$700 small office build

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LateraLex

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 14, 2008
Messages
391
Hi, a family friend needs a new PC. He was eyeing a dell PC for $700. Link to it is here, it's the one under the orange "Dell Deal" heading. LINK

Do you think this is a good deal? I could build him a machine from scratch, but also I would then be supporting it. If I was to build him one, I'd definitely be using TinyXP.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Office applications, web browsing, Corel Draw, Photoshop

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$700

3) Where do you live?
Boston, MA

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.
Everything. Case, monitor, keyboard/mouse, etc.

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
N/A

6) Will you be overclocking?
No.

7) What size monitor do you have or plan to have?
19" or bigger. I think going to 22" would be much appreciated, as they are in graphics design.

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Next week

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
None of these. Firewire would be nice just incase.
 
If I new what the best CPU/memory/board combo is for my friend I probably wouldn't have posted here. Thanks for sending me to the outlet section, but I'm still looking for help on what is a good configuration for his needs.
 
Coreldraw require a workstation video card, those insanely priced ones?
If not.. then it's Danny to the rescue:
Danny Bui said:
I LOL'd when I clicked this link: The PSU bundled with that Apevia is in no way shape or form a quality PSU. Apevia makes/bundles pretty shitty PSUs. My proof:
XQPack's Included 420W PSU
Apevia ATX-AS500W-BL
Apevia Warlock Power 900W
Aspire Beast 680W Power Supply

Anyway OP, I wouldn't go with the Shuttle KPC if you want quiet computing, especially since it'll be next to your TV. The fan in the KPC's PSU is pretty loud, even at low loads.

Here's an alternative build:
AMD Athlon X2 4850E CPU - $60
Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H AMD 780G mATX Motherboard - $80
Kingston KVR800D2N6/2G 2GB DDR2 800 RAM - $23
Western Digital WD5000AAJS 500GB 7200RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - $60
Antec Earthwatts 500W PSU - $50
Silverstone SUGO SG02B-F Black mATX Case - $60
---
Total: $333 plus tax and shipping

Now you havent told us what you're planning to use this PC (hint hint) for so I'm going to assume that the X2 4850E is enough for your needs. Now the main reason I went with AMD is due to the fact that 780G chipset is only available for AMD CPUs. Now the 780G chipset is awesome because the onboard video can decode most if not all of HD content. Therefore, you see less CPU usage if watching Blu-ray or HD-DVDs and free up the CPU to do other tasks. To get the same level of HD playback with an Intel setup, you'd have to spend another $100 or so.

In addition, unlike Intel motherboards, the Gigabyte 780G motherboard can output 5.1 channel audio through HDMI. Most Intel motherboards can only output 2.1 channel audio through HDMI.

But if you don't plan on HD content or just love Intel more, here's an Intel build:
Intel Pentium Dual Core E5200 CPU - $83
Gigabyte GA-EG31M-S2 Intel G31 mATX Motherboard - $53
Kingston KVR800D2N6/2G 2GB DDR2 800 RAM - $23
Western Digital WD5000AAJS 500GB 7200RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - $60
Antec Earthwatts 500W PSU - $50
Silverstone SUGO SG02B-F Black mATX Case - $60
---
Total: $329 plus tax and shipping

As for what HTPCs can do, here's a few things that they can do:
- Act as a PVR
- Act as a MAME station
- Allows you to watch downloaded content on your TV, rather than a computer monitor.
Click to expand...
 
What's so hard to understand about:

You saying "I don't think a quad is needed but it makes more sense than a dual"
then me replying "If it's not needed then it doesn't make sense"

Which other half don't you get?
 
LateraLex said:
Do you think this is a good deal? I could build him a machine from scratch, but also I would then be supporting it. If I was to build him one, I'd definitely be using TinyXP.
Click to expand...

Nope, not a good deal. I've seen Dell have offer a Q6600 CPU, 4GB of RAM, as well as monitor for $500. If you have to buy soon, the "Productivity Package " in this link is a much better deal:
http://www.dell.com/content/product...&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd&dgc=BF&cid=27740&lid=940353

You get twice the RAM and twice the storage of that "deal" you linked to. Also, check www.gotapex.com for Dell deals. But definitely hit up the Dell Outlet. Look for at least the Q6600 and at least 4GB of RAM. Those are the two key factors for Photoshop and CorelDraw. More than likely you may have to buy the monitor separately since not many if any Dell Outlet packages have monitors. So in that case, I recommend this monitor:
Acer X223Wbd Black 22" DVI Widescreen LCD Monitor - $165

So if you get the above monitor, that leaves you with roughly $535 for the PC itself.
 
Thanks to all you guys. I'll definitely dig into that. A 22" monitor for $165 is a great price.
 
If there are no good dell deals, and you can't wait for one, then Dell outlet is usually good, but unreliable as far as a certain config goes, since stock changes so fast.

From GotApex.com...

Dell Small Business - Vostro 200 Desktop Computer with 2.2GHz Dual Core, 1GB Memory, 160GB Hard Drive and 20" LCD Monitor for Only $389 with $29.99 Shipping
Click to expand...

Dell Home - Dell Inspiron 518 Mini Tower with Core 2 Quad Processor, 4GB Memory, 640GB HD, DVD Burner, plus 20" LCD Monitor for $649 with FREE Shipping!
Click to expand...

Since you need everything, including OS, building from scratch would be cost prohibitive, IMO, especially since there are no special needs (gaming/cad/etc).
 
So I got this PM...

LateraLex said:
Hey man, thanks for your help with this post.
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1367219

My buddy really likes the machine I got him and one of his co-workers wants the "same" thing. I took a glance at gotapex.com but didn't see a deal too similar. Would you mind taking a glance at whats out there to see is there are other packages in the $700 range?
Click to expand...

And decided to try the link in my previous post. Turns out, it still works, so I'm bumping this for anyone in the market for a similar system.

It even has free 2nd day delivery!! ;)
 
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