office pc

[gwyn]

Hi
iv been asked by a friend to build her a pc for her office for keeping customer details on and for using the web.
she needs it to be as cheap as possible.
does this spec sound right any advise would be great

Abit NF7 v2.0 nForce2
athlon 2000
Chieftec Dragon DX-01BD
256 pc2100
HIS Excalibur ATI Radeon 9200SE 128MB
Hitachi Deskstar 7K80 40GB ATA-133 2MB Cache - OEM
Akasa AK-900S Silver Mountain 2Q
Sony 52x CD-ROM Drive

she also wants a flatscreen monitor could someone recomend a good cheap one
thanks alot
Gwyn

 

[jammydodger]

It all sounds pretty good to me, the only other thing I would recommend would be getting a 80 or 120g hard drive. I know she might not need that much storage, but they are so cheap now that its def worth it (here in the UK a 80gig drive is £8 more than a 40gig one).

 

[gwyn]

thanks I will get maby an 80 gig one

 

[o1die]

Samsung makes good regular monitors. I've had a 17 inch for more than 3 years. This model 753DF goes for about $100 online at places like newegg.

 

[jclw]

*Cough*Dell*Cough*

*Dual PIII-800 @900 i440BX and Tualeron 1.2 @1.7 i815*

 

[apache_lives]

Office PC? Wouldnt something like this be better?:

Intel Celeron ~2400
Intel 865GE Mobo (dont bother with dual channel mem)
512mb DDR266 / PC2100 (256mb if your not bothered)
Onboard Video (dont bother with the video card - office pc)
80gb HDD (brand dont matter)
CDRW (costs a few dollars extra or nothing at all)

For an office PC you would want an intel celeron - you dont want to risk the AMD overheating / cooking plus the noise of 3 fans going... (not that amd's are bad (there bloody cheap and fast)its just that its more posible to cook compared to intel and the celerons runs pretty dam cold and quiet - good for the office environment)

Onboard video - as poor as it may be... its an office pc.

For a real quiet office PC get a seagate HDD - quiet and decent performance.

Hope that helps you.

 

[Mr5oh]

For an office PC you would want an intel celeron - you dont want to risk the AMD overheating / cooking plus the noise of 3 fans going..

I'd bet that AMD processor will run cooler than the celeron your recommended. Alot of the newer AMD processors run hot, but that one is pretty old, and even in hot enviroments, it should only be about 35-40° C, I know, thats what I put in my dads computer, and his is shut up underneath a desk.



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[Mr5oh]

I think I would consider a different hard drive. Weren't the deskstars known as deathstars for a while? Hard drives aren't that exspensive anymore, and IDE 80 gig 7200 rpm WD, should run about $60, how much is that deskstar? (Note there isn't a performance differance between ATA100-133)

As someone else said, that video card is completely pointless. Yes a better video card does help speed up the system a little, but for an office PC, just use on-board video, save yourself a chunk of change.

I would either pick a different heatsink, or just buy a retail processor (Heat sink included). Plus with the retail chip your get a longer warranty.

As some one else said a CD-RW drive would only cost a you a little more, if any extra, and would be handy for creating backups of customer lists. Those Sony drives aren't the fastest thing on the market, I know, I ditched mine a couple of weeks after I bought it. CD-Rs aren't the most reliable for long term storage, but it would make backing up customer lists and such very easy.

Next whats the deal with the $100 dollar case?? That really isn't necessary, especially when trying to build something cheap. You can get a case that will cool great and is sturdy for $30 or so.

For example, I've used several of these case for PCs I've built for people, they are sturdy, offer great cooling, and heck most of the time when I buy them they include a free keyboard and mouse. This case also has a good power supply in it.

<A HREF="http://www.pcclub.com/product_detail.cfm?itemno=A1366001" target="_new">http://www.pcclub.com/product_detail.cfm?itemno=A1366001</A>

Then whats the deal with the NF7, you are building something cheap, this isn't necessary. That NF7 is kind of pointless, especially with that CPU. You would be much better off getting an MSI board, they make good stuff, and will be half the price.

Examples:
<A HREF="http://www.pcclub.com/product_detail.cfm?itemno=A4854799" target="_new">http://www.pcclub.com/product_detail.cfm?itemno=A4854799</A>
<A HREF="http://www.pcclub.com/product_detail.cfm?itemno=A4854825" target="_new">http://www.pcclub.com/product_detail.cfm?itemno=A4854825</A>

In my opinion you went cheap in the wrong places, and exspensive in the wrong places, switch them back around, you are building an office PC.

Also keep in mind most of the prices I listed where prices that I would pay at my local PC shop, online they should be cheaper.

Also 256 MB ram is what I consider the very mininum to run Windows XP, maybe you could save some money by methods above, and add another 256 chip in there.

I have been hearing many complaints about dead pixels and such on the flat panel displays, so choose carefully.

Hopefully this helps some.

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[Crashman]

I'd get an HP or Compaq OEM refurb from TigerDirect for around $300.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[juin]

A celeron on a intel motherboards is a better idea cheap and reliable and easy to update and rock solid.

i need to change useur name.

 

[jammydodger]

Here in the UK a 2.4Ghz celeron is £52 and a 2500+ barton is £58, I bet the Althon will be a hell of a lot faster! Plus an old nforce2 board would prob be cheaper than any intel one.
The main issue here is cost, you seem to be making out that an AMD solution will be very unreliable? I have never had any stability issues with my 1.1Ghz athlon and that CPU gets hotter than the bartons.

 

[Crashman]

Speed really doesn't matter here, I stand by my recommendation for the $300 refurb. And yes, you can get a complete system with 2500+ (or even 2600+) refurbed for $300.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[Mr5oh]

I'll second Crashman's recommendation, on the refurb unit (always wise to take Crashmans advice, he wouldn't steer you in the wrong direction).

If you decide to build one anyways, I'll stick to my statement:

In my opinion you went cheap in the wrong places, and exspensive in the wrong places, switch them back around, you are building an office PC.

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[jammydodger]

I wasnt dissagreeing with you about the refurb option being a good idea. I was simply pointing out to juin that the celeron option is deffinatly not a good one.

 

[Crashman]

You're correct on that one, but I wouldn't consider CPU performance important in such an application, as I sell 3-5 year old systems for the same purpose and they work fine. I'd go with whatever refurb system holds the better overall value with CPU performance as a low priority.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[endyen]

Keep the Abit board, for qualitie's sake, but make it an M (NF7-M).

 

[gwyn]

thanks to everyone for your input im considering going for a machine from mesh at £510 I get a hell of alot of pc
asus mobo
amd 2800
512 pc2700
5200fx
160 gig h/d
15" tft monitor
win XP
and m/s works

 

[Mr5oh]

Thats a heck of a machine for office stuff, but, if it were me I think its what I do. Sure you don't need much for office tasks, but that setup should speed them up, and I tend to be impatient.

Have you thought about maybe doing two hard drives (2 x 80 gig) that way there is a second drive for backups and such?

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[gwyn]

no i think i will keep it simple and for that price i cant realy go wrong as it comes with a 3 year waranty