my sister needs a comp

[twitchee2]

she needs a comp for surfing, schooll, IM, emails no gaming if any ti would be somthing like solitare(really isnt a game) there is really no buget but it needs to be cheap. and she needs everything case, cou, ram, monitor, keyboard, os. etc...thanks

 

[DaveSimmons]

Dell.com

Check Hot Deals forum and GottaDeal.com for any specials not already listed on the Dell website. Be sure to get at least 256 MB of RAM, and 512 would be better if not too expensive.

 

[QuitBanningMe]

Dell
/thread

 

[twitchee2]

ok ill take a look

edit: i kinda wanted to build this so i can practice putting a machine together and make it work. if it was to converted to 2nd lan party machine what would you do? a64 3000 chaintec nf4u gig of muskin and so on

 

[TWills]

Find an old 'under 500 mghz' laptop. I'd prefer to spend $300 on that rather than a cheap dell desktop, especially if it's just for websurfing, solitare, and word processing. Plus, you can take it anywhere 🙂

 

[Baked]

Look out for Dell deals in the hot deals section, there's no other way.

 

[wisdomtooth]

How about a Mac Mini? And maybe she can get it through an educational discount through her college if that's where she is.

 

[Baked]

Originally posted by: wisdomtooth
How about a Mac Mini? And maybe she can get it through an educational discount through her college if that's where she is.

Originally posted by: twitchee2
and she needs everything case, cou, ram, monitor, keyboard, os. etc...thanks

Can you read? Why would anyone want a Mini Mac is still beyond me. For the same price, a Dell will wipe the floor w/ the low end mac.

 

[hippotautamus]

Have you ever used a Mac? lol

They're a pleasure to use, cheap, and considerably faster than a PC, megahert for megahert.

 

[wisdomtooth]

Originally posted by: Baked
Can you read? Why would anyone want a Mini Mac is still beyond me. For the same price, a Dell will wipe the floor w/ the low end mac.

If she is in college, how good a price for a Dell or a Mac can depend on what educational discounts her school offers.

Guess you've never been in college. :laugh:

 

[Baked]

Originally posted by: hippotautamus
Have you ever used a Mac? lol

They're a pleasure to use, cheap, and considerably faster than a PC, megahert for megahert.

G4 PM, Dual G4, Dual G5, iMac G5, iBook, PB. Macs I've owned and used, thank you very much. Mini Mac however is a waste of money and for the OP's sister, Dell will give the best bang for buck.

Ps. Macs are not faster, get your facts straight.

Originally posted by: wisdomtooth

Originally posted by: Baked
Can you read? Why would anyone want a Mini Mac is still beyond me. For the same price, a Dell will wipe the floor w/ the low end mac.

If she is in college, how good a price for a Dell or a Mac can depend on what educational discounts her school offers.

Guess you've never been in college. :laugh:

Education price can easily be looked up at Apple's education site, go look it up yourself, it's not much cheaper than regular price for the Mini Mac. Our university's bookstore/computer shop has better deals than Apple Education, but not for the Mini Mac. Don't assume just 'cause you think education = cheaper price that it's a fact, 'cause it's not. I've been buying Macs for my lab for the past 5 years, I know Mac prices, thank you very much.

Ps. We have better deals for Dells than you can ever possibly imagine, heh.

 

[shoRunner]

Originally posted by: hippotautamus
Have you ever used a Mac? lol

They're a pleasure to use, cheap, and considerably faster than a PC, megahert for megahert.

true but the mac mini's comin in at 1.25-1.4 most any pc bought today will be faster than it.

 

[SlitheryDee]

Originally posted by: Baked

Can you read? Why would anyone want a Mini Mac is still beyond me. For the same price, a Dell will wipe the floor w/ the low end mac.

But they're so cute... 🙁

 

[XBoxLPU]

Originally posted by: shoRunner

Originally posted by: hippotautamus
Have you ever used a Mac? lol

They're a pleasure to use, cheap, and considerably faster than a PC, megahert for megahert.

true but the mac mini's comin in at 1.25-1.4 most any pc bought today will be faster than it.

No doubt

For surfing, school IM, emails.... the Mac Mini is perfectly fine

 

[Baked]

Originally posted by: XBoxLPU

Originally posted by: shoRunner

Originally posted by: hippotautamus
Have you ever used a Mac? lol

They're a pleasure to use, cheap, and considerably faster than a PC, megahert for megahert.

true but the mac mini's comin in at 1.25-1.4 most any pc bought today will be faster than it.

No doubt

For surfing, school IM, emails.... the Mac Mini is perfectly fine

Perfectly fine w/o a monitor, KB, mouse, and only 256MB of RAM?

 

[aplefka]

Originally posted by: Baked

Originally posted by: wisdomtooth
How about a Mac Mini? And maybe she can get it through an educational discount through her college if that's where she is.

Originally posted by: twitchee2
and she needs everything case, cou, ram, monitor, keyboard, os. etc...thanks

Can you read? Why would anyone want a Mini Mac is still beyond me. For the same price, a Dell will wipe the floor w/ the low end mac.

Have you ever used one?

Also, you imply that if the monitor doesn't come bundled with the system then he can't buy that system. It'd be a waste of money for them to pay the extra $100-$200 it costs for including a monitor in the system anyway. While a Mac Mini is a bit pricey for "basic needs" you're still a moron for telling someone they can't read when you think that you can't buy your computer from one place and your monitor from another.

Edit: Anyways, I would recommend buying the parts yourself and putting it together. On a system like this it would be cheaper. There are some great deals on RAM right now, and also you can pick up a WD 120 gig IDE HDD for $40 AR at either Circuit City or CompUSA or something. I'm willing to bet with a monitor from Craigslist and the rest of the parts new, bought smartly, you could build this sytem for ~$300-$350.

 

[aplefka]

Originally posted by: Baked

Originally posted by: XBoxLPU

Originally posted by: shoRunner

Originally posted by: hippotautamus
Have you ever used a Mac? lol

They're a pleasure to use, cheap, and considerably faster than a PC, megahert for megahert.

true but the mac mini's comin in at 1.25-1.4 most any pc bought today will be faster than it.

No doubt

For surfing, school IM, emails.... the Mac Mini is perfectly fine

Perfectly fine w/o a monitor, KB, mouse, and only 256MB of RAM?

Man, I can't believe you'd say the same thing twice. See my post above. In this day and age, not everything is proprietary, you CAN buy monitors and computers separately.

 

[barnett25]

If you don't get a Mac make sure she has a good anti-virus with automatic updating, University networks are usually so laced with viruses it's amazing they have any uptime at all.

 

[imthebadguy]

is she hot?

 

[XBoxLPU]

Originally posted by: aplefka

Originally posted by: Baked

Originally posted by: XBoxLPU

Originally posted by: shoRunner

Originally posted by: hippotautamus
Have you ever used a Mac? lol

They're a pleasure to use, cheap, and considerably faster than a PC, megahert for megahert.

true but the mac mini's comin in at 1.25-1.4 most any pc bought today will be faster than it.

No doubt

For surfing, school IM, emails.... the Mac Mini is perfectly fine

Perfectly fine w/o a monitor, KB, mouse, and only 256MB of RAM?

Man, I can't believe you'd say the same thing twice. See my post above. In this day and age, not everything is proprietary, you CAN buy monitors and computers separately.

He is just another PC zealot that fills this forum up....

 

[Mrvile]

Originally posted by: barnett25
If you don't get a Mac make sure she has a good anti-virus with automatic updating, University networks are usually so laced with viruses it's amazing they have any uptime at all.

Hook her up with Firefox or Opera and maybe even install a logger to be safe.

I'd rather get her a Mac though, although they can be a little hard to get used to (if she's used to using a PC)

 

[Zepper]

I would go with an Enermax Venus (I imagine the blue/silver version would appeal to most females) or Aspire X-Qpack case - or Athenatech A100/A200 series if you need to cut some $$$a, DFI KM400 mobo includes video (newegg often has refurbs for about $35. shipped - new for $48. shipped), any Sempron Socket-A CPU 2400+ or higher to fit budget, any 80GB hd (or larger with whopping rebate like the WD 120 at CompUSA this week), Asus CD-RW/DVD Combo drive or similar (short chassis preferred for those cases), YE Data Floppy/Flash card reader combo, Samsung 17" flat CRT, 512M of decent RAM to match, keyboard and mouse to suit the user (those are very personal decisions and contribute greatly to the happiness of the user so I would take her to one of the big box stores and let her pick those for herself) - but I would strongly recommend taking a hard look at the Logitech Marble mouse (trackball) for the pointing device - I don't know what I'll do when my original Trackman Marble FX goes TU... For speakers, I found some Labtec Spin 70's (the later Spin series is not as good as the original) for under $20. recently - very good at that price, I've used mine for several years now an paid about $40. when new. For OS I would go with Win2k from The Software Queen via pricegrabber - much less hassle than XP and costs a lot less too.

.bh.

 

[aplefka]

Originally posted by: XBoxLPU

Originally posted by: aplefka

Originally posted by: Baked

Originally posted by: XBoxLPU

Originally posted by: shoRunner

Originally posted by: hippotautamus
Have you ever used a Mac? lol

They're a pleasure to use, cheap, and considerably faster than a PC, megahert for megahert.

true but the mac mini's comin in at 1.25-1.4 most any pc bought today will be faster than it.

No doubt

For surfing, school IM, emails.... the Mac Mini is perfectly fine

Perfectly fine w/o a monitor, KB, mouse, and only 256MB of RAM?

Man, I can't believe you'd say the same thing twice. See my post above. In this day and age, not everything is proprietary, you CAN buy monitors and computers separately.

He is just another PC zealot that fills this forum up....

I'd say I'm a pretty hardcore PC zealot but even I admit that Mac Minis with a gig of RAM are pretty sweet.

 

[twitchee2]

everyone in my house are mac people so thts not a bad idea. shes a freshman in HIGHSCHOOL so she wouldnt be able to get a discount. but thanks for all the sugestions

 

[InlineFive]

Originally posted by: twitchee2
everyone in my house are mac people so thts not a bad idea. shes a freshman in HIGHSCHOOL so she wouldnt be able to get a discount. but thanks for all the sugestions

On a college network having a Mac with it's firewall wouldn't be a bad thing. Who knows what sort of Windows-based scum floats around the networks inside dorms.