New system - Any red flags/advice?

[chachabah]

Hey all. I'm considering getting a new, generic system. Here are the specs - if anyone sees any red flags, or has any advice - it would be greatly appreciated...

CHASSIS
Black and silver two tone case with front blue neon light

OPERATING SYSTEM
Microsoft(R) Windows(R) XP Home

MOTHERBOARD
Socket 478 Intel Pentium® 4 Processor with FSB 400/533/800MHz Supports up to 3.2GHz Intel SiS661FX(Northbridge)/SiS963L(Southbridge) Support 6 USB 2.0 Ports Supports Dual IDE ATA66/100/133 Support Hyper-Threading Technology

PROCESSOR
Intel P4 3.0C CPU with Hyper-Threading Technology@

MEMORY
256M DDR The mainboard accommodates 2 DDR + 2 SDR 168 pin, 3.3V DIMM sockets with a total capacity of 1GB system memory

VIDEO
Onboard VGA w/ 128MB shared memory

SOUND
AC97 link controller integrated in SiS963L 6 Channels software audio codec Realtek ALC655

HARD DRIVE
120GB Hard Drive (7200RPM)

CD/DVD R-RW OPTICAL 1
DVD-ROM Internal IDE Drive

FLOPPY
1.44MB 3.5" Generic Floppy Drive -

MODEM
56k v.90 CNR modem module

KEYBOARD
Tow tone silver and black wireless keyboard

MOUSE
Two tone wireless track-ball mouse

RELATED SOFTWARE
Business Works Suite including 25 popular programs

NETWORKING: ADAPTERS
onboard 10/100Base-T LAN controller

WARRANTY AND SUPPORT
Phone Support - 1 Year Limited Warranty

Tech Support-
1 year 24 hour 365 day online and telephone technical support :) :)

[bluegreenshxt]

What will you be doing with this system? Gaming? How much? Office work?

Building your own system will suit your needs much better...not to mention you will have much higher quality parts..

but i have a BIG problem with the 256 mb memory that will share 128mb with the onboard graphics...this means that you will only have 128mb memory for windows xp :eek: now that will be SLOOW for people who have moderate clicking skills...not to mention that you cant expect to play any decent 3d games...

also most of the time phone support absolutely shux

Do yourself a favour and build your own comp...

If you're looking to save money...something along the lines of
AMD Athlon 64 3000+
Cheapest socket 754 mobo you can find w/ onboard lan + sound
512 mb of cas 2.5 generic memory
Generic Case with 400watt PSU
Geforce fx5200
120 gb hdd
track down a copy of winxp
dvd/cdrw combo drive
floppy drive
mouse/spks/keyboard/anyother thing you need...

as for tech support...who needs them when you got us ;) :D

[PCgeek]

Yep Im with blue green... Plus all parts have at least 1 yr warranty, most parts have 2-3 year warranty, some have lifetime. In the end you get much better support when you build it yourself...

[Avid6eek]

Where would you be buying that system from? How much does it cost?

[PCgeek]

LOL!! Nobody bothered to ask the price... Maybe cause none of us would be caught dead using a system with 256MB of RAM, 128MB of which are used by the ****ty integrated video...

[EWeezy]

i wouldnt go with Intel .period.

[chachabah]

i guess pcgeek is right about that. the memory can be eaisly upgraded, though. if i'm gonna set out and build a system on my own, can anyone recommend a good resource, book, website - what have you, on the assembly process? i'm talkin' about a well rounded system, mostly for business suite applications - but still be able to play kick ass 3d games like doom 3...

thanks for all the help...

[Ginsu543]

I would also go with WinXP Pro, not the Home edition. The Home edition suxors.

[Avid6eek]

i'm talkin' about a well rounded system, mostly for business suite applications - but still be able to play kick ass 3d games like doom 3 The well rounded part for business apps is pretty easy to achieve. For that all you need is a 2.0Ghz processor, and 512MB of RAM. The problem you come into is the "kick ass" gaming part. For good gaming, you will definetly need something along the lines of a Radeon 9800. For kick ass gaming, you will definetly need the 6800 series. This is going to dramatically increase the price of the system.

[LBJGH]

I guess another consideration is future upgrades. Only the A64 s939 has a long term future followed buy the A64 s754, P4, Axp.

If you don't plan on upgrading for the next 3-4 years the P4 would be a good choice although I'm partial to the A64 systems for gaming performance.

Looking at you specs I think you may be a little dissapointed with the overall performance. If you want to stick with Intel you might want to consider a P4 2.4 and overclock it and use the saved money on a 9600pro/xt or 9800pro for decent gaming.

[Ace]

I think a 754 pin A64 would suit you, along with 512MB RAM. The prices of 9800Pros are coming down now, so I'd recommend one of those. As for Windows, personally I'd stick with home. If you want to get IIS on there for FTP/HTTP servers or something, it can be done if you have a Win2k disc and some instructions handy.

[therealwesty]

I would have to agree with Ace on all counts. The Socket-754 Athlon64 systems are incredibly fast some recent price drops have made them a little more affordable. The Athlon64 chips get amazing performance in 32-bit mode and will of course offer 64-bit support when Microsoft and the game developers start taking advantage of it. The Radeon 9800 cards are great performers for the money. It's a reasonably powerful GPU and the prices have come down a lot recently. As for WindowsXP, Home Edition should be fine. There are very few differences between Home and Pro and most people will never realize them.