Need advice on buying the right computer i have a lot of specification

clueless1117

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I work from home taking inbound calls for a satellite TV provider and we are now transitioning to a different type of system and there are new pc requirements that my current pc no longer meets. can someone please give me a good suggestion on what make and model desktop or laptop I can get that meets these requirements, P.S I'm looking for the absolute cheapest option and I live I Oklahoma city, ok I am willing to buy online and would appreciate any suggestions on legitimate financing options
· 3.0 GHZ Processor (minimum of a Pentium 4 processor or equivalent processor running at a clock speed of 3.0 GHZ)
· 2 GB of RAM for Windows XP, Vista users* or Windows 7 users
· 12 GB of Available Hard drive space
· PC must have a vendor manufactured date less than six years in age as some older models are not compatible with our secure environment (Example: If today's date is 1/1/2012, the PC manufacture date should be no older than 1/1/2006)
  • Must have an available USB 2.0 port with all unnecessary peripheral items ( i.e. cameras, printers, game controllers, webcams, etc.) removed during work hours.
  • USB 3.0 ports are not supported.
 
Pretty much anything on the market today will work. Those are not heavy specifications at all (Most computers sold today are dual core, at least 4GB RAM, and USB 2.0 ports)
 
i'm not adverse to a laptop i will take whatever is cheapest. i looked @ the suggestion you made but the processor on it is 1.9ghz and i need 3.0ghz processer speed i have been looking on qvc and hsn because they have flex pay options and i am not trying to spend a small fortune all at one time being as though this was unexpected but it seems that the only ones that meet those spec are $800 and up. also it's manufactured date has to be 2009 or newer so i dont think refurbished will work becase i bought a rebuilt one from a local computer store for $275 and even know the stuff inside it is new when i run the test on it that it has to pass fritto work with their programs, the system manuf. date still shows as 2006. so at this point i am as my name states: clueless, because i see ads for laptops and pcs for 300 and 400 dollars all the time but it seems that what i need is gonna be way more than that. i would appreciate any other info you can find.
 
What? The CPU in the one I suggested was made in 2008 and has a clock speed of 3GHz. Considering the E8400 was brand new in 2008, OEMs wouldn't have got an enthusiast level dual core until after 2009 or closer to 2010 for lower end models. Considering it's 2013, the specifications say 6 years. 2009 is only 4 years ago.

Please take note, that clock speed isn't everything. A 3GHz Pentium 4 is going to run dog slow to something like a Core 2 Duo 3GHz e8400, or a newer Sandy Bridge or Ivy Bridge Celeron even.

$164 for a whole PC plus keyboard and mouse is pretty much as cheap as you're going to get. If you consider that a small fortune you may want to consider a different line of work. Laptops are going to be more expensive for anything 4 years or younger.
 
@pp mquire dont get me wrong i am not challenging you i think i must just not understand these specs on the level that you do. what does dual processer mean? really everything you said went over my head if you could explain it a little better in laymans terms i would greatly appreciate it. and no $164 is not bad at all i would be extreamly happy to only have to pay that for what i need i have just been given the run around trying to get what i need i have spent $275 to upgrade my pc and got absolutely nothing from it but a super duper fast cpu that does not pass the test on system date alone so that is why im am leary is there any easy way to find out the manufactured date of a specific pc and can u provide the link when you got the date info for that pc i dont mean to sound sceptial but all the desktops and laptops i see with a 3.0 processer are really expensive where as the ones with the 1.9 processors seem to be in my price range. anyother info wouldbe greatly apprciated!
 
It may be a lot of reading, but I try to go in simple detail about CPUs in my article and what stuff means.
http://www.techist.com/forums/f76/your-cpu-modern-games-guide-those-building-261626/

Dual core means it has two logical cores to process information. When you go to task manager it shows two graphs.

GHz speed does not really mean much when you get into advanced architectures. It's kind of like an engine. You can have a 7.0 liter engine from the 60s but it may only produce 250HP without help (exaggerating for example). A newer 2 liter engine with a small turbo setup can produce closer to 400HP simply from upgrades and it's much smaller. Terrible analogy so just try to follow me. GHz is the speed at which your processor calculate information. Newer technologies incorporated into the architectural design allow a different CPU at the same speed to process things faster. For instance like I said before, a 3GHz Pentium 4 is MUCH slower than a 3GHz or even 2GHz Core 2 Duo. Understand? The speed also doesn't equate to age either. A Pentium 4 3GHz CPU could be found as early as 2003 I believe, and they still make 3GHz CPUs here 10 years later. Newegg won't lie about the hardware they have for sale. If it says 3Ghz Core 2 Duo, that's what you'll get.

In that case, the computer I linked you has what is a 3GHz Core 2 Duo E8400. I know for a fact it was made and released in 2008. There is only 1 other Core 2 Duo CPU that is a perfect 3GHz and that is an E6850 which was released in 2007, but was a high end chip for the time and not commonly found in any pre-built machine. You can find these specs here.
List of Intel Core 2 microprocessors - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

An easy, but not so opportune option for you would be to build your own rig. It would be more than the 164 but there is no way the software could come up with a specific "date" because everything would be different, but current.

Another easy way to bypass this is put a fresh install of Windows on there.
 
That makes alot of since thanks so much for going into depth for me and i will take the time to read that article tomorrow when i can see straight. i have been researching this all day. am i right in assuming all dell optiplex desktops 780 was manufactured in or after 2010? if so i think i will be happy with that pc because its not like a personal prefference or anything as long as it pasts the manufac. date part (i think that has to do with the bios whatever that is,or something.). Then i can have anything else i need upgraded i have a few cpus around here that meet all the other specs so from there i can just pick and pull and mix and match to make everything else check out. do you have any other sugestions on other brands or models that fit my discrription in the same price range? do you have any info on free or low cost windows 7 downloads?
 
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One suggestion, no caps lol. I now have an eyesore.

I do not know 100% when the Optiplex 780 was made. I couldn't find a reliable source with that information. I'm only going off the hardware dates which the lowest will be 2008 which supposedly fits your description in the OP.

Another suggestion, if you don't know if the parts aren't 100% compatible then I wouldn't go toying around with it and swapping stuff out.
 
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