Looking for a general use computer

thewolfe · Post by **thewolfe** » Sat Dec 03, 2005 6:33 pm

Looking for a general use computer for my daughter. She uses Word, surfs the net and my 10 year old grandson plays some games like Harry Potter.

I'm looking at the Dell XPS 400 because I normally by Dells but I'm open to suggestions.

fyrephlie · Post by **fyrephlie** » Sat Dec 03, 2005 10:47 pm

phpbb/viewforum.php?f=28

*edit* sorry ... most bb's talk about buying products in the marketplace forum too... my bad.

Grendel · Post by **Grendel** » Sat Dec 03, 2005 10:51 pm

fyrephlie wrote:phpbb/viewforum.php?f=28

Nope. He's asking for advice.

Can't help tho, I'm more into higher end comps

AceCombat · Post by **AceCombat** » Sun Dec 04, 2005 9:37 am

XPS's are based for high end gaming. my brother just got an Dimension B110. which is a perfect "General Use" system.

BUBBALOU · Post by **BUBBALOU** » Sun Dec 04, 2005 10:41 am

AceCombat wrote:Dimension B110

That is fine for general use considering it is a DELL.. but you need to look again at the config page, for it does not have an option to upgrade the video it is an AGP/PCIe'less mobo and stay away from it... no upgrade path after purchase

thewolfe · Post by **thewolfe** » Sun Dec 04, 2005 12:36 pm

With the "B' series I'm concerned about the speed of the Celeron chip, what say you?

AceCombat · Post by **AceCombat** » Sun Dec 04, 2005 12:44 pm

its a Celeron D which is a halfbred P-4. i checked out my brothers B110 and its just fine. i stripped off all the Dell POFS Software, and now it runs just as fast, if not faster than my fathers P-4 2.53 GHz HP!! which is the exact same CPU speed in this B110.

BUBBALOU wrote:
That is fine for general use considering it is a DELL.. but you need to look again at the config page, for it does not have an option to upgrade the video it is an AGP/PCIe'less mobo and stay away from it... no upgrade path after purchase

Bubba you douchebag! the man wants a "General Use" Machine..... whats the difference if it can just use a simple PCI Video Card?!?!?!?!

WarAdvocat · Post by **WarAdvocat** » Sun Dec 04, 2005 7:27 pm

You can get e-machines at best buy for < 500.00 with everything.

thewolfe · Post by **thewolfe** » Fri Dec 09, 2005 9:32 pm

Thanks for the info.

Lothar · Post by **Lothar** » Fri Dec 09, 2005 9:48 pm

Honestly... just about anything on the (new) market is overkill for general use, as long as you get a big enough hard drive to store all the music or pictures the person is going to have (probably 80-100 GB, more if they're into bittorrent), and enough RAM to allow them to open 12 browser windows and be running Office (512 MB).

Pun · Post by **Pun** » Sat Dec 10, 2005 8:24 am

WarAdvocat wrote:You can get e-machines at best buy for < 500.00 with everything.

I just did some work on an emachine. It's actually a pretty well-put-together little box.

Iceman · Post by **Iceman** » Sat Dec 10, 2005 9:17 am

Dell, E-Machines, either one ... These bottom end machines are just fine for net surfing, they come with good support, and they are darned cheap to buy. I have found that, as a home PC builder, I can't save any of my family or friends any money when putting together a low end machine like that. I usually tell them to go buy a $400 Dell.

BUBBALOU · Post by **BUBBALOU** » Mon Dec 12, 2005 7:05 am

Emachine=Gateway

Gateway at retail stores are rebranded E-Machines

But once again get a machine that has room to grow. that is the biggest mistake people make when they buy a general use computer(nuetered) For that extra $25-$50 at the time of purchase, you would have purchased a computer that you can add to 2-3yrs down the road without buying a NEW ONE.

also the case usally has more open slots too for extra hard drives and or optical drive for later additions

just make sure it has a AGP/PCIe slot (even though it is not being used) and Extra PCI slots.

Budget systems usally have 2/3 PCI slots all being used and no Video card slot

the only exception to this is if the Computer is going to be 1 of multiple with the same configuration and it is also going into a business enviroment.

WarAdvocat · Post by **WarAdvocat** » Mon Dec 12, 2005 7:15 am

The e-machine we bought for my fiancee's mom was $549 (after rebates), it had 3 open PCI slots and 1 open AGP slot. It came with onboard everything, and a PCI modem. It even included a decent 15" LCD Monitor.

The specification was pretty nice as well: AMD Athlon 64 3400+, 512 MB RAM, 200 GB Hard Drive, DVD-DL burner & front universal card reader slots.

Pretty impressive actually.

BUBBALOU · Post by **BUBBALOU** » Mon Dec 12, 2005 7:17 am

That is exaclty what you look for !!!