I've always heard that the Celeron D was a decent cheap processor (at least compared to older P4-based Celerons). I really have very little experience with them, though, since I always built Athlon XP systems (and now Socket 754 Semprons) when someone wanted a cheaper system.
My GF's cousin is obsessed with The Sims. Her dad got a new PC so she could play Sims 2. I simply can't imagine why such clueless people would buy a $700 PC without asking the opinion of someone who knows something about computers.
This new machine of theirs is pretty terrible. I'm really shocked that IBM is selling such a weak system for $700 with no monitor.
IBM ThinkCentre A50 model 8085-E1U
It's a Celeron D 2.8, 533 FSB, 256K L2. I'd hate to see the models with 128K L2.
It has an 865GV chipset, built-in Intel Extreme Graphics 2 and no AGP slot -- real good choice for your daughter to play games on!
It has 256MB of PC2700, a combo 48X CD-RW/16X DVD-ROM and a 40GB 7200RPM HDD.
They tell me that it wasn't running Sims 2 so I asked them for the model number on the front of the box and look it up and I'm not too surprised. Then they tell me that recently the machine just gives a black screen with an error when they turn it on. I go over there and turn the machine on. The error is NON-SYSTEM DISK OR DISK ERROR. I pop the 3.5" floppy out and XP starts to load. There was much rejoicing.
It's a very new machine and it just boots up like a real dog. About the only thing loading is Norton AV, which I disabled, and it's still just a ridiculously slow machine just getting to the desktop. I installed the latest i865G video drivers from Intel's site (as opposed to the generic i845G/i865G drivers IBM has). I installed the latest patch for Sims 2. The load times were truly unbearable -- over 5 min to get into the actual game. I popped in another 512MB taking it up to 768MB, and load times are now perfectly reasonable, but the game has to be played in 800x600 with graphics set to minimum.
I'm really just surprised how laggy the machine is in general. It's a 2.8GHz machine with a modern 7200RPM hard drive and it runs XP about like P3-600 with a 5-year-old 5400RPM drive. It's using XP Home SP2. There isn't much running on it, and it's new enough that I'm afraid wiping it and doing a clean install of XP Pro SP2 probably wouldn't speed things up much.
I guess I'm just looking for some general opinions. Is this the way Celeron Ds behave in general? Do IBMs just suck? It's such a waste having a "new" machine with the worst possible integrated graphcis and no AGP slot. I thought it was ridiculous when people were selling P3s on i815 boards with the original Intel Extreme Graphics and no AGP slot. I just can't believe new machines are still being made that are so crippled.
My GF's cousin is obsessed with The Sims. Her dad got a new PC so she could play Sims 2. I simply can't imagine why such clueless people would buy a $700 PC without asking the opinion of someone who knows something about computers.
This new machine of theirs is pretty terrible. I'm really shocked that IBM is selling such a weak system for $700 with no monitor.
IBM ThinkCentre A50 model 8085-E1U
It's a Celeron D 2.8, 533 FSB, 256K L2. I'd hate to see the models with 128K L2.
It has an 865GV chipset, built-in Intel Extreme Graphics 2 and no AGP slot -- real good choice for your daughter to play games on!
It has 256MB of PC2700, a combo 48X CD-RW/16X DVD-ROM and a 40GB 7200RPM HDD.
They tell me that it wasn't running Sims 2 so I asked them for the model number on the front of the box and look it up and I'm not too surprised. Then they tell me that recently the machine just gives a black screen with an error when they turn it on. I go over there and turn the machine on. The error is NON-SYSTEM DISK OR DISK ERROR. I pop the 3.5" floppy out and XP starts to load. There was much rejoicing.
It's a very new machine and it just boots up like a real dog. About the only thing loading is Norton AV, which I disabled, and it's still just a ridiculously slow machine just getting to the desktop. I installed the latest i865G video drivers from Intel's site (as opposed to the generic i845G/i865G drivers IBM has). I installed the latest patch for Sims 2. The load times were truly unbearable -- over 5 min to get into the actual game. I popped in another 512MB taking it up to 768MB, and load times are now perfectly reasonable, but the game has to be played in 800x600 with graphics set to minimum.
I'm really just surprised how laggy the machine is in general. It's a 2.8GHz machine with a modern 7200RPM hard drive and it runs XP about like P3-600 with a 5-year-old 5400RPM drive. It's using XP Home SP2. There isn't much running on it, and it's new enough that I'm afraid wiping it and doing a clean install of XP Pro SP2 probably wouldn't speed things up much.
I guess I'm just looking for some general opinions. Is this the way Celeron Ds behave in general? Do IBMs just suck? It's such a waste having a "new" machine with the worst possible integrated graphcis and no AGP slot. I thought it was ridiculous when people were selling P3s on i815 boards with the original Intel Extreme Graphics and no AGP slot. I just can't believe new machines are still being made that are so crippled.