Okay, here is the deal. I was at my sisters last night and her daughter (my niece) is really interested in making a web page. Their computer is from 1995 or so and I think it is a 486x2 or something. Money is tight now so sis can't sping for the latest and greatest.

I want to pick up an off brand maybe 1999 model technology machine but money is tight for me too (mods ya know).

If I want to drop $300 for just the unit (no monitor, keyboard, mouse or printer) what and where should I be looking?

 

Redgar, take a look at the name brand manufacturers web sites. They sell reman'd ones cheap. Also you might want to check out http://www.tigerdirect.com they have cheep computers there too. I saw a Gateway w/ a celeron and a decent amount of goodies(for a beginner) for appx. $300.
Check out this page: http://www.tigerdirect.com/sectors/hp/index.asp
Hope this helps. :seeya

 

Thanks, I will look that.

I was wondering if I might be better off with an AMD chip. Looks like I can get a little more memory with a barebones with AMD and just by Win ME for it.


Anybody out there use AMD chip?

 

I have an AMD system now, it's better than the Pentium IIIs that we use at work. If you want, I have a Pentium-200 MMX box that I was gonna get rid of, if you come pick it up it's yours...

Artie

 

Artie thank for the offer. I am working on something on ebay. if it does not pan out, I will let you know.

 

For ggo pc prices.. check out pricewatch.com

Great prices. For single cpu systems, there is really no reason to not go with an AMD chip.. they are cheaper, and they not only perform better in most aspects than a P3 or P4 of the same clock speed, but the motherboards used for the chips seem to have a wide variety of compatablity (EX: if you get a 933 duron chip, and decide you want to upgrade to a 1.4GHZ Athalon chip, many of the boards used will alow the swap with little or no hassle).
You mentioned off brand, in my mind there is NEVER any reason, not a one, to go with a name brand machine. THe parts are substandard, overpriced, generaly outdated, and more often than not.. their toted "Number 1 Customer Service" is utter trash. I worked as a pc tech for a number of years professionaly, and do it on the side for friends/family now.. and I have yet to see one Preboxed system that could outperform a home built that cost several hundred to several thousand less.
Just do a small bit of research on what you want/need the machine to do, that way you can focus your money on what is needed to get you there, not on other garbage that is of no use to you.


EG

 

Bought a PC on ebay.

AMD Athalon 1.2 ghz
256 MB mem
64 MB video
20 GB hardrive
56x CD rom
Win ME

$374 plus $69 shipping

Not bad.

Came from Appollo something in Houston

 

Finally something I know about! Redger I agree with suggestion to try tiger direct. They have some used Gateways that will meet your budget. Avoid, Stay away and don't buy AMD. (Don't believe me try reading any tech or help file and the first thing it says if your having problems is...If your running AMD...) The guys who write the software don't write them for AMD or on AMD machines. AMD tries to make a product that works with the software. Buy intell you can't go wrong. Any Sacrifice you make in Speed, AMD is Cheaper, won't make any difference. In the machines you are looking at processor speed won't be the bottleneck! The graphics card, memory and bus speed is much more likely to be of concern. (In drag racing terms you wouldn't waste the money buying a faster speedometer if the car can only go so fast) Actually you might be able to buy a bare bones system from Tiger direct and add a few upgrades to get what you need! Let me know if you have specific questions as I definitely have some expertise in hardware!
:D

 

I am going to have to disagree on the AMD buddy. There are a few folks who have trouble but my Intel chip crashed on my macine daily (until getting win 2K).

I don't know of any software package that is used for email for spreadsheet and wordprocessing that is not going to work on AMD.

Do you think a similare configured machine with an Intel Celeron 900mz for similar price would be better? Speedwise it is not.

As for the drag racing component, I would hardly compare the processor to the speedometer. Maybe Hypertech vs. Powerloader. Where hypertech takes 10 minutes to put in and get out (AMD 1.2) vs. Custom tuning which could take 4 weeks to get in (Intel Celeron)

Either one is an imporvement over stock.

Cool huh?

 

I have to disagree i just went AMD and it works fine. All my games work better then my PIII500 ever did. No problems at all with office or internet. Can you be more specific with the bugs?

 

Not trying to start a flame war and I'm glad the AMD chips you guys have work fine but There is no reason to stray outside of Intell when considering a processor. Sure you may get a bad one here and there with Intel, like any product, but pound for pund there not half as likely to cause trouble down the line. Many games playing on the Quake 3 engine have had difficulty with the Cyrix and AMD chips. Here is a typical FAQ for the game half life:

Q. Odd problems occur on a system with Windows '95 and AMD K6-2 350 MHz or faster processor.

A. There is a timing issue between the Windows '95 operating system and
AMD K6-2 processors of 350 MHz and faster. This issue could result in
crashes or lockups that don't seem to be caused by anything else.
To resolve this, download and install the Windows '95 Update for
AMD-K6-2/350 from the Microsoft site at


I realize that is a win 95 issue and most people are past that but it is just an example of the problems with AMD. I could have posted 20 more just like that!
I agree that most word processing and spread sheet programs wouldn't be a problem but I assumed since this was for a younger child, games were going to be an issue. In addition, if your buying a decent motherboard, ASUS would be my #1 choice, you're going to be looking for an IBM chipset which again is going to be more compatable with the intel product. If your buying a no name twianese mother board,which are found in 90% of the "brand name" computers you're also much safer with the intel product. There's enough non compatablity issues with PC's and software that you don't need to go looking for more. Again keeping in mind that processor speed isn't usually the bottleneck that slows down your computer. I'd rather give up a few Mgz of speed for more reliability! Intel has probably 80% of the market and until that changes, 99% of the third party vendors for hardware and software will continue to use Intel as the benchmark. From someone who has hand built many systems in the past few years, my advise is to stick to what works and what is the mainstream! Intel! :)



[Modified by HPdrifter, 7:59 PM 11/28/2001]

 

sorry I saw this post too late but for all of you guys for next time go to the edison computer show (in nj), they have brand new machines starting at $300 (they build them for you) I personally have bought at least 7 machines there with out a problem and have been great machines.

:seeya

 

you need to find a local shop at the computer show. If something goes wrong with it you dont want to have to drive forever or ship it. I have some horror stories from that show. oh boy do I. I used to buy there all of the time till i became a dealer myself. I am no longer a dealer so I will be attending the next one.