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PC shopping Part 3


Alk

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I've been shopping around for a new PC with our tax returns (hopefully) coming back soon. I have an okay monitor so I'm looking to just buy a tower so I can hopefully get something a little faster than if I had to buy the monitor too. I was looking at this bare bones PC at tigerdirect. Is there a reason why it's called bare bones? Is there something missing that I'll have to add later? I looked through the list and couldn't find anything missing.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2967775&Sku=P459-1224%20F

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No clue really, I don't know the first thing about processors.

Get a dual core processor..get 2.5 GB of RAM(memory)..get a big Hard drive for your photoshopping stuff..that would be the basics I would get.

Try and get XP as an operating system..I wouldn't trust Vista for 2 years.

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Get a dual core processor..get 2.5 GB of RAM(memory)..get a big Hard drive for your photoshopping stuff..that would be the basics I would get.

Try and get XP as an operating system..I wouldn't trust Vista for 2 years.

I definately don't trust Vista, I'm perfectly happy with my XP Pro. I really don't know if I need that much Ram or not, the PC I'm using now is a dinosaur and it still does most of the stuff that I need to do, I just need more space so I figure I'll upgrade and give Grant this PC to goof around on.

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I definately don't trust Vista, I'm perfectly happy with my XP Pro. I really don't know if I need that much Ram or not, the PC I'm using now is a dinosaur and it still does most of the stuff that I need to do, I just need more space so I figure I'll upgrade and give Grant this PC to goof around on.

I just got a new one in September..I have 1GB of RAM AND A 260 GB Hard drive,DVD rip and burn drives..19 inch flat panel..and I got a 120 watt subwoofer 8 speaker surround sound thing..all of that for $1,200.00..the same amount I purchased my previous dinosaur for.

And now they are going even cheaper because that hardware can't support Vista.

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I just got a new one in September..I have 1GB of RAM AND A 260 GB Hard drive,DVD rip and burn drives..19 inch flat panel..and I got a 120 watt subwoofer 8 speaker surround sound thing..all of that for $1,200.00..the same amount I purchased my previous dinosaur for.

And now they are going even cheaper because that hardware can't support Vista.

Ummm...yeah, $1,200 is nowhere clost to what I was planning on paying for a new PC. :confused0085:

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I'm a Mac guy but from what I've heard from son #3, who's a PC geek ,the Intel Celetron processor is not a good choice. It's just a slow , bottom of the line processor. I know Intel makes better processors for just a little bit more pricewise.

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Alk that box is a bit light.

What about going to Dell.com and getting one of the $400 models. With no monitor you will walk away with something good. Check the small business options as well.

Usually pretty good stuff. You won't need 2.5 gigs of ram. Bill Parcells has some pretty extreme porn requiremements. For the average person 1 gig would be fantastic! Kuje ge said stay away from the Celeron though.

If you post this in Tabor's forum free delivery and setup is included!

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Yeah, 2.5 gig of RAM is ridiculous unless you're planning to run the International Space Station. I agree about Celeron chips. They're Intel's budget model.

I don't know what your budget is, but Tiger has this one for $600 and it looks plenty beefy. http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2787756&Sku=SYXS-DB-989458

BTW - "barebones" means all you get is the case, power supply and motherboard with the processor chip and RAM. You have to add your own hard drive, CD/DVD drive/burner, Floppy drive (if you want one), modem, sound card, networking card and probably video card, too. It probably also does not have USB or Firewire ports, so there are more cards to install. You'd want to add at least one fan, too. These things are for guys who like to build custom boxes.

EDIT - upon closer inspection, video and sound are built into that motherboard, as are a network port and 2 usb ports. You would not need those cards unless you want to upgrade.

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Sorry dude..

I'll stay out of the thread..:lol:

yeah really bill, let us that are more qualified respond to his queries.

alk, make sure you get a plain white one. that way when you decide to repaint the computer room it won't clash with the new wall color

regards, joe "the techy" willy

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Lets start off by saying the "anti celeron" people are crazy... the Celeron chips work great...

I have a old Celeron I am typing on now that runs XP Pro and my cash register...

Also in the store I have 2 pentium 4 PC's both with 768mb of ram running on XP Pro... these are the ones I photoshop on during the day... :)

At home I have an AMD Athlon with 512mb of ram running XP home... I dont use the PC much at home but it runs photoshop and most games great.

I also have my laptop, this is also running an AMD desktop chip (terrible battery life, great power) and 768mb of ram... this also runs everything fine...

I bought my girlfriend a laptop last x-mas its a Celeron with XP Home... things runs AWESOME... I actually kind of like it better than my laptop... lol

SO here is what you want to look for...

Stay away from integrated graphics cards if you can... you can always upgrade later though for $50-$150 so its not totally needed... but if possible get a PC with an ATI card already in it.

Make sure it has at least 512mb of ram, there are still some 256 deals floating around out there... this can be upgraded as well but a 1gb chip of ram will run you $75-$150

Hardrive isnt that important... its hard to fill up a 60-80gb hard drive... but the bigger the better...

Carefull with cheap PC's they usually come with cheap less reliable, slower stuff inside... the CD/DVD drives usually suck, the harddrive is usually a step slower... ect ect

Here are some OK PC's... they all have their upsides and downsides...

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2928297&CatId=6

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2787756&CatId=6

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2848301&CatId=6

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2949389&CatId=6

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Or I can get this one for $469

PROCESSOR Pentium® D Processor 915 with Dual Core Technology (2.8GHz, 800FSB)

OPERATING SYSTEM FREE Upgrade to Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Premium w/1GB memory

MEMORY 1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz- 2DIMMs

HARD DRIVE 160GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™

OPTICAL DRIVE 48X CD-RW/ DVD Combo Drive

MONITOR No Monitor

VIDEO CARD Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator X3000

SOUND Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio

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Yeah, it's not even an option at Dell apparantly.

1GB of RAM is the minimum amount of memory required to run Vista.

I just remember the horror of XP gliches when it first came out..and now it works great and you can't get it.

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1GB of RAM is the minimum amount of memory required to run Vista.

I just remember the horror of XP gliches when it first came out..and now it works great and you can't get it.

That's weird, they're selling boxes with Vista on them with only 512 mb of RAM. It is the very basic Vista though so maybe that makes a difference.

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That's weird, they're selling boxes with Vista on them with only 512 mb of RAM. It is the very basic Vista though so maybe that makes a difference.

Really?

I don't know what to tell you Alk,I think Jetman67 has Vista and likes it from what I heard on here..other than that I don't know of anybody else that has it.

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Still need an opinion on this PC yo.

Neither of the boxes you listed have a DVD burner. A combo drive is not the same thing.

Otherwise, I think they'd serve you well.

BTW - I'm guessing "free upgrade to Vista" means that it comes loaded with XP.

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Neither of the boxes you listed have a DVD burner. A combo drive is not the same thing.

Otherwise, I think they'd serve you well.

BTW - I'm guessing "free upgrade to Vista" means that it comes loaded with XP.

No, it comes standard with some basic Vista crap and they upgrade you to premium or whatever. I kicked around the idea of a DVD burner and really couldn't come up with a real good reason to have it. What does it cost to burn a DVD movie by the time you pay for the blank disc and rent the movie?

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Get this one, the Intel Graphics card in the other one will suck... intel integrated graphic cards are terrible...

This isnt a bad PC at all, and the hard drive is nice which will help your speed... 80GB is plenty... you might want to get a DVD-RW though... thats the only thing I would look into.

Oh and I would go with the PS3... lol :)

celeron+intel graphics=computer only capable of running 'minesweeper'....slowly.

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