PC suggestions please!!

[ashish]

hi everyone,


a friend of mine is looking to buy a PC... he is not looking for something spectacular... his budget is something around AU$1000

he will mostly be using it to watch movies and play some games (not the ones that require high end configs) and run some accounting packages for doing his uni work....

any suggestions??

[Nate89]

how much is 1000au in us currency?

[Big Booger]

How involved does your friend want to be? Is he a "Bring it home, open the box, plug it in and play"

Or is he a "scrounge for the parts, get it all together, put it together, test it, check for buggish hardware, and then play"

If he is the later, he can get quite a good system on that budget. Since I am not from Australia, and cash_site and supastar are.. I'll leave this to them.. but if you answer the questions I've asked, it should help them find a system up your friend's alley.

And to find currency conversions, use xe.com :

1,000.00 AUD
Australia Dollars = 775.458 USD

[PIPER]

hi everyone,


a friend of mine is looking to buy a PC... he is not looking for something spectacular... his budget is something around AU$1000

he will mostly be using it to watch movies and play some games (not the ones that require high end configs) and run some accounting packages for doing his uni work....

any suggestions??

Agreeing with BB....best bet would be to build vs. unboxing a pre-built...for the budget amount u can build a beast if u shop around...not to mention the experience u gain from doing the work yourself.

[bhxtyrant]

Indeed building your own is the way to go.i buolt many PC's and its always the best route and will get you a very customizable system,and alot more reliable system with only the hardare/software you want.

I built a very decent PC for about $800US

Antec Tower with side window pre-installed.
AMD Athlon XP 2400+
512MB PC 3200 DDR Ram
ASUS A7A8X Motherboard
ATI Radeon 9200 GFX card
ATI TV wonder Tuner/Video Capture card
Ultra133 TX2 IDE controller card (to install additional Hard Drives)
Microsoft Wireless keyboard and mouse
Maxtor 120GB Hard drive
Seagate 80GB Hard drive

And already had a HP CD writer drive,standard 52X CD rom ,floppy drive,and a 40GB Hard drive so i was set.

I put Windows XP pro on it and to say the least its ran better then any PC i bought such as an HP,compaq,dell,gateway ive used them all and they didnt even come close.

[efc]

With that big of a budget, I would start at www.ibuypower.com (http://www.ibuypower.com). Here is a sample of the power machines available.


AMD Athlon-64 Power PCs

http://www.ibuypower.com/images/pc-samurai-5color.jpg (http://www.ibuypower.com/mall/amd64-lobby.asp)

64 Best Buy (http://www.ibuypower.com/ibp/store/configurator.aspx?mid=108) $694
-Athlon-64 3000+ CPU
-512MB DDR400 Memory
-160GB 7200rpm HD
-256M ATI Radeon 9600XT
-16x DVD-ROM + 52x32x52 CD-RW Combo
-and more ...http://www.ibuypower.com/Images1/select.gif (http://www.ibuypower.com/ibp/store/configurator.aspx?mid=108)

B-T-S-64 (http://www.ibuypower.com/ibp/store/configurator.aspx?mid=109) $969
-Athlon-64 3000+ CPU
-1024MB DDR400 Memory
-160GB 7200rpm HD
-128M nVidia GForce 6600GT
-16x DVD±RW Burner
- 5.1 Sound + Speakers
-and more ...http://www.ibuypower.com/Images1/select.gif (http://www.ibuypower.com/ibp/store/configurator.aspx?mid=109)

(http://www.ibuypower.com/ibp/store/configurator.aspx?mid=65) http://www.ibuypower.com/images/pc-wavemaster-silver-small.jpg (http://www.ibuypower.com/mall/amd64-lobby.asp)

[cash_site]

Ashish what part of Australia are you staying Melboure/Sydney?? Some of the fairly good but cheap as dirt places to check out would be www.msy.com.au I have been buying from them for ages, service is a little slack, but no probs so far... they have good packages for your friend to start out on, or you could buy the individual parts and build it yourself... $1000AU is ~ $750US (these days :p) ... and more than enough to get a competent system running...

Let me know if you want more details.

[SupaStar]

I would agree with cash there. You could also try Computer and Parts Land (http://www.cpl.net.au/) or IT Warehouse (http://www.itwarehouse.com.au).

[ashish]

well, he is sort of not that gerat with PC's, he is into accouting :rolleyes:

so me and a frnd of mine were thinking of putting it together for him.

There is a computer fair being held here in canberra on sunday and maybe we will go and buy from there.. what i am really stumped about is the parts to put in...

guys there is no use comparing US and australia here and the prices.... coz a lot of the stuff is much more expensive here... even if you convert it back into US dollars :)

[Big Booger]

Here's what I'd get using the site provided by supastar:

CASE: ($199AU)
Cooler Master TAC-T01-E1C Wave Master Chassis
http://www.itwarehouse.com.au/warehouse/detail.htm?ProductID=CA%2DCH%2DCM%2DTACT01E1C

PSU: ($99AU)
Super Flower 400W CE, safety approved and mirror coating with one adjustable 12" led fan
http://www.itwarehouse.com.au/warehouse/detail.htm?ProductID=CS%2DPS%2DSF%2D350P12%2D2

Motherboard ($389) NOTE: this mobo is the first Nforce4 motherboard to hit the market!!!!!!
http://www.itwarehouse.com.au/warehouse/detail.htm?ProductID=HW%2DMB%2DA8N%2DSLI%2DDeluxe
Asus A8N-SLI-Deluxe Skt939 AMD64 board, 2x PCI-x16, DDR, 3PCI, SATA RAID, IEEE1394, 2GigaLAN, Audio

CPU: ($258AU) (SOLD OUT NOW)
AMD ATHLON 64 3000+ (1.8 Ghz, 512KB L2 Cache and dual channel) SOCKET 939
http://www.itwarehouse.com.au/warehouse/detail.htm?ProductID=HW%2DCPU%2DAMD%2DA643000%2D939

DVD Burner: ($109AU)
Liteon SOHW-1613S INT.DVD+(16x4x16), DVD-(8x4x16), CD(48x24x48), NERO Software
http://www.itwarehouse.com.au/warehouse/detail.htm?ProductID=HW%2DDVDB%2DLITE%2DSOHW%2D1613S

HDD: ($129AU)
Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 Serial ATA Calypso Quiet 120GB, SATA/150, 7200rpm 8MB Cache
http://www.itwarehouse.com.au/warehouse/detail.htm?ProductID=HW%2DHDD%2DMAXTOR%2D120%2D7200%2D150

MEMORY: ($189AU)
GEIL 512meg ULTRA DDR433 High Performance
http://www.itwarehouse.com.au/warehouse/detail.htm?ProductID=HW%2DRAM%2DGEIL%2DGL5123500UP

Video ($275AU)
Leadtek PX6600TD GeForce 6600 256MB PCI-x16 video card with DVI, VGA, TV Out
http://www.itwarehouse.com.au/warehouse/detail.htm?ProductID=HW%2DPCIE%2DLED%2DPX6600TD%2D256

That is all using Supastar's site. The grand total is about 1.5 times the max of $1000, at $1647 + postage but in the end you'd have a system that would give great performance for several more years than a system that you'd pay less for.

Of course you could lower the price with a cheaper CPU and motherboard combo.. I'd say you could subtract about 300 from the total price, and you could sacrifice the high performance ram and save 60 or so.

And you could even get away with a cheaper video card.. and save $100 or so... and a cheaper case minus 80 or so.. which would bring the price in nearer to the $1000, but your friend should wait and save up another 500 and get a grand system that won't need to be upgraded for a while...

[ashish]

thanks for all your suggestions... we went to the local computer fair and he got a great deal there.... no.. not on a desktop.. but on a laptop :)... changed his mind at the last moment....

this is what he has got now...

PIV 2.4 Ghz mobile technology
20 Gb HDD
Onboard AGP
384 MB DDR RAM
14 Inch Screen

for AU$525 :)

[Nate89]

imho that isnt that great but if hes happy then were all happy

[ashish]

well PC's are actually pretty expneive here.. and i think that its a really good deal that he has got..

[Big Booger]

The only thing I'd recommend with a laptop is an extended warranty...

[cash_site]

LOL, computer fair... love it... they are soo dodgy swap meets... extended warranty... good joke :D

They are cheap and nasty with (if you're lucky) 3 month warranty... well... i shouldnt complain too much I've built a couple of systems from there and havent given me grief for a couple of years... except memory (they give it you in a plastic shopping bag :eek:)

Funny he went from Desktop to Laptop - although being an accountant it would have made more sense (you can claim a lot of deduction on tax) but also its portable to visit clients etc ;)

[SupaStar]

Hehe...the good old memory in the plastic bag trick. Guaranteed to make your RAM last for about week :p