buying a desktop????
HP Pavilion Elite m9385a CPU
CPU – Intel Core2Quad – Q6700 (2.66GHz)
MEMORY – 3072MB DDR2
HARD DRIVE – 640GB (2 x 320GB) 3G Serial ATA hard drive at 7200RPM
OPTICAL DRIVE – HP Blue-Ray ⁄ HD DVD Dual Read Combo, Super-Multi LS Drive
COMMUNICATION⁄WiFi – 10⁄100 Wired LAN and 802.11 b⁄g Wireless LAN
GRAPHICS – nVidia GeForce 9500GS3D – 512MB dedicated graphics
RAM with HDMI
OPERATING SYSTEM – Microsoft Windows Vista Premium
TV TUNER – Digital DVT-B Hybrid Tuner
DIGITAL MEDIA READER – 15-in-1 Digital Media Reader
KEYBOARD⁄MOUSE – HP 2.4GHz Wireless Multimedia keyboard and HP 2.4GHz Wireless Optical 2-button scroller mouse
ram: 3gb
19 inch monitor
is this desktop worth $2188.00 aud
also
2.66GHz Processor
3GB RAM, 640GB HDD
Built-in TV tuner. Blu-ray optical drive
is it worth $1809 aud
After examining the costs for equivalent or better parts, it looks like we have about parity in cost. However, you do not know what kind of motherboard you are getting and of course HP is not going to sell you the full version of Vista WITH THE KEY, are they? So we have to take those facts into consideration. In fact, I have substituted SUPERIOR parts for HP parts, and pieced together line by line what you might consider if you were to build it yourself. I think you would end up with a much better computer and we can still save you a few bucks. Does the HP really stand up to a personally built computer? I don’t think so. If you were to make HP put these parts together, I bet you could add another $400 in cost on top of the $1800, but then that is my opinion. Let’s look at what you could get that does the same things with ALL the parts AND a full COPY OF VISTA WITH THE KEY (and we still save you $51 doing it):
The quad core processor goes for $274.99 at Newegg
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=Q6700&x=16&y=30
They are not even giving you 4 gigs of memory and who knows how SLOW this memory is – could be DDR2 667 instead of DDR2 800 or even DDR2 1066 memory. The point is, they are not giving you 4 full gigs and they are not telling you what the speed of the RAM is. In fact, they are not telling you if the memory is dual channeled which doubles the data rate of the RAM and makes your computer faster.
Example: Corsair DDR2 800 Mhz Dual Channel RAM, on sale at egghead for $39.99, so four full gigs which are dual channel cost
$79.98.
A Single 1 Teribyte hard disk, 7200 RPM from Western Digital is selling for $119.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284
An LG Blue Ray HD DVD is going for $119.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=Blue-Ray+HD+DVD+
A linksys wireless ethernet card goes for $35.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16839124002&Tpk=linksys%20%2b%20ethernet%20card
A linksys WRT54GL Wireless Routers $69.99
LINKSYS WRT54GL IEEE 802.3/3u, IEEE 802.11b/g Wireless-G Broadband Router – Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=linksys+router
The graphics card is a LOOSER! I wouldn’t go with anything less than an nVidia 9800 GT – $129.99
XFX PVT98GYDLU GeForce 9800 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card – Retail
Vista Home Premimum, Retail – $229.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=Vista+Premium
Does the TV tuner card have remote control? Here is a Hauppage for $139.99
Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-2250 Media Center Kit Dual TV Tuner 1213 PCI-Express x1 Interface – Retail
Digital Media readers are cheap these days and you can get them to read up to 40 different kinds of media for around $20.
So now we are up to $1220.90
We still need a motherboard, for the quad core, a case, a cooler for the CPU, a power supply, a keyboard and a 19″ monitor and a mouse.
I would recommend the ASUS P5Q motherboard which I am using on one of my computers, a good solid motherboard.
ASUS P5Q LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard – Retail $119.95
An ANTEC 900 Supercooled Case – $109.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129021&Tpk=Antec%20900
Arctic Cooler for CPU, $26.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186134
Antec Truepower Power Supply, 550 Watts $79.99
Microsoft Wireless 4000 Desktop Laser with mouse on sale: $54.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=microsoft+4000
A viewsonic monitor (better than HP!) $129.99
ViewSonic Optiquest Series Q19wb Black 19″ 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor – Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2000190020%201309821317&bop=And&Page=2
Total: $1757.62
Beat them by $51!
Sylvania 42 LCD HDTV with Built-In Blu-ray Player