Basic story: My parents are buying a new PC, wanting to spend roughly $1000.
No need for 3D accelerator, or audio. Small business and interweb. Preferably futureproof.

Original System they wanted to buy:

Dell PC:
17" LCD flatscreen (unknown brand)
Dimension 1100 Celeron D Proc 325 (2.53ghz)
1Gig DDR 400 SDRAM? (unknown brand)
USB Keyboard (unknown brand)
USB 2 Button Wheel Mouse (unknown brand)
160g IDE 7200rpm (unknown brand)
16 DVD RW+the rest (unknown brand)
Motherboard: Unknown celeron thingi, onboard vid, audio and lan
Plus OEM software (XP Home)

Total: $997.70

Possible System built from Umart Parts: (internet prices)

17" LCD Not sure on brand yet..
A8N-VM-CSM s939 Mobo
Athlon 64 3000, perhaps 3200 (gforce 6150, audio, lan)
1g pc3200 DDR Duel Channel Corsiar RAM
USB KB
USB 2 button wheel mouse
160g Maxtor 7200rpm HDD
DVD RW+the rest Aopen

Total: ~$985.00

I'm pretty sure the system I've listed above is much better the Dell system with better futurproofing.

Can anyone see any bad choices?
Can anyone spec a differnt (better) system for roughly the same price?

Thanks.

go the umart deal for sure, Cel D are s*** plus heat those things put out are insane.

AMD ftw. 8-)

last edited by 0z at 15:24:27 14/Dec/05

Your parents need 160gig (considering they will also have a dvd writer)and 1gig of RAM?

I'd probably drop those to 80gig and 512 and use the cash saved to go towards a 19".

I remember seeing an ad for Big W for an Acer Aspire for about $600-700.. looked half decent from the few short seconds I saw it.

Mission, they surf the interweb noobie style and so the machine gets clogged up pretty quick. I/we dont visit often enough to keep cleaning it. So 1g will mean it will work just fine untill we get time to clean it up. Also it allows them to keep using it for a loong time without needing to upgrade. (Also, games for me ;)

The 80g maxtor costs only $30 less.
They want a 17" as they think 19" is too big for personal preferance.

You do have a valid point tho.

Have to agree with Oz, I'd steer well clear of anything with Celeron written on it... I've had the displeasure of using them for several years at work, I would never recommend anyone buys one.

I'd go the Umart one just to avoid the inconvenience of proprietary parts, and the possibility of having to deal with DELL's atrocious aftermarket support...

oh yeah, and it will be a s***load faster to boot.

Exccccelent, I had a deep suspicion the celeron was a slow hot piece of downgraded uselessness. I fear the motherboard Dell would be using for it!

Another question,

Is the cooling stuffs provided with 3000 good enough for Australian summer time heat? Can anyone recommend good quiet cooling if it is not.

Sound of cooling is a minor issue, however if the price is right it may be worth getting a quieter system.
Thanks.

It is sufficient if it's a decent case with at least a good exhaust fan. Otherwise in a poorly ventilated closed case it's going to suffer. Probably still be ok temp wise, but the fan speed will ramp up and be quite loud.

id steer well clear of any thing DELL

dell supply our work machines and they are expensive and slow

i dont like HP either becauyse they dont do AMD stuff and we all know whats better for number crunching

Dell is crap get the umart one. Fairly good choice in parts for what you need.

Yer when I heard it was Dell I thought, 'Pffft I can probably build a better system for similar price' I know a better system could be built then the one I listed, however I dont have the will power to make myself sit down and find a better one. The umart one is good because it all comes from the same store, makes shopping easy.


The case will probably be a cheapish one with average to crap ventilation, so I may think about a minor case mod :D

last edited by Tollaz0r! at 01:40:51 15/Dec/05

and the possibility of having to deal with DELL's atrocious aftermarket support...

hell, they even sent me a survey (about how satisfied i was by their tech support) 3 months AFTER i contacted them. here's the thing, they replied to me saying a tech will call me, but the call never came. ended up finding the solution on another forum instead. and i'm still waiting for the god damn rubber feet for my pda (which fell off after 3 months of use).

The case will probably be a cheapish one with average to crap ventilation, so I may think about a minor case mod :D

Just ring them and tell them to whack it in a case that has a a spot for a rear exhaust fan, and pop one in later. I'm sure they won't have a problem with using a different yumcha case.

I'm putting the machine together myself, I was unaware that umart would do it. Do they? is there much of a cost involved, as I'm happy for them to do it :D

Yup they'll do it - system build charge is like $35 or so iirc.

Sweet, that'll save a bit of time, and probably do a better job too. Cheers!

I think it cost 70 bucks when I got mine about a month or so ago. Just plug all the gear into the Customer Configure System and it automatically adds the build price to the total.