Is this computer a good deal??? I need input asap!!!
 

Tower: 420W w/ a front USB and 4 bays, basic new tower, w/ side window

Blue cold cathode light, LED blue fan

Asus 8xAGP motherboard, He wasnt sure which one, said probably an a7vs?

AMD 2600 plus chip

1 gig of ram, probably ddr400, if not that, then 333

Nvidia 5200fx 128 meg video card

80 Gig HD

52x32x52 Cdrw
16x dvd rom
Floppy

Creative labs digital 5.1 sound card
Creative inspire dolby surround speakers

Keyboard/optical mouse

Total: between 1100-1150. Just depends on the case i get.

This sound like a good deal to you guys? Its local, so no shipping...but i gotta order really really soon, as im leaving for college in like 2 weeks. Gotta give them time to build it etc. So, what do you think? Any advice is welcome!! TIA!

First, i would ask about the case. A cheap power supply can be a good systems worst enemy.
Cold Cathodes and LED Lights go for around 10 bux a pop
I usually recommend staying away from Asus boards. They are stable for the most part, but they also have compatibility problems with some hardware and they are not the best for overclocking.
Next you need to find out what version of the 2600+ it is, the 266 or 333 bus.
Ask him the manufatuer of the ram, what the timings are. Stay away from CL3 or CAS3, it is very slow ram. Look for CL2, CL2.5, CAS2, CAS2.5. (CAS and CL mean the same thing)
5200 is not a great card, it is the lowest of the low-end of the new GeForceFXs.
Ask him what kind of sound card it is, whether it is an Audigy, Audigy2, or Live!

Personally, I think if you cannot build your own computer, no offense, but that you would be better off with a Dell. The prices are not too bad. And you have 3 years of tech support included I think. Shipping is not too bad either.

Please no Dell try these 3 first:

http://www.ibuypower.com/mall/lobby.htm

http://www.cyberpowersystem.com/home.htm

http://www.abscomputers.com/index.html

Of the 3 I like ABS the best. Don't buy a Dell or Compaq or name brand pc is you want to upgrade later in the future. The way those things are put together it is better to buy a new PC then upgrade and thats what Dell wants you to do.

Im not building the computer myself, they do it free of charge, im just afraid to do it myself. Thank you though, for the input about the stuff, also, i can get the ATI 9600 Pro instead of the 5200, is that better?

And the chip is the 333.

get the Radeon 9500 and you can easy OC it to 9700 quality

the deal is missing a monitor.

i'll say it's reasonably priced.

the price ain't bad, esp. since they're not charging for assembly? is this a pal at home or something ;-)

Rip-off
 

*cough*
*cough*

The whole PC market stands on the fact that people like to pay more because they think they are really getting more...

Emachines makes machines from the cheapest available hardware... but the price difference outweighs the lowered reliability. If anything fails you will have so much extra cash you can replace it...

Check out their xp2600+ model

Same specs... (less l33t motherboard, case, and powersupply) but unless you like spending money I doubt you will ever know the diff...

590 for the same specs sans graphics card and with an inferior FSB... but seriously enough for a XP2600... Sure it will bottleneck the CPU, but not badly enough to make a noticeable difference.

Plenty will argue with me... but I think in the long run going with cheaper components and upgrading more frequently works out better...

You can even get deals @ 590 with monitor... Crappy monitor, but it's always nice to have an extra one around to put on an old system.

Decent graphics for 170-200, no shipping charge on the computer and monitor... you clock in 400 dollars less
My .02

Man that ram will be expensive as hell. That's where your money is going, definitely. If you want to spend that much, I'd get a better video card. That FX is roughly the power of a GeForce 4 TI4200. Everything else seems to be decent though; it's not as nice as a completely custom built PC but it's close. I ordered my PC on Saturday and it should be here tomorrow.

<UL>
<LI>Gigabyte Mobo, 8x AGP, supports up to Athlon XP 3200+, On-board AC 97 Sound, Onboard RealTek Network Port
<LI>Athlon XP 2500+ Barton (Overclocking freak CPU, 1.8 GHz)
<LI>512 MB of CAS 2.5 SimpleTech RAM (PC2700)
<LI>eVGA GeForce FX 5900 Ultra 256 MB
<LI>40 GB Maxtor 7200 RPM HDD
<LI>Samsung 52x24x52 Burner
<LI>Samsung Floppy
<LI>Generic Beige Case 400w PSU (I hate fancy cases)
<LI>GlobalWIN SuperSilent CPU Fan/Heatsink
</UL>

The total on that PC was $790.00 from NewEgg. I already have a mouse/keyboard/speakers that work great. You can use the PC that I ordered as comparison; that's roughly how much you'd pay for a nice custom built PC. Overall, I'd say your PC is a pretty decent deal, especially compared to most PC-building places.

-Lasereth

Is it better to have 512 ram w/ a 9700 pro or 1 gig w/ a 9600 pro??

ram is not going to do as much as a graph card, also it is cheaper to upgrade that then a vid card. when you need it is is the easiest thing to upgrade. go for the 9700, the 9600 is not even as good as the 9500, overall that is.

If he's not down to build his own I don't see him OC'ing a GPU.

depends on the os and what you plan to do, games , better graphics card, photoshop / 3d modelling work more ram etc.

my magic 8-ball says "all clues point to Internet, chat, p0rn, word processing and a splash of games"

:D

with the new games coming out like doom3 and hl2, i would recommend getting 1 gb of ram, probably longhorn will recommend 1gb too, so basically it would be planning ahead for later software.

the 9600 pro is a very nice card, if he gets it, he should download powerstrip so he can overclock it

Does it come with an OS? If you want to be legit, you'll have to pony up the money for it if they don't include it. Otherwise, the "name brand" machines will have it included.

I'm not trying to steer you either way (I prefer to build mine), I just wanted to mention it.

Re: Is this computer a good deal??? I need input asap!!!
 

I would definitiv go with a ATI card. The 5200 is worse than Geforce 4 TI 4200 and it's loud.

Motherboard: Take the Asus Nforce 2 Deluxe board (A7N8X) and safe the money for a sound card. The on board sound storm is better than an audigy.

memory: do you really need DDR400? just get 266 or 333 and save some money.

Thanks for the input guys! and yes, it will be for chat/pron/games :)

Thanks for everything again, tfp owns joo!

dont waste your J$CK on cathode lights, spend it on hardware!