http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16883102654
It depends upon what you want to do. You might want to go to 1G memory and a larger hard drive. I'd do 160G min.
Are you aware that it doesn't appear to include a monitor?
I just bought a HP Media Center PC, updated the video card and now I can run all the new games without lag time. Even City of Heroes runs without lag time and that's saying something.
One recommendation from a scarred veteran - pay the money for a good antivirus package and download a decent anti-spyware package. It pays dividends.
For what you want to use if for it should be more than adequate and it appears to be easily expandable if you decide to do any upgrades. It doesn't say how much video memory the onboard video card has, but if your son says it will support his online games then probably has enough to give you good graphics support.
Box looks fine; I'd suggest looking for a similar box with an LCD screen, but there's nothing to object to in the unit. I'm no big fan of on board video, so it wouldn't be a good unit for me. (Couldn't play my Black and White 2 or Civilization IV on it, likely...)
The future is moving towards integrating home entertainment and the PC and all that video stuff that you may think you don't need now might make you kick yourself later.
In my desktop, I have 4 200 gig SATA drives. But then again, I'm insane, so there's probably a good neutral ground. :)
512mb of ram is really too little though. Otherwise, the system looks fine and Newegg is a great dealer. I just got a sound card from them today in fact.
If you're just doing Net surfing and email, I'd say it'd be fine with what you need. BUT...you mentioned your son is a gamer. Different games have different memory/video requirements. He'd have to check the system specs on his games to see if the games would work. But for YOU, yeah, I'd say it'd do just fine.
Not bad, but I just speced out a PC for a client on this base configuration http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/computer_series.do?series_name=SR1730Z_series&catLevel=2&category=desktops/compaq_presario&storeName=computer_store
if you up the memory to 512 from 256 and up the optical drive to the 16X DVD burner you would get a better machine for under 400 bux. Just click the customize button
Make sure it has a goood fan to keep the components cool. Some computers have weenie fans.
But I'm sure your son would much rather have the XPS 400 for only $969! :-)
You should pick up a 100 lot of dvdrs and cdrs.
There are 2 kinds of hard drives on this earth. Hard drives that have failed, and hard drives that are going to fail.
Back up back up back up!!!!! I have lost 2 HDs in the past 10yrs. I have lost irreplaceable data. Not anymore!
It has an integrated ATI graphics chip. I think these are based on the ATI 9600 chip set, kind of low-end graphics but if you're not playing Quake 4 then it shouldn't be an issue. This system will have plenty of power for the basics.
It has become increasingly difficult over the last half year to operate a Windows box safely on the web, unless you spend some effort fighting the various spam, trojan, virus, spyware, malware, ... and other stuff. I just spent 3 days cleaning up 3 of the Window's PC's in my family that were almost unusable with infestations of multiple bad programs.
It's almost to the point where the simple "web, document and email" user wanting to minimize time and money spent would be better off with a Linux box.
For simple "web, docs and email", you don't need more memory -- 512 Mbytes will be enough, running Windows XP. It will be more than enough, running Linux.
Your son playing online games when he comes to visit however puts a wrinkle in this. First, it means you must have Windows, so forget my Linux sermon above. Second it means that this box really isn't enough, unless you son is fairly tolerant of minimal games hardware. Third, it increases the effort you will need to keep your computer from being overrun by bad software. Fourth, you do not want to be doing anything sensitive, like online bill paying, Quicken (to track your money) or TaxCut/TurboTax to do your taxes on a system that is not definitely safe from bad software.
Contrary to what one poster suggested, this machine cannot be upgraded that much, because its power supply is weak and cheap. Adding a good video card, more memory and a bigger faster disk drive will risk making the machine unstable (crash when working hard, especially on warm days). It looks to be a "300 Watt" power supply that is not from one of the companies specializing in good power supplies.
Few gamers will tolerate playing on a system using onboard video for long. Heck, I won't even tolerate doing just web and email on such a system for long. I have some onboard video systems where I tried to save money by not getting a dedicated video card, and the screen display was just too fuzzy, due to the low video bandwidth. I ended up adding a video card to those systems.
Most games will run much better with 1 GByte of main memory, not 512 MBytes (which is one-half of 1 GByte).
If you weren't doing games (or your son wasn't), then 80 GBytes of disk might be enough. My wife is running on such a disk, doing just a few pictures she likes from my sons digital camera, and is a long way from filling up that little drive. Start doing much storing of pictures, or adding games, and you will wish you had a few hundred GBytes. Start storing video, and you will want ten times that (multiple really big disks).
The basic distinction in this class of system is games, or not games. You can put together a decent "web, document and email" box, like the one you point to, for $500. Just adding "games" to that mix makes it about $1000 - for about twice as much memory, twice as much disk, twice as good video, and twice as much power supply. Add to that the problem that keeping a system safe from bad software is more than twice has hard if you have a young male doing online gaming than if you have his mother doing simple stuff on the web.
So you really need to decide whether or not to spend the extra money to support the gaming or not. Despite your sons reassurances, he probably won't be happy with this system for gaming for long. I build and maintain several gaming systems for my son and his friends, and they play online games many hours at the table next to me.
The fans look ok - the fan hole above the processor on the side panel is nice. So I wouldn't worry about that.
Whoever said AMD is bad, Intel is good, is full of it. I run both, and both are fine. Right now in fact, AMD has the lead over Intel in several product categories. To be honest, you will never notice the difference. Not even I notice the difference. I honestly don't know whether the box I am typing on right now is AMD or Intel - I have some of both in front of me. I have to poke around inside the hardware configuration menus to see which is which.
Intel CPUs are running hotter these days, but they run fine left on overnight. That's no issue, unless something is broken with a fan or such. And even then, the CPU will just slow down if it gets too hot, without any harm caused.
Get a macintosh!
bttt
Rather I would purchase already built computers from a place such as MonarchComputer.com, that specializes in selling computers, not parts. Monarch is highly rated on ResellerRatings.com, and another company I have been a happy customer of for a long time. Here are a couple of choices that I would recommend to your consideration:
| Monarch Furia Value Desktop Special(AGP) | $528 |
| Monarch Adversary Value Gaming Desktop Special (PCI-E) | $871 |
Notice that this Gaming system has about twice as much disk, memory, video and power (its Antec 480 power supply is worth twice what a no-name 300 watt supply is worth).
The best thing, however, would be to call Monarch. Unlike Newegg, Monarch will have phone representatives who know what they are talking about, and who can help you decide on something reasonable, given your needs. They will provide you with more accurate and useful advice than you can get off a FreeRepublic thread.
Macs are generally the best computer system for most users, and the new systems should be affordably priced.
Stay tuned.
I think you can go to a Frys or Best Buy and get that same level of computer for about $350. Open boxes could be cheaper.