/48x Max CD-RW Drive

Dell™ Quietkey® Keyboard

Dell® 2-Button Scroll Mouse

Productivity Pack including WordPerfect® and Money®

Norton Antivirus® 2003, 90-day introductory offer

17 in (16.0 in v.i.s., .27dp)E773c Monitor

Integrated Intel® 3D Extreme Graphics

Integrated Audio

Dell Media Experience™

Stereo Speakers

RealOne™ Player, with 14 day SuperPass trial

Dell Jukebox powered by MUSICMATCH

Dell Picture Studio, Paint Shop Pro Trial, Photo Album Starter Edition

56K PCI Data Fax Modem

Integrated 10/100 Ethernet

1 Year Limited Warranty plus 1 Year At-Home Service

6 Months of EarthLink Internet Access

 

[MsDe]

What do you two want to do with the computer? Play graphics-intensive games, do graphics editing, download and listen to music, run budgeting and/or financial software? A new system can really be geared to specific user preferences these days, so having an idea of what you want to do with it helps.

Is there someone near you, either that you know or in the phone book, or maybe that a friend can recommend, that can build you a system? One usually gets more bang for the buck that way.

 

[Blake]

I'm going to be using the computer for games (diablo 2 and warcraft 3), school work (composer, word, powerpoint.. ect), listening to music, and browsing the internet. I believe the computer (posted above) will easily meet the requirements for my uses. My father's uses are just browsing and email for work. Thanks for the advice. I was thinking that if I bought single parts and constructed a computer it would be more expensive.

 

[ForeverChristian]

40GB Ultra ATA/100 7200RPM Hard Drive

That HD could be bigger, I tell ya what if you go to www.compgeeks.com you can get a great deal on an 80gig HD.

Integrated Audio

That's no good either, I would look at that site for a sound card that suits your computer.


As far as the price goes, that's a pretty good price for what the deals giving you. What kind is it? Dell?

 

[Blake]

Yes, its a Dell. I don't think I'll need a bigger HD I don't keep much on it besides word documents and the occasional picture. Currently I'm using 9.26 gig of my 27.9 gig HD.

Is there anyway I could hook my stereo speakers up to the computer?

 

[ForeverChristian]

you would have to either hook them into your integrated sound drive, or buy a better sound card if you want to use it for gaming.

 

[Blake]

Is it fairly easy to hook the stereo up to the intergrated sound drive or should I not try it?

 

[Arnediad]

I bought a cable from Target I believe that allows you to hook RCA speakers into your computer's sound card. Also you can get a 1/8" stereo (I believe that's what a computer uses) to RCA plug. If that's a mono you can split that into the stereo channels and plug it into your speaker. I could make a diagram or something if anyone wants.

 

[MsDe]

I'm going to be using the computer for games (diablo 2 and warcraft 3), school work (composer, word, powerpoint.. ect), listening to music, and browsing the internet. I believe the computer (posted above) will easily meet the requirements for my uses. My father's uses are just browsing and email for work. Thanks for the advice. I was thinking that if I bought single parts and constructed a computer it would be more expensive.

Hi Blake,

What about using parts from your existing computer to build a better system? You mentioned in another post you're only using about 1/3 of your current hard drive. What do you have now for a computer?

 

[Blake]

Posted by Arnediad - Today at 10:16 AM

I bought a cable from Target I believe that allows you to hook RCA speakers into your computer's sound card. Also you can get a 1/8" stereo (I believe that's what a computer uses) to RCA plug. If that's a mono you can split that into the stereo channels and plug it into your speaker. I could make a diagram or something if anyone wants.

A diagram would be great Arnediad, I'll try and get the plug for the new computer when it comes in. Thanks for your help.

Posted by MsDe - Today at 11:21 AM

Hi Blake,

What about using parts from your existing computer to build a better system? You mentioned in another post you're only using about 1/3 of your current hard drive. What do you have now for a computer?

I'm not too sure of this computers exact system. It was a hand me down from my brother and I'm not very computer literate, but here goes:

1400 AMD Athlon Processor
256mb RAM
2x DVD/CD ROM
3.5 Floppy Drive
17in Monitor
32 or 64mb Video Card

The hard drive has some bad sectors from lightning or power surge. It won't play any computer games now because it freezes when loading. When surfing the net the computer will occasionally stall for about 5-7 seconds and then open up a new page. The computer has froze on me in Word before when I was typing a report (very disappointing).

Also, my dad needs another computer he is the treasurer at his church. The computer he uses now is a dinosaur I believe it is a 486 and still runs Windows 3.1. I figure we can get a new HD for this computer and cross our fingers, then maybe everything will work fine on it where he can use it for more up to date software with keeping the church's records. So, I really can't salvage much from it to put it in the new comp. I guess I could steal the 486's 3.5 floppy drive, I don't think there is much difference from one floppy drive to another. But, that is our plan.

 

[paulewog]

integrated audio isn't necessarily that bad.

That's an ok price, I think, since it includes the monitor heh. One thing to really look for though - make sure you aren't required to subscribe to something-or-other for three years in order to get a $200 discount

 

[doofus125]

Actually, you don't want to steal the floppy from the 486, there's a good chance it's only a 720k floppy drive and not a standard 1.44mb being it's so old........also, you have to buy the mounting brackets from dell to put a floppy in the computer, you might as well have them put a floppy in to begin with if you are going to be needing it.........As for the speakers, I have the Altec Lansing speakers and integrated sound card that came with my Dell and the sound is good.....I also have my stereo hooked up to it by using a splitter to split the speaker out plug so I can plug the adapter for the rca jacks on my speakers in and the speakers that came with the pc.....

My only recomendations would be to up the hard drive size and up your ram to 512 mb......There is not a place inside of the 2300-2400 series towers to add a second hard drive without major rigging and if you are upgrading your ram remember that there are 2 slots on the board for ram on the 2300-2400 series motherboards and whatever you get from Dell ram wise will fit in 1 of those slots so if you want to add more you can, but after that you would have to take out ram to add larger ram.....

 

[MsDe]

I'm not too sure of this computers exact system. It was a hand me down from my brother and I'm not very computer literate, but here goes:

1400 AMD Athlon Processor
256mb RAM
2x DVD/CD ROM
3.5 Floppy Drive
17in Monitor
32 or 64mb Video Card

The hard drive has some bad sectors from lightning or power surge. It won't play any computer games now because it freezes when loading. When surfing the net the computer will occasionally stall for about 5-7 seconds and then open up a new page. The computer has froze on me in Word before when I was typing a report (very disappointing).

Also, my dad needs another computer he is the treasurer at his church. The computer he uses now is a dinosaur I believe it is a 486 and still runs Windows 3.1. I figure we can get a new HD for this computer and cross our fingers, then maybe everything will work fine on it where he can use it for more up to date software with keeping the church's records. So, I really can't salvage much from it to put it in the new comp. I guess I could steal the 486's 3.5 floppy drive, I don't think there is much difference from one floppy drive to another. But, that is our plan.

Wow, sounds like a great plan! Tiger Direct has 40 Gig hard drives for $60, and I'm sure there are even better deal than that if one takes the time to search. Yep, snitch whatever you want out of the 486 before you retire it; you never know when a computer part is gonna pass out and die. Grab cables, video card, sound card, memory, the floppy drive, the case fan... actually if you're not going to give it away, keep the whole thing in a closet somewhere. If something decides to kick the bucket on a working computer, that 486 may have something inside to tide you over until you can replace the deceased part on the newer machine. If that makes sense?

I peeked at Dell's website & they have a nice lookin' machine, the Dimention 4600, that starts at $749 and offers free shipping, $200 instant savings (drops the price to $549) and a free memory upgrade, from the standard 256 Megs to 512 Megs - something you may need further on for games and for Powerpoint and other programs.

I've heard that Win XP Home Edition isn't so great, so do consider going with XP Pro. My two other suggestions are to splurge and go with a better video card and to get lots of memory. As a gamer, I've found the hard way that not having enough memory can get one killed quickly in Diablo. Choppy graphics did me in more than once!

 

[doofus125]

I've heard that Win XP Home Edition isn't so great, so do consider going with XP Pro.

I agree with this, I upgraded to XP Pro after having XP Home and I noticed a HUGE difference.....Pro is designed for heavier use and stands up to the multi-tasking better than the XP Home.......

 

[Kahnrtis]

For the use Blake is talking about, XP Home is more than sufficient. It's not worth the cash to upgrade in this instance.

 

[e4God]

By way of credentials, I am professional webmaster, graphic designer, old gamer from way back, gadget man, and all around tech geek...

Personally, Dell is the ONLY computer I would buy. They are awesome machines at any price, and the price is right too! Warranty and support is TOP NOTCH. Which doesn't mean anything if you don't need it, but means everything if you do.

Cheaper machines will cost you in the long run, IMHO

Secrets to getting a great computer that will last a long time.....


INTEL processors are a little slower than AMD processors, but INTEL processors are more stable. So I would go INTEL.

DO NOT GET A CELERON PROCESSOR unless you will only do word processing and web surfing... this stripped down processor is not good enough for gaming or graphics applications. Sooner or later, (maybe now, maybe another year or two) you will be hitting your processor limit with some new softare, and end up wishing you had gone for the full processor instead of this lite version.

Go for the fastest front side bus available for long term usability. Front side bus speed eliminates bottlenecks in data throughput that might cause gaming to be jumpy (dropped frames) or slow to respond to input (you get killed easier). Think of it like this.... The number of lanes on a highway determine how many cars can move through a town per hour. Throughput is CRUCIAL for multimedia and multitasking.

Add all the RAM you can afford. 512 K minimum (IMHO) except for mere word processing and web surfing (which could be done with 128 K - BUT XP works better with 256 K -believe me). If doing serious graphics or multimedia authoring, then 1 Gig of ram is not too much.



Skip the fastest DVD-CD burner and get last year's model on this accessory. You might just skip the DVD part altogether. You can get a CD Burner now, and just do DVD's on your home entertainment center.

Cutting back on CPU is the biggest Cost saver. They charge a huge premium for the latest greatest, even though realistic power gains are not noticed by average users. If you step back to a slightly slower CPU, (2 or 2.4 Gigs is plenty for most home users) you will be VERY glad you did unless you are planning on doing professional video editing - or 3D CAD CAM engineering stuff - or 600 dpi photo editing of poster sized photo prints - in which case the faster processor will help.

Skip the monitor and use your old one to save a few bucks unless doing multimedia or professional graphics. Skip the flat panel displays too, unless space is at a premium.


Definitely Skip the extended service plan or warranty upgrade. Waste of money. Unless you are running a business and this is your server, or your only computer.


Integrated sound is cheaper than some high end sound card. It helps you get the best box for the fewest dollars. You can upgrade later. Chances are you won't know the difference unless you hook up a powered surround sound system to the computer for immersive gaming or multimedia experience. You can always add a sound card later if you want better sound.


IMHO

 

[doofus125]

I'm sorry, but I'd have to STRONGLY DISAGREE with thier support and warrenty services.....It took me weeks just to explain to the people I was speaking to on the phone (which none of them spoke more than basic english) that my processor fan was defective.......Also, my aunt purchaced a Dell at the same time I did and they forgot to put the screws inside to hold everything together and the floppy drive and the drive bay all came out and smashed the memory and scratched the motherboard and cracked it.....it took me a week to explain to them I didn't need a screw and that the whole computer was coming back......Unless you are someone that can fix problems yourself then I don't recommend going with Dell....but overall the quality is better than other systems......so it's all a toss up.....just don't go e-machines, HP, Compaq, or Gateway, lol......

 

[paulewog]

I just build my own.... Dell is ok, and their prices are even better than they used to be. Gateway and Dell used to be on the pricey side...

Agree about not getting Celeron. I hate celeron. However, the cpu cost should really only take a sharp jump towards the high end. I got an AMD athlon 2500+ because it was likr $10 more than a 2400+. I didn't get a 2600+ because it was like $40 more than a 2500+. However, yeah, the FSB is more important than the sheer clock speed of the thing.

DVD/CD/CDRW's are really chaep right now. I don't think you're going to be wasting money with it. You can get a CD-RW, one that is faster than mine in fact, for $30 at officemax. I doubt Dell is gouging anyone on that. Plus, he said it was a free upgrade, hehe.

512mb of RAM is almost standard now. It's a good idea. RAM improvse everything...

NEVER get an e-machine.

 

[SirKenin]

That computer isn't upgradable. Stay away from it. Everything is integrated budget components. Dell does make really good computers, but that isn't one of them.

 

[minkoilboy]

Blake,
I just got a computer very similar to the one you mentioned (Dell), but I used a coupon from www.CrocoDeals.com They have some sweet stuff. I have made about 7 purchases through them. I don't recommend rebuilding you own when you can get a new P4 with warranty for $349! I hope that helps you. -Mink