Friend needs a new PC - how's this one?

[Borg20001]

My buddy's 3 yr old AMD Quad Core pc just bit the dust. At first he thought it was a virus and he went to Staples to get it fixed, $150 later Staples said it looked like a bad Power Supply and they'd replace it for $30. Then after they replaced it - it went dead and Staples diagnosed it as a bad MotherBoard that they could replace for $300. At this point he had them refund whatever they could to him for their lack of expertise (granted it was not much) and now is looking for a new PC.

He only uses it for web browsing and music pretty much. He doesn't play games or watch TV on it.

I was not able to get any specifics about the type of AMD quad core cpu he had but since it was 3 yrs old, I don't think it was cutting edge for its time.

That being said, I did not want to get into building a PC (don't want to be his Tech Support ever after) so I took a look for desktops that were out there. I thought an i5 2nd gen would keep him going for a while but I know he did not want to break the bank getting a PC. So I figured $500 or $600 would be his max. I'm not a big fan of TigerDirect but I did find this pc.

Appreciate any feedback or other recommendations you can make for this request -

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...7BBTkwCjCECjCE

Thanks for your collective expertise on this topic.

B

 

[sm625]

Inspiron 620 System Details
Processor: Intel Core i3-2120 Processor (3.3GHz,3MB Cache)
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium, Inspiron 620 Minitower
1 TB SATA II Hard Drive (7200RPM), 4 GB DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHz (2 DIMMs)
16X DVD +/- RW Drive

"Save 20% on any Dell Outlet Home Laptop or Desktop with this coupon!"
3$G5F870$KB6LL

Price is $343

It doesnt sound like he needs anything more than that. It will feel light years faster than his old machine.

I cant give a link because dell is retarded. You have to go and find it on their outlet site. Most are already sold out so you might need to find something lese, but there are many that are similar.

Actually I would get him to consider a notebook like this: http://www.buy.com/prod/acer-aspire...ntel-core-i5-2430m-2-40ghz-4gb/224166589.html

 

[Borg20001]

Inspiron 620 System Details
Processor: Intel Core i3-2120 Processor (3.3GHz,3MB Cache)
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium, Inspiron 620 Minitower
1 TB SATA II Hard Drive (7200RPM), 4 GB DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHz (2 DIMMs)
16X DVD +/- RW Drive

"Save 20% on any Dell Outlet Home Laptop or Desktop with this coupon!"
3$G5F870$KB6LL

Price is $343

It doesnt sound like he needs anything more than that. It will feel light years faster than his old machine.

I cant give a link because dell is retarded. You have to go and find it on their outlet site. Most are already sold out so you might need to find something lese, but there are many that are similar.

Actually I would get him to consider a notebook like this: http://www.buy.com/prod/acer-aspire-...224166589.html

Thanks for the info. I was not sure where the old Quad core cpus fit in for speed vs. the newer i3's and i5's, so I wasn't sure if the i3 would be at least equivalent to his old AMD quadcore.

I'm not sure if he wants a laptop, cuz he does want to pull his old hard drive which has all his files on it and put that in whatever new PC he gets as a secondary HD.

I'll try to take a look at the Dell outlet page and see what's still there. But I will take note of the specs you cited and reference that for his pc search.

 

[Ken g6]

Thanks for the info. I was not sure where the old Quad core cpus fit in for speed vs. the newer i3's and i5's, so I wasn't sure if the i3 would be at least equivalent to his old AMD quadcore.

Bench. I picked an AMD that's less than the fastest because the 2120 is a little faster than a 2100. This doesn't account for overclocking, with which an AMD system could beat the un-overclockable i3.

I'm not sure if he wants a laptop, cuz he does want to pull his old hard drive which has all his files on it and put that in whatever new PC he gets as a secondary HD.

Consider adding an external drive enclosure like this.

 

[Borg20001]

Bench. I picked an AMD that's less than the fastest because the 2120 is a little faster than a 2100. This doesn't account for overclocking, with which an AMD system could beat the un-overclockable i3.

Consider adding an external drive enclosure like this.

Thanks Ken. I didn't know about the comparison page. That makes it a bit easier to choose. I'm not concerned about factoring in overclocking because my buddy probably won't even consider that either.

The enclosure is a good point that I can mention to him as well.

Thanks again for the feedback.

 

[mfenn]

Inspiron 620 System Details
Processor: Intel Core i3-2120 Processor (3.3GHz,3MB Cache)
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium, Inspiron 620 Minitower
1 TB SATA II Hard Drive (7200RPM), 4 GB DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHz (2 DIMMs)
16X DVD +/- RW Drive

"Save 20% on any Dell Outlet Home Laptop or Desktop with this coupon!"
3$G5F870$KB6LL

Price is $343

Very nice find and a good fit for general usage IMHO.

 

[Borg20001]

Thanks for the advice. I gave him your recommendation and I think he ordered the Inspiron 620 configuration mentioned above.

Now if I were to get a mid-range gaming set up, would this refurb Dell be any good?

Processor Processor: Intel Core i7-920 Processor (2.00GHz, 8MB Cache)
Operating System Genuine Windows 7 Professional
Base Studio XPS - 435 Tower
Hard Disk Drive 500 GB SATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM) w/DataBurst Cache
Memory 6 GB DDR3 SDRAM 1066MHz (6 DIMMs)
Media Bay 16X DVD +/- RW Optical Drive
6X Blu-ray (BD-RE)
Video 512MB ATI Radeon HD 4350
Keyboard USB Keyboard
Mouse Dell USB 6-Button Laser Mouse
Hardware Upgrade 120V Power Cord
Thermal Heat Sink
Software Upgrade 64BIT Operating System

Plus I added in MS Office Student Home version and after the coupon total came out to about $814.

Is this any good? I'm being a bit lazy but I have some cash this year for a Tax Refund and didn't feel like going through a build right now, even though it would probably give me more bang for the buck. I just haven't kept up with the tech of late.

Appreciate any feedback.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

^horrible

 

[lehtv]

^horrible

Come on T_Yamamoto, you can do better than that. That's no way to reply to a post. You can't just assume the poster knows what you mean, he might just shrug you off as a troll.

Now if I were to get a mid-range gaming set up, would this refurb Dell be any good?

Processor Processor: Intel Core i7-920 Processor (2.00GHz, 8MB Cache)
Operating System Genuine Windows 7 Professional
Base Studio XPS - 435 Tower
Hard Disk Drive 500 GB SATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM) w/DataBurst Cache
Memory 6 GB DDR3 SDRAM 1066MHz (6 DIMMs)
Media Bay 16X DVD +/- RW Optical Drive
6X Blu-ray (BD-RE)
Video 512MB ATI Radeon HD 4350
Keyboard USB Keyboard
Mouse Dell USB 6-Button Laser Mouse
Hardware Upgrade 120V Power Cord
Thermal Heat Sink
Software Upgrade 64BIT Operating System

Not good for what it costs. In particular, the video card is way underpowered for any sort of gaming bar flash games. That's pretty much a low end video card in a mid-range priced build.

For $800 ($700 without OS), you're better off building it from parts than ordering a refurb or a prebuilt. Are you prepared to do that? If you don't want to be his tech support, you could try to talk him into building it himself. It's his PC after all, and it's not a difficult process. Or you could just tell him you'll build it for him but since you're doing it for free, tech support is not included in the deal

 

[Borg20001]

Come on T_Yamamoto, you can do better than that. That's no way to reply to a post. You can't just assume the poster knows what you mean, he might just shrug you off as a troll.



Not good for what it costs. In particular, the video card is way underpowered for any sort of gaming bar flash games. That's pretty much a low end video card in a mid-range priced build.

For $800 ($700 without OS), you're better off building it from parts than ordering a refurb or a prebuilt. Are you prepared to do that? If you don't want to be his tech support, you could try to talk him into building it himself. It's his PC after all, and it's not a difficult process. Or you could just tell him you'll build it for him but since you're doing it for free, tech support is not included in the deal

Thanks for the clarification and explaination Lehtv! I guess I should post a set of requirements for building a rig from scratch to get your best recommendations. I've done it in the past for myself and am thinking of doing it again here, but was just being lazy and hoping that the Dell Outlet spot had some decent deals. Appreciate the feedback.

FYI, this has expanded beyond my initial thread for my friend. I think he bought one of the basic 620 pc sets for his needs. I was thinking of a medium gaming rig for myself to update the old dual core AMD II that I am running now (an which is getting a bit fiesty in its old age and malfunctioning enough that I have to reboot every so often.).

 

[mfenn]

Thanks for the clarification and explaination Lehtv! I guess I should post a set of requirements for building a rig from scratch to get your best recommendations. I've done it in the past for myself and am thinking of doing it again here, but was just being lazy and hoping that the Dell Outlet spot had some decent deals. Appreciate the feedback.

FYI, this has expanded beyond my initial thread for my friend. I think he bought one of the basic 620 pc sets for his needs. I was thinking of a medium gaming rig for myself to update the old dual core AMD II that I am running now (an which is getting a bit fiesty in its old age and malfunctioning enough that I have to reboot every so often.).

Dell Outlet is a great place to go for basic computers. However, by the very nature of the outlet store, the stock is going to be weighted towards the most mainstream of configurations. "Hardcore" gaming (anything that requires a decent GPU) is far enough outside of the mainstream that you won't see many (any?) good deals on the outlet. Building is still your best bet for gaming machines IMHO.

Go ahead and post a new thread for your gaming build with the answers to the questions in the sticky as part of the OP.

 

[Borg20001]

Dell Outlet is a great place to go for basic computers. However, by the very nature of the outlet store, the stock is going to be weighted towards the most mainstream of configurations. "Hardcore" gaming (anything that requires a decent GPU) is far enough outside of the mainstream that you won't see many (any?) good deals on the outlet. Building is still your best bet for gaming machines IMHO.

Go ahead and post a new thread for your gaming build with the answers to the questions in the sticky as part of the OP.

Thanks MFenn.

I took your advice (and format) and posted my request for suggestions in this thread:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2239724