Someone tell me about this computer

[brownbox]

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing ... key=428996

tell me is this a good computer?
It has everything I want:
Comes with OS
It is a complete system
Room saving LCD moniter, not a huge box
2.6 p4 fairly fast
AGP video card slot
A price thats right

Of course I wont be buying this, but can someone tell me what is good/bad about this computer that you can see. It all looks fine to me, but then again, I was the one who brought a laptop that died after 2 months

I would also upgrade the video and RAM

[ZK-MAT]

Looks to me like one of those units that Warehouse Stationery sold for $800-ish No AGP card included by the looks, but as it has a slot so can be added, bear in mind that AGP is old now. 40 gig HDD is pretty small but the 19" LCD is sweet.

I am not a fan of HP/Compaq, they sometimes don't like being added to with anything other than genuine HP components, which cost more.

I personally wouldn't pay any more than $500. I think his expected $695 is dreaming!

[AlisterC]

This is almost the exact same computer I use. I got it from Harvey Norman, not the Warehouse though!
My chip is slower (Athlon 2200+), but I've upgraded to 1gb of ram, and a 256mb AGP graphics card.
Plus I've added another hard drive as that 40gb one is a bit small.
But, you've hopefully seen my screenshots from my Orion flight, it works well for me

[Zöltuger]

i'd tell you to get a dell, but best not to mention that...
you might want to consider a cheap system from harvey norman, because at least you'll get a warranty

[ZK-MAT]

... sorry Alister!!!

I didn't mean to sound derogatory about the Warehouse/Warehouse Stationery, it's where our family buys most of our things. My first PC was a HP. Was great till I wanted to add things and couldn't fit my hands in it and found it was picky about RAM etc. Also the O/S was on a locked partition on the HDD which annoyed the heck out of me!

[Blackmagic]

Like Matt said its a HP/Compaq and parts are going to be a pain.

I had a Compaq once, correction still have a couple! Neither of them upgraded very well other than the RAM. My proccesor fried on my main PC ended up having it rebuilt with new motherboard and Ram plus Graphics Card.

The others are just desk PCs used for nothing more than server ports and spreadsheets. Tried to put a Graphics card in one and it just would not go.

Personally I would not buy a second hand PC at that Price! In fact I doubt it has that value or a warrenty.

[creator2003]

now dude ,like others mite of said (no dell ,no compaq ,and no to all pre made set ups ,, the computer you where chatting about in the begining is low on the spec side ,if i was you id go to pbtech website and just think bugger the screen etc for now they are addons,, you want to put all that money into just the tower this is where it matters most a cheap 20$ screen will last till your get lcd one maybe down the track for a xmas presant from mum and dad maybe ,
go for just the tower by new cheap parts and get pci express slots with ddr2 and sata2 compatable ,some thing that will really drive your fs9 ,,whatever you do make sure you can up grade from that really ezy ,
so get dual 945 m/board ,with at less four slots for ram upgrades ,then buy and cpu above 2.8 ghz and try to get one with hyper treading ,then comes the card and power pack ,well i think you have the power pack side covered so just the card pci express card is a must agp as said is old and will cause bottle necks in your hardware these days
go for the tower first then the other bits or you will just kick yourself when you got a nice screen and your puter jars like nothing else and the pc guy goes oh you will have to change this this and this (he means everything in the tower by the way )to make it run better
mike ...

[brownbox]

oh dear...
http://www.trademe.co.nz/Computers/Desk ... 671747.htm
that?
sorry if its getting annoying, but I really have no clue on what to get. Also, my price is limited to under $1000, with a moniter and keyboard. Theres no chhance of getting any free stuff, cause my parents are mean

PCI-e is not a necessity at the moment. Especially seeing that AGP card prices are going well beyond my limit. But then with a PCI-e slot, atleast when I do get the money, I could upgrade to something fancy.

Oh man, desktops are even more confusing than laptops

[creator2003]

dude thats ok well $1000 dollars cool thats a good amount for building a tower ,custom built you mite find is better , mother board :130$ ram $100 g/card 130$ power pack $70 plus ,hard drive 119$ dvd:70$,tower box 100$plus windows 135 installed ,that leaves you about 100 $ left for monter and keyboard etc.. and i would buy this second hand cheap as dirt well i would think this is the best option as you get warrenty plus if something goes wrong they will fix it within a couple of days so with other brands you mite wait up to 6 weeks to get it back ,,,
mike

[brownbox]

ok. So say you get a case. Then you go to get a motherboard. Do all motherboards fit in any case? For example Ill take this and this
http://www.trademe.co.nz/Computers/Comp ... 601883.htm
http://www.trademe.co.nz/Computers/Comp ... 046415.htm

also, do motherboards come with CPU on them?

[Zöltuger]

generally no, but you might find one on trademe

i note that the motherboard you chose doesn't have an AGP port

[brownbox]

these were just two examples. I didnt even look at the specs
So then, how do you find out what fits in what?

[creator2003]

the safest way is to go to pc shop and ask them to quote a system that fits in your buget then get the hell outta there and go on trademe and other sorts of parts site and see how much cheaper you could do it for ,just remember that you are there to find out stuff about what fits in and out of the thing they are showing you ,plus they will generally tell you anything as they think you are going to buy it ,,so ask anything but make sure you do this at a good shop not dicksmiths or neol lemmings as youll find guys at computer shops are upto date with most stuff and because they are fixing them daliy know alot more .....
just remember lots of questions to get your free info guide to ins and outs to pc building

[Blackmagic]

Ok experiance time!

I had a Compaq presario it blew up the CPU!

p4 1.8 ghz, 1GB Ram (upgrade from std 256 Ram) Geforce 2 graphics, CD rewriter, DVD drive (replaced with a DVD rewriter) and A (floppy) drive. 120Gb hardrive (was a 20GB but that failed in 2 years ago)

It was repaired but might as well be a new machine as the only Compaq componants left is the A-Drive and CDRom Drive. Still my 5 year warrenty says its still a Compaq pressario

What was replaced was the CPU (well I blew it up) the Motherboard (because the new CPU was not compatible) RAM (no longer compatible) and of course the Case because it no longer fitted the Motherboard and a copy of XP as mine was a factory version.

The only thing that was holding back my PC was the Graphics card which has now been replace with a A6600GT.

It cost me $40 to have assembled

Now its

2.8gh, 1 Gb Ram, A6600GT Graphics, 120GB harddrive plus DVD rewriter, CD rewriter, Floppy A drive.

Chances are it will work out cheaper for you to get a Decent Motherboard, CPU,case with decent power supply and if your current PC is under two years be able to use that RAM and or upgrade to more RAM, and a Graphics card for under $1000 assembled. Using parts from your old PC.

In fact I have used the Ram for my old Compaq to upgrade a couple of dinosaur celeron machines I got from my employer from 16mb Ram (yes you heard) to 256mb. Add to that the 4 so called none functioning Phillips CRT monitors which you can pick up for around $100 if you want new.

Also as you have a PC then you already have a Keyboard, Mouse and Monitor you can still use. Keyboards/Mice dont need to be expensive to be functional.

Some more to think about?

btw, which part of NZ are you if Wanganui near I can point you to the guy that built my PC.

[brownbox]

i have no moniter, mouse and keyboard, because im using a laptop

i beleive a crappy moniter can be purchased somewhere for around $50. A keyboard and mouse is easy. Just go shopping in the warehouse

OK ok i found a computer I am actually seriously interested in.

Its on Trademe, for $650.
brandnew system with 2 yrs warranty.
specs:
AMD athlon 64bit AM2 3500+
Asrock AM2NF6G-VSTA nForce6100 AM2 mATX Dual Channel DDR2-800 PCI-E 16X SATA 2 & RAID
Geforce 6100 graphics card 128MB
512MB DDR2-667 RAM
80GB 7200rpm HDD
16xDual layer DVD Writer
400W ATX case with 2xfront usb ports

seems a really good one to me.

[creator2003]

that sounds better to me too but always cheak again for other deals just to make sure good luck on buing your beast

[brownbox]

I was thinking, maybe an ATI X1600 Pro would be a nice cheap PCI-e card to go with it. Anyone got suggestions about an under $200 pci-e card?

[Zöltuger]

i'd personally be inclined to go for an nvidia 7600GS- it appears to be more powerful than the radeon

[brownbox]

And the price tag...

[Zöltuger]

oh less than $200

http://www.pricespy.co.nz/pno_8102.html
here's a list of retailers. try and go for the Asustek one, its a better brand than the cheaper ones