New PC for my little one..

[dispair]

Well my wife and I want to get a pc for my little one so that he can play all those education games. I offered up my PC that I built(have linked in my profile) and said I would build me a new one, but she didn't go for it. That being said I can build it myself, but is it worth the headache? Should I just go for a dell and be done with it? opinions and build options are welcome.

 

[CurseTheSky]

The link to yours isn't working for me.

I'm pretty much in the same place - my girlfriend's son is three years old and decently responsible with "important" things that can get broken. Every now and then he likes to bang on stuff just for fun, so it's not a great idea to let him sit at a computer unattended for long periods of time. With that being said, he LOVES Microsoft paint. Just drawing circles keeps him occupied for hours... which, at three years old, can be a blessing.

Anyway, I recently came across an older Athlon Thunderbird 950MHz system with 512MB of DDR and integrated graphics that runs Windows Xp perfectly fine. It's really too old to even give away, so I'm going to set it up for him to have a blast on. The best part is, it cost abosolutely nothing.

If yours is out of the key-banging-for-fun stage, I'd probably hit Dell or similar companies for one of the $400 specials. The $349 model I'm looking at now comes with a Sempron 3600+, 160GB hard drive, and 1GB of memory, but no monitor - that's a pretty good computer for the money. The next step up ($549) comes with a Pentium dual-core (Core 2 Duo based, I believe), 1GB of memory, 160GB hard drive, and a 17" monitor. Both computers are pretty cheap, and actually quite fast considering the price.

 

[MarcVenice]

2 options I guess, either a cheap ass PC one of your friends/relatives/co-workers has that is collecting dust, like an Athlon Thunderbird Curse mentioned, or a somewhat decent PC both your kid and your wife could mess around with, do email/word/internet on, so they leave you the hell alone when you are doing your thing on your PC

Dunno what kind of PC you have, and how much your wife is willing to let you spend * jeez you are HOOKED btw * but erm, yeah that complicates matters a little further. What about stripping your own PC, upgrade it, and buy some older parts to complement the left over parts from your current rig. That should be a somewhat cheap solution and builds your a new PC for yourself, and a PC for your kid.

 

[LOUISSSSS]

dell?

 

[Ika]

For a full computer less than like $800, it's probably best to buy retail. It's usually quite hard to build a PC that's as low-priced as the rebate-cheapos at CompUSA and such. Even Dell would likely be a better choice.

 

[Inspector Jihad]

why cant he use your computer?

 

[CurseTheSky]

Wal-mart (of all places) has had some very reasonably priced computers lately, at least here. They usually run around $400 and include all of the basics you'll need. I know they had some special Dells a month or two ago.

It's REALLY hard to beat Dell on the low-end, unless you already have half the components sitting around, or can get them super cheap or free.

 

[gorobei]

officedepot special this week. HP pavilion s3100y

Will probably get this for my parents tomorrow. p4(c2d)e2140, 1GB, 160gbHD, dvdrw, kb+m, vistaHome Prm. You have to go to a store to get it ordered and shipped in a few days.

$449 +[$50 shipping(hidden, you go to the store and find about it there)] -$250 rebates = $250. just find a $130 monitor and you are set.


http://officedepot.shoplocal.c...&listingid=-2092909200