Fair deal?

[konakona]

A friend of mine wants a relatively new machine that is capable of playing video files for her parents. I took my time to explain how most computers from a generation or two older would suffice for anything other than the most demanding 3d games, as far as everyday usage goes. With the current pricing on S939 systems, I might as well just help her build a brand new machine; however, I personally think that would be an overkill, seeing how my current S754 machine can handle HDWMV material just fine. Her parents mostly watch VOD stuff which has even lower requirements than the cutting edge xvid 1.1 / H.264 mateiral anyway, but I am trying to leave some room for robustness here.

Incidentally, I happen to have a S754 machine that I feel somewhat lacking for my gaming needs. The machine consists of a 1.8ghz Paris core sempron, OCed to 2.4 with %10+ to vcore. The system is very stable; it ran perfrectly fine without CPU induced crashes for little less than 2 years, and I could probably clock it a little more conservatively if anything. Here is the breakdown :

Epox 8KDA3+ 30ish?
Sempron (s754) 1.8 + Scythe Ninja or 7700AlCu 50ish?
radeon 9800 + silencer (clocks somewher between pro and normal speeds) 40ish?
or a fx5200 5ish?
a pair of PC3200 512mb DDR sticks (patriot and kingston i believe) 70ish?
an ATX case with a sparkle PSU, almost new 20ish

All above, of course, includes the effort to assemble it and setup basic software on it.
I am not trying to rip anyone off, just a fair deal for both ends involved.

Since we arent allowed to post questions of this nature in the FS forums, I thought this would be the most appropriate place to turn to.

Any thoughts? 🙂

PRICE CHECK ON AISLE 5!! My moderator ears were burning, and, lo and behold, a price check! What you must realize, dear poster, is that AnandTech is the great dollar store in the sky. For this reason, price checks have only one answer. See if you can guess what that answer might be! 😉

AnandTech "Overclocked on Eggnog" Moderator

 

[Rike]

It's my understanding that price checks are not permitted on AT, regardless of the forum.

That said, it looks fair to me. Maybe a little high on the RAM?

 

[konakona]

Originally posted by: Rike
It's my understanding that price checks are not permitted on AT, regardless of the forum.

That said, it looks fair to me. Maybe a little high on the RAM?

if so, I am sure mods will sort it out real quick 🙂
point taken on ram, maybe I will take $10 off the ram, bringing the total to $200 with the 9800 (or $165 with the POS vga)

 

[jackschmittusa]

Price sounds reasonable. I assume that you are thinking of transplanting the drives from their old machine? If the old hd is not 7200rpm/ata100 (133), it will be a major bottleneck.

 

[Rike]

Originally posted by: VanillaH

Originally posted by: Rike
It's my understanding that price checks are not permitted on AT, regardless of the forum.

That said, it looks fair to me. Maybe a little high on the RAM?

if so, I am sure mods will sort it out real quick 🙂
point taken on ram, maybe I will take $10 off the ram, bringing the total to $200 with the 9800 (or $165 with the POS vga)

That's what I was thinking on the ram too. I'd say that's a fair deal, especially since you'll be on the line for "tech support." You might want to give some sort of time frame that you'll be willing to provide additional support.