Any suggestions?

[Emily]

I've been looking for a new PC for a while now and I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions for what sort of specs I need for what I'm going to use it for. (I'm kind of clueless when it comes to hardware.) I'm not into gaming or digital media, but I like to have Photoshop, Paintshop Pro, Corel Draw, an FTP program, a few IEs, and Visual Basic open pretty much all the time. And I'd like DVD-RW and CD-RW drives too.

I was looking at a Compaq Presario today that has 512 mb ram, DVD-RW, CD-RW, Windows XP home, 120 gb hard drive, and a Pentium 4 2.4 ghz processor for $900. Good deal?

Thanks for your help!

 

[Slam'n Systems]

i think 900 for that is a pretty good deal!

 

[devlish96]

yeah emily,..thats good compared to the gateway that you were considering...

 

[Xavior]

i would definitly recommend getting a AMD over a Pentium no matter what you decide to get, Faster and cheaper, what else could you want?

 

[vic]

Emily I also think you should get an AMD. I had an 800 MHZ thunderbird AMD and recently had it upgraded to a Pentium 4 2 GHZ processor and I found my AMD way faster in photoshop and other graphic programs.

 

[randy]

Yeah I would also recommend any AMD processor over an Intel one, but I think that for 900 dollars, thats a good system for your money and I believe that you will be able to run photoshop just fine on that system.

 

[darthparth]

Emily, buy it and rip out the processor + mobo and sell em on eBAY, then buy an amd mobo $80 and a good processor (dead cheap like a 2400+ is $90) and you got a sweet sweet mahcine

 

[dethangel]

it would be nice

if she could do that but, she cant as she is looking at a compaq, and sadly compaqs have everything built onto the mobo, and more than likely she would have to replace her nic, video card, usb ports, and soud card, which wouldnt be cheap, and i personally prefer intel over athlon any day, just wait till the 800mhz fsb chips become more widely available (dual channel 400mhz ddr *drool drool*)

 

[darthparth]

oh shit, i forgot that man, dell has the same things, you cant remove the mobo cause its soddered in....... never mind then. And for the 800mhz fsb, thats still not much improvment over games (compared P4 with AMD Barton 3000+) and the hyperthread only works for apps not games . but shes not into gaming so Penitums may be best, but thats still a low clock speed

 

[sPlAtOiD]

That should be a fine setup but might not be upgradable like video card or many pci slots. intragrated graphics sucks.