help deciding on prebuilt

[Bordoh]

I'm looking for a decent computer for my father in law. He runs his home business on it, which consists most of a program called ACT, which is database software. He doesn't really play any games, just watches DVD's is the most he would use for graphics.

He needs something on the cheap, but something that will run windows, his ACT program 'n such pretty fast.

I was looking at this on newegg's open box area, think it was just under $400 when it was in stock.

Would that work pretty well? I've never had an AMD chip, not sure how they compare to the i5 I have now.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Newegg is semi-broken this afternoon, but you should be able to get a nice Acer desktop with intel Pentium or i3-2100 processor for $350 - 450, no open box needed.

I have their small form factor i3-2100 model for a music jukebox in my home office and it works well. It's small and quiet, but also fast.

If he doesn't care about space then the normal size mini tower will have a DVD drive that's a little easier to use than the slim and vertical drive in mine.

 

[Bordoh]

is the I3 better than the fx-4k or 6k series?

 

[DaveSimmons]

In general, yes, for normal desktop use. Power use is also much lower.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/434?vs=289

This is the Acer I have, except mine has a larger hard drive, it's small, fast and quiet:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16883103420

With open box, the person returning it might have messed it up (a problem since many desktops no longer include a Windows OS disk), and it might be missing things like the driver disk.