My friends Computer

[drdan]

A friend in my office needs to upgrade his computer which is a PII of some sort with a small hard drive and it's just too slow. He had someone offer to build him one for just under $1000 that has a Seagate 40GB HDD, a 1.7 P4, Intel MB 845GLLY, 256MB of PC133 and XP Pro. Just the tower, keyboard and mouse, a CD-RW but no DVD. Even buying retail it looks like that's about $300 labor. I am trying to talk him into something a little faster and more upgradable. I saw this Intel mainboard at newegg which has good reviews and it looks like he can upgrade easily over the next couple of years as prices are better. He is not interested in AMD.

What do you think of this board with 2 sticks of 256MB PC2700 333mhz with everything else the same? I assume he will need a video card, he does absolutely no gaming etc or even digital photos, so what card? Is one stick of 512MB better?

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduct.asp?DEPA=&submit=Go&description=Intel+D845PEBT2

[Budfred]

I think your friend is getting ripped off if he goes with that $1000 system. I could build that system for well under $500 if I am not mistaken. I would have to look up the specific parts, but it seems pretty minimal for a grand. He could buy a prebuilt with lots of software from a place like Alienware for that....

The mobo and config you referenced look pretty good to me. Certainly a lot cheaper than the system he is looking at.... I would probably go with the 2 sticks of 256 if he is not doing a lot of graphics or games...

[Deagle]

If this info help you then I'm glad. Today my teacher at school just bought a dell from dell.com and it was less than $500. It has 256 mb of pc2100 ddram, a dvd-rw at 4x speed, a geforce 4 something (probably 64mb), an intel p4 at 2.4ghz etc... So yeah I agree with budfred that your friend is getting ripoff.

[saphalline]

Definitely getting ripped-off! Sounds like whoever offered to build this system is pawning off old parts for the same price they paid for it over a year ago! :mad:

Check out this (http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduct.asp?DEPA=&submit=Go&description=msi+neo2%2Ds) mobo. One of the new i865PE chipset-based mobo, which is not only cheaper than the one you listed but is better! :D I love technology! For something a little cheaper, there's this (http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduct.asp?DEPA=&submit=Go&description=msi+845GVM%2DL) mobo, which has onboard video & sound so your friend wouldn't need a separate video card.

P4's aren't cheap, tho. For $157 you can get a really good deal on the P4 2.4B. A bit expensive, but if your friend was thinking of spending $1000 on a P4 1.7 system, then what the heck?

The rest of the system tower can almost be put under a blanket cost of $400 or so, just because everything is so cheap these days. $70-85 for 512MB of DDR333 RAM, $35 for a regular DVD-ROM drive, $80-100 for a high quality 80GB hard drive, $100 or less for a case and power supply, etc.

It's so darn cheap to build a new PC these days that you almost want to keep it a secret! Well, sounds like it almost worked for the bozo who offered to build your friend an older PC at new PC prices! :eek: Gotta be careful these days.

EDIT - By the way... you say this friend in your office does no gaming or even digital photos? What the heck does he do that taxes a PII system!? I'm thinking that maybe your friend just needs to do a fresh install of Windows to liven up his system again. Maybe some maintainance would save him a few hundred dollars? ;) He can always things like a larger hard drive, more RAM, etc, while still keeping most of his current hardware.

I just mention this because it would be a shame to fork over money for new hardware that's not needed!

[drdan]

I think that a clogged up OS is part of the slowness but he is going to rotate the PII to home to replace one going out completely. I'll talk with him about doing a fresh install on the PII AFTER he gets a new system. Despite being in the computer building mode I went on Dell tonight and came up with this system for $709 after rebate. I think it's much better for a lot less money than he was going to spend. I think he's going to go ahead and get it. I'm tempted myself although I really want to build one. Here's the specs.

Catalog Number Description Product Code SKU
Dell Dimension 4550 Series: Pentium® 4 Processor at 2.53GHz w/533MHz front side bus/ 512K L2 Cache


Memory: SAVE $60! (Savings included in price) 512MB DDR SDRAM at 333MHz 512M3P

Keyboard: Dell® Quietkey® Keyboard


Monitors: No Monitor

Video Cards: 64MB DDR NVIDIA GeForce4 MX™ Graphics Card with TV-Out

Hard Drive: FREE UPGRADE! 60GB Ultra ATA/100 7200RPM Hard Drive

Floppy Drive and Additional Storage Devices: No Floppy Drive

Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional

Mouse: Dell® 2-button scroll mouse

Network Interface: Integrated Intel® PRO 10/100 Ethernet

Modem: 56K PCI Data/Fax Modem

CD or DVD Drive: 16x Max DVD-ROM Drive


Sound Card: Integrated Audio

Speakers: New Harman Kardon® HK-206 Speakers

Software Bundles: WordPerfect® Productivity Pack with Quicken New User Edition COREL

Security Software: Dell SecurityCenter by McAfee, 90-day introductory offer MCAFE90

Digital Music: Dell Jukebox powered by MUSICMATCH

Digital Photography: Dell Picture Studio, Image Expert Standard

Limited Warranty, Services and Support Options: 1 Year Limited Warranty plus 1 Year At-Home Service

Dial-Up Internet Access: 6 Months of America Online Membership Included

Multi-Media Players: RealOne™ Player, with 14 day SuperPass trial

High Speed Internet Access: Find a high speed Internet service provider in your area HISPEED [462-0984]
Mail-In Rebate Offer: Save $150 with mail-in rebate. Price shown before rebate. 150 [462-0300]
CD or DVD Burner for 2nd bay: FREE UPGRADE! New 48x/24x/48x Max CD-RW Drive

[Budfred]

No floppy drive and Dell. I wouldn't buy it, but maybe for your friend. Dell's are some of the most proprietary around and there customer service has gone way down in the last year or two. Your friend may do ok with with this, but he will be very limited if he ever wants to upgrade. On the other hand, with the level of use you are describing he should be set for a decade or so...:D

[drdan]

Yeah, I was thinking he should get the floppy included, it just irked me to pay $20 for it. I realize that he is also giving up most upgrade options but I'm not sure he would anyway if it's working. Besides being proprietary if you need to replace a part what is the problem with Dell?

[Deagle]

I don't think mass made computer were meant to be upgradable:( In my opion those are made for people that don't know anything about computer (point to self);)

[Budfred]

My problem with Dell is a long tale of trying to find out some simple information about my laptop at work. The short version: they didn't realize the info needed was installed by them on my computer and I found it only after exploring the files on the hard drive since it didn't even have an icon or Start Menu item. In the process of not being helpful, they also indicated that the reason I didn't have a decent manual is that the corporation I work for, which just made a multi-million dollar deal with them, was too cheap to buy the more expensive package that contained a manual...

Also, recent ratings in PCWorld involving surveys of people who have Dells showed a major drop in ratings from the past. The built their reputation with good service, but they seem to be neglecting it now.

If you go to their web site to get help, you need to register the computer that you bought from them, which makes it very difficult for me to help you if you ask a question about your Dell....

Oh, I would urge him to pay the $20 and get the floppy, they aren't quite obsolete yet....

[drdan]

Thanks Budfred, that makes sense. I know he needs to include the floppy drive, it's the fact that it's a semi shady way to do it. They know most people are going to opt for the floppy and they can likely make an extra $18 bucks on the $20 option even including the slight cost to them for installation.

[Fruss Tray Ted]

A floppy drive, ide cable, different front bezel to accommodate the floppy and minimal time to install does not sound like a measly $2. That's my one vote in support for them.

Their power supplies are so propietary that you are demanded to replace one with one of their's at their after sale, now we can stick it to them, inflated price. The pc is the sale item, the after sale service and parts are where they make up some ground for the savings.

If you do have your friend get one try to make sure that the motherboard has no onboard ANYTHING! That way he won't be sunk if he loses or breaks his recovery disk. The makers of the video and sound card usually have drivers freely available for download if ever needed.

[Autoeng]

You can get access to all drivers for your Dell system on their website by entering your serial number so loss of resource disk is not an issue.

Autoeng

[saphalline]

Everyone seems kind of sour on Dell recently, and with good reason, but one of the main issues on the forums here is that most of us like to build ;) instead of buy. Granted there are issues with OEM-built, proprietary POS's, but for your friend it might work beautifully.

I hope so, anyway, because as you can see Dell's service is pretty bad! :p

[Fruss Tray Ted]

After Autoeng's post I went to Dell and downloaded almost everything I will need for my Optiplex GXa motherboard to make a sort of recovery CD of my own. The only thing I couldn't find was the drivers for the onboard sound. But it is a common brand: Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live 512V which I don't think I'll have trouble finding drivers for.

Also I have D/Led the owners manual, a troubleshooting/service manual, BIOS updates, jumper info, you name it, it's probably there. They didn't get to be the number one retailer of prebuilts for no reason. And (Budfred), they did it before the (puff puff) "Dude" guy came along. :rolleyes:

I'll just never be caught dead using one as my main pc... ;)

[Autoeng]

My first home computer was a Dell. Got stuck with a system that won't let me jump up to a higher CPU though. That sucked. BUT, Dell does build good systems and although at times I have had to wait awhile on the telephone for service I have generally been pleased with the computer. I will not however do business with them again as I now know enough to build my own.

Glad I was able to help you locate your drivers Fruss Tray Ted.

Autoeng

[drdan]

Well, he got the Dell yesterday, which is only about two days after he ordered it. It wasn't even supposed to ship until today. He got it hooked up today and I "helped" between patients. I have to say it was pretty impressive. Smooth and fast and other than the hard drive growling a little when working hard it was so quiet that you literally could not tell if was on or not. It did shut itself off after not being used for a while. Is it possible it is set that way? If so where are the settings for that (I think it's power management or something).

[Budfred]

Yep, there are power management settings in Windoze and in the BIOS, he will need to check both if he wants to change it. It probably just went into hibernation and should be able to wake up with a move of the mouse and a little time....

[saphalline]

I don't care for hybernation, either. I always hated it when one of my games got 'stuttery' because of 'power saving features'. I turned 'em all off. No hybernate mode, no stand-by, no monitor-off mode (I turn it off manually if need be), no hard drive spin-down - it all stays on because when my PC is on, I'm using it! :D

Personal preference, really, and all the above options I mentioned and more can be adjusted like Budfred said. I just like to rant! :p

[drdan]

I'm familiar with hibernation and the computer did that once also. This was really turned off though, not just hibernating. I wasn't in there when all this happened and he thought the monitor had gone bad. I messed with it a while and finally realized that the computer was not even on. He swore he didn't turn it off so I don't know. Like said it is so quiet you can't tell if it's on unless the hard drive is working. I suppose there is a light light on the front when it's on but I didn't notice.

[Budfred]

I would check the power settings anyway, both in BIOS and in Windoze... If that doesn't fix it, there may be something more serious wrong, although it is hard to think what... I guess it could be a problem with heat building up if the circulation is bad....

[mjc]

There are differnet levels of "hibernating"...

The lowest just turns off the monitor and lets the hard drive spin down.

The highest (which is usally called hibernation) save the current config to a tempfile on the drive and powers down everything...except for monitoring for keyclick or mouse movement (modem or LAN can be added too).

[drdan]

I'm sure I can find power settings in the BIOS easy enough, there's not much there. Can you point me in the direction of them in XP pro?

[Budfred]

I don't have XP, but I installed it for my sister and I beleive power setting are in Control Panel...

[drdan]

Yes they are, as "Power Options". I knew I'd seen them somewhere. Thanks.

[drdan]

Well, you guys are right about Dell service. My friend needs to transfer his Cisco wireless PCI card to the dell so he can be on our wireless network. He called Dell to find out how to do this, just whether he needed to get it installed at some kind of authorized Dell service center or something to avoid voiding the three year warranty he purchased. The first person he got had such a strong accent (Mexican?)he could not understand more than one word in five and they finally hung up on him in mid sentence. The second person he got he could understand even though they also had a strong accent. The trouble was they could not understand him. The woman kept telling him that he would have to get instructions from his DSL provder on setting up the card. He explained five times that he was actually asking who needed to put the card in to avoid warranty problems but she just didn't get it and kept saying that she could not tell him how to set up the DSL connection numbers, he needed to contact the DSL provider for that. Finally at the end she asked if there was any other questions she could help him with. I thought he might injure himself rolling his eyes so hard.

On the other hand that is such a nice, fast, smooth, QUIET computer.

[mjc]

"Yes, may I speak to your supervisor?"

[saphalline]

Heehee, that one made me laugh out loud, mjc! :D