My dream system (is on the way)

[Steve Mehs]

I'm really starting to want a new PC. After 4 years, this 700Mhz P3 machine just isn't cutting it anymore. I was considering getting a larger hard drive and XP Pro but why bother when this machine doesn't have enough for what I would like to do, video editing.

My dream system for $2,076 + 8.25% tax

Compaq Presario 8000T
-Intel Pentium 4 at 3.2 GHz
-1 GB PC3200 DDR RAM
-160 GB 7200 RPM hard drive
-16X DVD-ROM
-4X DVD+R
-Floppy Drive
-NVideia GeForce FX5600
-Creative SB Audigy 2 6.1 THX Cert
-15" LCD display
-56K Modem
-Keyboard & optical scroll mouse
-No speakers
-Windows XP Pro
-3 Year Warranty

I went to Circuit City this afternoon to see what they could do for me, but they don't do BTO systems anymore. I'll hit Best Buy and CompUSA over the weekend. If I could get this system for either $2100 including tax w/ 12 months or interest or $2300 w/ 18 months no interest. I have $500 at my disposal right now, with 12 months I could get by with ~$130 payments which would be pretty good for me. I'd rather do business with real stores on for negotiations, but does anyone have any online BTO recommendations. I'm not very lenient on what I want. It must be either a Compaq or HP, with a P4 processor @ 3.2 GHz. I know going with AMD will lower the price, but I want Intel :)

[bills976]

Steve:

Does it really have to be a Compaq or HP? You're really limiting your options if you have to have one of these two brands. Some of my friends have actually had problems with their machines. Can I ask why you aren't interested in Dell or even IBM? I have an IBM Thinkpad... they're expensive, but solid as rocks. My Thinkpad is almost a year-and-a-half old, and under heavy use, still runs everything quick as a whistle; even M$ Visual Studio.NET is still running OK on it. Also, I'd avoid brick-and-mortar stores when purchasing PCs... they tend to cater to newbies more than power users.

[Steve Mehs]

Can I ask why you aren't interested in Dell or even IBM?

Had an IBM once (an Aptiva from 1995) and after all the problems I had with it, no thanks. It was supposed to be a 100MHz machine, they gave us a 75MHz processor, Windows 3.1 was never loaded on the machine properly, OS/2 was my operating system, not by choice for the first year and a half, the modem died. I was without a computer for almost an entire month at one point because of the IBM warranty service techs not knowing what they were doing. As for Dell, I don't like Dell, never have and never will :) They may be the best selling PC, have the best rated customer service and get all the best of awards every month in PC World but I just don't like them. I'm a brand loyalist, when I find a brand that works for me, I'll stick with them until they screw me. Yeah Compaq may not get the best ratings in, but this machine served me well for the past four years.

I did a little recalculating, if I drop the monitor and use the 17" CRT I currently have my final price including tax is $1934.42, -$500 cash and my monthly payments would be $119.54 which is pretty decent for me. I still want to check out Best Buy, since their warranty plan is $60 for four years, as opposed to HPs 3 year for $100.

[MarkB49]

It was 5 years ago this month i spent $932 for a P II 333 system.
I bought from a local "Clone Store" and have been %100 happy with it.I added some things through the years. Lucent Hardware modem-- 128 & 256 SDRAM-- 17" Monitor.
To keep a similar price my system would be as follows:
P4 2.8 Ghz
512 DDR
Video card 128 GForce
Sony DVD+R/RW
HD 120 gig 7200 rpm 8mb Buffer.
Network card
Win XP
Total + 7% tax= 1050.

[marko]

If you go the hp site, and build the same computer you have listed, I thought I came up with $1776. Although I do not know how much they charge for shipping and tax.

Also, compusa ad today had a $100 off a machine with Intel Hyperthreading today. That might help if you check out compusa.


Also, buy IBM for laptops, do not buy ibm for desktops. Just my opinion there.

[Jacob S]

That seems a bit steep considering I got a Dell laptop for 1,588 and I got a cd/dvd player that burns cd's/dvd's, 32MB video card, Pentium 4 M 2.4 GHZ processor, internal wireless card, 15.4" widescreen SXGVA+, 6 months free EarthLink dialup (worth $100+), 512 MB ram, 40GB hard drive, next day shipping.

[Steve Mehs]

Marko, with the $1,776 figure, you might have forgotten to add a monitor. I know since I have decided if/when I get this I'll just use my current 17" CRT for the time being and save a few hundread :) $1,776 includes everything but the monitor, and of coarse tax, and I believe HP is offereing free shipping. Thanks for mentioning CompUSA, I forgot all about them. My area's only CompUSA and Best Buy are right down the street from each other.

[Steve Mehs]

For the heck of it I went to Dell's website and custom build a PC comparable to what I did with HP. The hard drive on the Dell system is 40GB less and the video card is a down grade from the Compaq system. I built this system 3 times, each time triple checking to uncheck all of the media and photo software bundle options. There must be some sort of mistake here, there is no way this Dell system, which is a tiny step down from the Compaq system, could be over $1200 more.

Dell Dimension XPS
-Intel Pentium 4 at 3.2 GHz
-1GB Dual Channel DDR SDRAM at 400MHz
-128MB GeForce FX5200 Graphics Card with TV-Out
-Creative SB Audigy 2 6.1 THX Cert
-120 GB 7200 RPM hard drive
-16X DVD-ROM
-4X DVD+R
-Floppy Drive
-56K Modem
-Ethernet
-Keyboard & optical scroll mouse
-No speakers
-No Monitor
-Windows XP Pro

$3,033- $150 rebate

$2,883+ tax & shipping

If this is price indeed true, which I hope it isn't, I think I found my reason why I don't like Dell.

Anywho, I see both CompUSA and Best Buy are now offering 24 months no interest on new PCs. This Friday I'm going to stop at both after class and see what they can do for me. Even with 24 months I'm still opting for no display, but instead going for an 8X DVD+R/RW drive, wireless keyboard & mouse and for an extra $10 smackeroos upgrading the floppy drive to the 7 in 1, just to be able to slide the memory stick from my Digital 8 in without hooking the camcorder up is worth the extra 41.6 cents per month for me :D. An even $200 increase, but all three being investments that I think will serve me well. :)

[texas39]

I would recommend what i did 2 years ago this month.
I went to HP website and had one custom built and had no problems since then. They give 24/7 with short wait times on a free support on a 1-800 # if you get the 3 year warranty service pack which is a good addition. :)

[Tusk]

For the heck of it I went to Dell's website and custom build a PC comparable to what I did with HP. The hard drive on the Dell system is 40GB less and the video card is a down grade from the Compaq system. I built this system 3 times, each time triple checking to uncheck all of the media and photo software bundle options. There must be some sort of mistake here, there is no way this Dell system, which is a tiny step down from the Compaq system, could be over $1200 more.

Dell Dimension XPS
-Intel Pentium 4 at 3.2 GHz
-1GB Dual Channel DDR SDRAM at 400MHz
-128MB GeForce FX5200 Graphics Card with TV-Out
-Creative SB Audigy 2 6.1 THX Cert
-120 GB 7200 RPM hard drive
-16X DVD-ROM
-4X DVD+R
-Floppy Drive
-56K Modem
-Ethernet
-Keyboard & optical scroll mouse
-No speakers
-No Monitor
-Windows XP Pro

$3,033- $150 rebate

$2,883+ tax & shipping

If this is price indeed true, which I hope it isn't, I think I found my reason why I don't like Dell.

Anywho, I see both CompUSA and Best Buy are now offering 24 months no interest on new PCs. This Friday I'm going to stop at both after class and see what they can do for me. Even with 24 months I'm still opting for no display, but instead going for an 8X DVD+R/RW drive, wireless keyboard & mouse and for an extra $10 smackeroos upgrading the floppy drive to the 7 in 1, just to be able to slide the memory stick from my Digital 8 in without hooking the camcorder up is worth the extra 41.6 cents per month for me :D. An even $200 increase, but all three being investments that I think will serve me well. :)


I have been looking at getting a new Dell since mine is 4 years old. I configured the system that you listed above.

Dell 8300 with 1 year warranty - $1,983 plus tax (shipping is free)

Dell 8300 with 4 year warranty - $2,152 plus tax (shipping is free)

I think your price difference was in configuring the XPS compared to 8300

[dfergie]

Have you checked tiger direct or outpost.com?

[Chucky]

Steve,

If you can afford it, upgrade the video card to a GeForce FX 5700 Ultra, and the sound card to an Audigy ZS. Both well worth the upgrade.

[Steve Mehs]

The sound card I selected, the Audigy 2 is the best one HP offers well actually it’s the only sound card they offer unless you count on board audio. For video cards my four choices are ATI Radeon 9200, NVidia GeForce FX 5600, ATI Radeon 9800 and the NVidia GeForce FX5950 Ultra. No 5700 :( I can't afford the 5950 Ultra with my current budgeting plans since with tax it would be an almost $400 upgrade from the 5600, no doubt it would improve performance for video, but it's just a tad bit out of reach.

I did check out Tiger Direct, awesome prices on systems as with almost everything they sell, but they don’t have a comparable system to like what I want, or at least not one that I saw. They do have an awesome Compaq workstation with dual 2.4 GHz Intel Xeon’s for $1700 though. :) I didn’t try OutPost yet

[Steve Mehs]

Well I did it :)

I went to Best Buy this morning and in 10 days from now I will be the proud owner of a Compaq Presario 8000T with the specs in the first post, but with an 8X DVD+R/W, wireless keyboard/mouse and 17" flat panel LCD display. Final cost inclusing tax, and after rebates is almost $2300 on the dot :)

[pez2002]

steve what kind of ISP do you have ???

[Steve Mehs]

Earthlink dial up

[Richard King]

Congrats Steve... My "Black Friday" machine described in another post should arrive sometime early next week. It will be nice to replace the old 800Mhz machine I am using now with something that doesn't take 20 minutes to reboot when necessary. While mine isn't as fancy as yours, is should do just fine for what I am trying to accomplish. This one will then go to the office and replace the 500Mhz Dell (Starband) unit that I have there, although the Dell actually is more reliable than this one. I think once I get rid of some of the fat (two extra hard drives and a bunch of programs) on this one it might work ok there. Now... what to do with a 500 Mhz Dell. It may end up as a music server for my home theatre. :D