bobsabuilder

Need a new pc for wifey after her ancient emachine died (1.3Ghz Celeron/256MB/40G HDD/XP Home/17" CRT)
Will get used for regular surfing, emailing, word processing, viewing digital photos, bookkeeping/accounts. NO games will EVER get played on it other than Solitaire!
She wants something a little bit faster than her old set up but nothing flash, and her budget is 300 - 400 squids.
So this morning as I'm office bound for the day I've been looking on the net and canget this set up . . .
Base Unit:
Intel Celeron D 346 3.06Ghz
512MB DDR2 533MHz PC 4200
80GB SATA II HDD
DVD RW +/- Dual Layer
FDD - Sony
7 in 1 Sony Card Reader
Microsoft Keyoard & Optical Mouse (but will be using own wirless keyboard & mouse)
2x PCI
1x PCI Express x16
1x PCI Express x1
2x PS/2
1x Serial
1x Parallel
1x Firewire
8X USB 2.0
Onboard 7.1 Sound
Onboard ATI Radeon Xpress Graphics
Microsoft Windows XP Home SP2 (inc Disc)
Norton Anti-Virus 2006 (90-days) (on a disc)
Power DVD Player 6 (on a disc)
Nero 7 essentials (on a disc)
Dimension: 198 (W) x 410 (H) x 477 (D)
3yr RTB Warranty
£200.23 + vat

Graphics Upgrade:
ASUS Extreme AX300SE-X/TD - graphics adapter
ATI - Radeon X300 SE
PCI Express x 16
128 MB DDR SD RAM 64 Bit
400 mhz
Max Resolution 2048 x 1536
DVI-D / VGA / COMPOSITE RCA
2 Monitor Support
£23.15 + vat


Memory Upgrade:
OCZ 512MB DDR2 PCR-4200 533MHz (OC22533512V) 4-4-4 Lifetime Warranty
£26.37 + Vat

Monitor:
Belinea 1925 S1W
19” Widescreen
850:1 Contrast
5 ms
£102.92 + vat

Free Delivery

Total £352.57 + vat ( £414.42 inc vat)


Opinions Please before I order it.

Bob

SwissTony

iTrader: (19)

1. dont get a celery processor if you can avoid it, slow as buggery and you will live to regret it, not now, but later.

2. is it vista ready ? just so, if you want, you can upgrade it later when all the bugs are ironed out in this new os

3. forget the floppy if you can, pc world etc are dropping sales of them.

4.apart from that, all good.

The Chief

any good deals on Dell at the mo?

bobsabuilder

Thanks

The basic computer is a ready built off the shelf jobby from ebuyer and gets very good reviews. REVIEWS HERE I know its a celeron, but compared to her old system its gonna be loads faster and I can change the processor at a later date if need be.
The FDD she needs as she has some old floppy discs with god knows what on that she still uses.
And as far as Vista, it is ready if you change to a graphics card, but Vista isn't going to be installed. We don't even get on with IE7 so uninstalled it and went back to IE6!

By putting a cheapo graphics card up it will free up the system ram from doing graphics and with the extra stick give her 1gb of ram.
So far I'm on target to order this system at lunchtime.

Thanks for replies so far, any more?
And DELL is NOT an option

Bob

SwissTony

iTrader: (19)

ok, no problem. just make sure that if you do want to change the processor to something faster in the future, that the motherboard can accept the upgrade. Some motherboards will not do this, so best to check with them first.

floppy disks

best bet, copy all the data off them onto cd and then chuck em away or keep them in the loft for the kids to play with in years to come

The Chief

These are quite good

Vista Home & Office AM2 - Aria Technology


i've personally never had a problem with Dell
great value for money imho

STi wanna Subaru

iTrader: (1)

BBC NEWS | Technology | $100 laptop project launches 2007

bobsabuilder

I'd already looked at Aria, but the reviews in Computer Shopper magazine were not that good plus they only give a 1 yr RTB warranty so I've crossed them off of the list.

Thanks anyway,

Bob

ru'

All of those look like a good swap...