Reccs for secretary's new computer

[bigeasy]

My secretary does:
word processing (MS Office prior version),
email (Outlook Express),
and web based work (sometimes requires 4-5 window frames to be open at a time).
We do some CD authoring (about 1-2 per day), so I would also like Firewire and USB 2.0 capability. Plays a few games when I am not looking too. 19" monitor, average speakers.

Current P3 is to be replaced.

What would you folks recc for her.

 

[compudog]

Budget? Barton 2500+ on nForce 2. or 2.4C on 865. More than enough either way you go. Integrated video would work, don't need anything special. Radeon 9600.

 

[RaymondY]

Dell Dimension 2400!!!

 

[DaveSimmons]

Dell will work just fine, intel extreme is lousy for hardcore gaming but fine for a bit of Solitaire or Bjeweled.

If you can get a deal on a P4C 800 FSB with HT it might be worth paying a little extra over non-HT model since it can help to let you keep working smoothly when one program is doing heavy I/O (like burning a CD).

 

[brentkiosk]

It's hard to beat Dell prices.

 

[Ionizer86]

A la Hot Deals

 

[Eug]

IBM or HP.

Something with a CD-RW/DVD-RW.

Get a nice screen +/- DVI. (She's gonna be staring at that screen all day.)

BTW, what's her PIII? If it's anything more than a 733 or something you could probably just keep it and add some RAM or something, and a Firewire/USB 2.0 card.

 

[Cerb]

For a secretary, I must agree with Eug here.
NEC or Dell (Samsung?) LCD. Otherwise, any ol' thing will do.

 

[Looney]

What kind of gaming exactly are we talking about here? Is it your typical workplace gaming such as online Hearts, Monopoly, Bejeweled, etc? If so, you don't even really need a good videocard, even onboard video would do.

However, if she's a hardcore Call of Duty player, then a 9600XT should do.

As for the machine, i would go for Dell as well. That way you don't have to bother with assembling it (and it would probably be cheaper with Dell).

 

[Zinn2b]

Beause of hyper threading I would go with Intel setup great for office work and if you build you can do for around $600 but I would go for the higher quality optical drives and spend a little more money and if noise is a factor a good qaulity silent case well add to the cost. If your going to buy from a manufactor Dell has some good bargains.

 

[mechBgon]

Dual monitors might be worth consideration too.

If you can get a deal on a P4C 800 FSB with HT it might be worth paying a little extra over non-HT model since it can help to let you keep working smoothly when one program is doing heavy I/O (like burning a CD).

For the record, my AthonXP work rig has never had a problem keeping the CD-burner or DVD-burner fed, and I don't always afford it the luxury of having the whole system to itself either At 12:10PM the virus scan kicks off, ready or not...

If you do get an off-the-shelf system, it would be advisable to avoid being saddled with WinXP Home in the process, unless you're content with the impossibility of joining a domain or setting up restrictions on what the users can do to the system.

 

[Duvie]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
Dual monitors might be worth consideration too.

If you can get a deal on a P4C 800 FSB with HT it might be worth paying a little extra over non-HT model since it can help to let you keep working smoothly when one program is doing heavy I/O (like burning a CD).

For the record, my AthonXP work rig has never had a problem keeping the CD-burner or DVD-burner fed, and I don't always afford it the luxury of having the whole system to itself either At 12:10PM the virus scan kicks off, ready or not...

If you do get an off-the-shelf system, it would be advisable to avoid being saddled with WinXP Home in the process, unless you're content with the impossibility of joining a domain or setting up restrictions on what the users can do to the system.

I agree cd burning, dvd burning and IO intensive apps will not take advantage of HT....It is heavy cpu usage apps and those type are usually not them....I don't see HT as much of a benefit in the uses he laid out....

Edit: when I burn things depending on speed I rarely ever see cpu usage much over 15%.....Those type of apps will already play nice with about everything.....

the things that would bring the barton 3200+ to its knees were when I was encoding a DVD, watching a DVD with winDVD, and recording a program off of my radeon AIW card at mpeg2 standards.....This caused some playback issues, and dropped frames.....

Then I decided to winrar may cadd files and it felt almost unresponsive at times....

I don't see those things listed above and I rarely do as much as the last one I described....Thise are the real advantaes of HT I saw....

You can see advantages in burning in HT but it has nothing to do with making them both work....it will have to do more with making them both work as fast as possible...For example....I can run tmpgec with HT on and dvd burning and it will burn jus fine with no buffer underruns, however it doesn't slow the encode down as much. With HT off they still both work just the encoding take as bit more as the burning is going on....

Get a decent 7200rpm 8mb cache drive and 512mb of ram and you are set....

 

[Bovinicus]

I do agree that a pre-built system from a reputable distributor, such as Dell, would be sufficient in this situation. However, I also feel that building your own system is almost always a better idea. Why? Having full control of every hardware choice is excellent. It allows for exact customization. Here is what I came up with at Newegg:

Case & PSU: Antec SLK3700AMD & 350W ($67)
Motherboard: Albatron KX18D Pro ($61)
CPU & HSF: AMD Barton 2500+ Retail ($90)
Memory: Corsair VS 512MB PC3200 ($79)
Video: Sapphire Radeon 7000VE 32MB ($32)
Sound: Onboard
NIC: Onboard
Firewire: Koutech IO-PFW310 ($18)
HDD: Hitachi 80GB 8MB 7200RPM ($79)
CDRW: Sony 52x32x52 ($34)
Floppy: Samsung ($6)

Total (Shipped): $495

Now, I don't really know quite enough about your requirements to properly design a system, but this is what I did based on what little information that I have. I made the system to be upgradeable, very quiet, and crappy in any 3D games. You could reduce costs quite a bit if you don't need the upgradability, less storage space, less power all around, and near-silent operation. There are $40 case & PSU combinations from Enlight that would do the job just fine. AMD Durons can be had for ~$50 including the cost of a heatsink. Smaller HDDs without the 8MB buffer can also be used to save a few more dollars. You could get slower memory and save another $5, and if you went duron, you could get PC2100 memory and save some more. So, you could cut the cost of this system down to more like $400 if you absolutely must.