Buying a computer

[Georgio]

Buying a new computer for my son, just for home use a few games here and there nothing special, but he wants a good transcoding/encoding speed, for DVD authoring (eg. on nero) but not bothered about writing speeds ... here is a package offered in my area... please tell me... if it's a good price, and what i should upgrade to get high encoding speeds... Not bothered about HDD space.

Processor - Intel Petium D820 2.8ghz Processor
Motherboard - Asus P5VD2-MX SE Mainboard (VIA P4M890)
RAM - 512MB PC-5300 DDR2-667 Ram
Drive - (Choice of brand) 18x DVD-RW Rom
HDD - Seagate 80GB SATAii-300 HDD
Displaycard - Getforce 7300GS 256MB Display
Case - GTR or 2The Max case
And all the rest... ie. Floppy drive, Sound card, ethernet card, 8x 2.0 USB ports, keyboard mouse and speakers... but no monitor

The price comes to around US$360

 

[b1gapl]

Core 2 Duos are best now, for encoding stuff. And also, you should go for 1gb of ram.

 

[bonehelm]

Agreed, also change that piece of )(QW#* graphic card...I mean 7300GS? Come on. Get him a 7600GT or something.

 

[penfold]

I'm going to agree with the others, go for the 1gb ram and upgrade the graphics card.

If you're going to do it you might as well do it right. Besides, you'll be upgrading if you don't because he will be needing the additional ram and graphics for many games soon (if not already).

 

[Georgio]

Ok thanks for the input guys. Going to the shop tomorrow and will do my best to change the package around. I'm going for the Core 2 Duo but probably the cheapest one

ie. Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 Allendale 1.8GHz LGA 775 Processor

 

[Georgio]

Oh... what is the best brand choice for the 18x DVD-RW Rom drive

ASUS/BenQ/LG/Lite-ON???

 

[b1gapl]

It doesn't really matter for optical drives. Maybe between LG and Lite-On. Those are the most common.

 

[Sora]

Please get him at least a 7300GT as the GS is just pathetic >.<

The 7600GT would be a nice little card if you can get him one.

 

[maroon1]

7600GS cost only $64.99 after rebate
Newegg.com - EVGA 256-P2-N541-T2 GeForce 7600GS 256MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail

And 7600GT cost only $89 after rebate
Newegg.com - EVGA 256-P2-N615-TX GeForce 7600GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail