based on your advice this is what i will buy tomorrow

[homey297]

system is for a computer iliterate cpa using
tax & accounting software
who is curently using a old 500 mhz computer
and wants a little more speed

$114.00
Asus P4P800-E Deluxe i865PE P4 800FSB Skt478 DDR ATX Motherboard w/Audio, LAN, RAID/Serial ATA Retail (Prescott Ready)

$243.00
Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor Northwood 3.2GHz, 800MHz FSB, Socket 478 Retail

$92.00
Kingston KVR400X64C3AK2/512 512MB Kit DDR400 PC3200 Memory Retail

$134.99
Microsoft Windows XP Professional Single Full Version OEM

$159.99
Powercolor XR98SE-C3L Radeon 9800 SE 128MB AGP 8X DDR Video Card w/TV-Out & DVI Powered by ATI Retail

$31.00
Mitsumi 7-in-1 USB 2.0 Media Drive

$116.00
Antec 430w Performance Plus Series Plus1080AMG Soho File Server Case (Metallic Gray) Retail

$71.50 x 2 = 143.00
Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 ST380013AS 80GB Serial ATA 7200RPM Hard Drive w/8MB Buffer

$1033.98 total from zipzoomfly

already have :
Kingston 512MB Hi-Speed USB 2.0 Data Traveler ( backups)
cd burner
norton security
office pro

 

[laurenlex]

An AMD system is the best bang for the buck right now. They fly in business apps.

I would do the following: (too lazy to link to sites)

AMD A64 3200+ socket 754

Motherboard ???? should not matter much if it's an ASUS, Abit, DFI, Soltek, or Chaintec

hard drives: you can get 1 160 gig for far less money than 2 80 gigs. Raid 0 does not improve performance very much, and RAID 1 isnt' really a good way to backup data.

Is that video card overkill for accounting, or do you game on the side?

 

[kd2777]

Guys, isn't 512 RAM to small for all the several apps he will be running at the same time? I would think for a little more money I would go 1GB of the Corsiar vs (157.00 - newegg). Exspecially if it going to be 5 years before he upgrades again.

KD

 

[homey297]

i went with two 80 gigs for raid 1
i went with a cheap 9800 because i was told 9600 is no good with this config
i personal hold a 5 year old grudge against amd ... however i may have to let
it go if they continue to kick p4's butt

 

[effee]

Intel processors cant compare towards AMD right now. AMD is really the way to go.

 

[Goi]

I'd go with the 9600. In fact, even a 9200SE would probably work just fine with business apps. Go with a AMD A64 3200+ or thereabouts, a cheap Chaintech VNF3-250 motherboard, 2x512MB PC3200 memory, and a large HDD. RAID1 them if you want data redundancy.

 

[Markfw]

Originally posted by: Goi
I'd go with the 9600. In fact, even a 9200SE would probably work just fine with business apps. Go with a AMD A64 3200+ or thereabouts, a cheap Chaintech VNF3-250 motherboard, 2x512MB PC3200 memory, and a large HDD. RAID1 them if you want data redundancy.

Ditto.. I second this !

 

[piasabird]

I think when you buy 1 gig of ram you get a better price per Meg for the total RAM Purchase.

For instance 2 people could buy the 1 Gig and put 512 in each of their comptuers. This would be great for an Asus A7N8X-X motherboard

 

[nick1985]

Originally posted by: Markfw900

Originally posted by: Goi
I'd go with the 9600. In fact, even a 9200SE would probably work just fine with business apps. Go with a AMD A64 3200+ or thereabouts, a cheap Chaintech VNF3-250 motherboard, 2x512MB PC3200 memory, and a large HDD. RAID1 them if you want data redundancy.

Ditto.. I second this !

thirded

 

[arod]

Originally posted by: nick1985

Originally posted by: Markfw900

Originally posted by: Goi
I'd go with the 9600. In fact, even a 9200SE would probably work just fine with business apps. Go with a AMD A64 3200+ or thereabouts, a cheap Chaintech VNF3-250 motherboard, 2x512MB PC3200 memory, and a large HDD. RAID1 them if you want data redundancy.

Ditto.. I second this !

thirded

4th ed except id go with the asus mobo instead of the chaintek..... but both are god quality.