Friend wants me to buy new PC...recommendations?

Entity

Lifer
Oct 11, 1999
10,090
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One of my friends (one of the students at the department I work for) just landed a new, rather posh job. Since the PC they have set aside for her is 3 years old, they are allowing her to purchase a new PC. I've already decided to purchase from Dell, mainly because they have had the best reliability of all the pre-built PCs we've purchased here (we build most of our desktops, but professors occasionally give us quotes for systems to directly purchase; additionally, all of the Dell servers we have bought have been wonderful).

Anyway, there are really no budget constraints for this PC...here's what she said:
Rob, can you put together a quote for me? THey said they have extra money, so
whatever I want, even a server if I like.
This is gonna be fun. Anyway, what would y'all recommend? It's going to be a number cruncher (statistician) for the main part, running lots of SAS, Splus, and probably R.

Here are my must haves:

19 in 1900FP Dell Ultrasharp? Digital Flat Panel Display
New 64MB DDR NVIDIA GeForce4? Ti 4200 Graphics Card with TV Out and DVI
40x/10x/40x Max CD-RW Drive with Roxio's Easy CD Creator®

Other than that, I'm just sitting back and thinking about what she would really need. I want her to have a nice system, but I'm thinking $7-8k might be too much. She already has a laptop, so I'm just going with the sweetest workstation I can build.

Rob
 

stev0

Diamond Member
Dec 9, 2001
5,132
0
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no lcd if she is going to game, get a sony 24" widescreen crt :D

<- his dream moniter
 

stev0

Diamond Member
Dec 9, 2001
5,132
0
0
ABIT AT7 VIA KT333
CRUCIAL MICRON 256MB 32x64 PC 2700 DDR RAM (x2)
AMD ATHLON XP 2200+/266 FSB PROCESSOR CPU - OEM
3COM 3CSOHO100BTX Office Connect 10/100 Network Interface Card - OEM
ABIT Home Theater AU10, 5.1channel surround Sound Card Retail
Klipsch ProMedia 5.1 THX
ABIT SILURO GF4 TI4200 128MB DDR TV/DVI RETAIL
WD WESTERN DIGITAL "SPECIAL EDITION" 80GB 7200RPM EIDE HARD DRIVE MODEL
PIONEER INTERNAL ATAPI 16X DVD-ROM MODEL DVD-117 - OEM, DRIVE ONLY
Lite On 48x12x48 CDRW Model LTR-48125W OEM
ANTEC SOHO File ServerTower ATX Case Model SX1040BII with 400 Watt Smart Power, (ATX12V, P4 Compliant ) Power Supply **Black**

thats what i would do, plus that sony 24" moniter, a logitech dual optical mouse and a logitech explorer keyboard... not sure of the name actually, the thin white one with the scroll wheel on the left side. maybe a gig of ram, 512 would be plenty though, running on xp pro of course :)
 

Beau

Lifer
Jun 25, 2001
17,730
0
76
www.beauscott.com
P4 2.8
Intel D850EMV2
512mb PC800 Samsung RIMMs
XP Pro
3Com 10/100/1000
Promise FastTrak SX4000 ATA-RAID 5 controller
4x Western Digital SE 120GB HDD's
New 64MB DDR NVIDIA GeForce4? Ti 4200 Graphics Card with TV Out and DVI (though I wouldn't discount the ATI 9700)
40x/10x/40x Max CD-RW Drive with Roxio's Easy CD Creator® (I'd still use nero)
Pioneer DVD-106S 16x Slot-Load dvd-rom
Antec SX-1040B case
Klipsche 5.1 Promedia THX speakers
Soundblaster Audigy Platinum

KB of your choice (though I prefer MS Natural)
Logitech Dual Optical Mouse