For those who know computers

[YamahaMAXdRPMs]

Ok, i know a good bit about computers, more than enough to get me by. But i just want to know if this is gonna be a pretty good one... I have built about a dozen of them, with similar specs, just want to make sure im getting the most for my money... Its about $800 for this package...

I skimped on the HDD because i really dont store that much, and the things i do store (music DVD's) i keep them on an external. I wanted to get a pretty good processor, and a decent amount of ram, i could have kicked it up a bit on the ram but figured 8GB would be more than enough to run 7 smoothly. I really use the computer mostly for internet, I do some photoshop, and a little video editing as well. But no hardcore gaming.

Whatcha think?

Operating systemGenuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-biteditProcessorAMD Phenom(TM) X4 925 quad-core processor [2.8GHz, 2MB L2 + 6MB L3 shared, up to 4000MT/s]editMemory8GB DDR3-1066MHz SDRAM [4 DIMMs]editHard driveFREE UPGRADE! 640GB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s hard drive from 500GBeditGraphics card1GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 220 [DVI, HDMI, VGA]editPrimary optical driveLightScribe 16X max. DVD+/-R/RW SuperMulti driveeditNetworkingIntegrated 10/100/1000 (Gigabit) Ethernet, No wireless LANeditFront Productivity Ports15-in-1 memory card reader, 1 USB, 1394, audioeditTV & entertainment experienceNo TV TunereditSound CardIntegrated 7.1 channel sound with front audio portseditSpeakersNo speakerseditKeyboard and MouseHP multimedia keyboard and HP optical mouseedi

 

[brad81987]

Is this a custom build? If so you are missing two critical components: motherboard and power supply. Otherwise looks pretty good to me. Should keep you going for quite a few years.

Storage is so cheap these days, I highly recommend getting a second hard drive of the same size and running them in RAID1. Most motherboards support it out of the box and RAID1 has no negative impact on system performance. I've helped way too many people recover from hard drive failures in the past. RAID1 is cheap cheap insurance, even if you have an external backup drive for your important documents, RAID protects everything.

 

[YamahaMAXdRPMs]

Is this a custom build? If so you are missing two critical components: motherboard and power supply. Otherwise looks pretty good to me. Should keep you going for quite a few years.

Storage is so cheap these days, I highly recommend getting a second hard drive of the same size and running them in RAID1. Most motherboards support it out of the box and RAID1 has no negative impact on system performance. I've helped way too many people recover from hard drive failures in the past. RAID1 is cheap cheap insurance, even if you have an external backup drive for your important documents, RAID protects everything.

No its a HP build. basically you just pick the line of computers you want and spec it out the way you want. I get a 15% discount at HP through work so i figured i would just go that route. :thumbup:

 

[brad81987]

No its a HP build. basically you just pick the line of computers you want and spec it out the way you want. I get a 15% discount at HP through work so i figured i would just go that route. :thumbup:

Sounds good!

 

[x47b3207]

I've built my own sytems for home.

I +1 the raid configuration. If going through hp, make sure you define that when you configure the system and do not assume you can do it later. I know in the past, hp sent two slightly different motherboards whether you select raid or not (probably saves them a couple of $).

Video card will support any monitor you wish to attach. Windows 64 bit is the right choice. 32 can only support up to 4G ram. 8G ram is a good number.

One usb seems light, but it is easy to add additional later. Other than that the system looks reasonable. I'm assuming your set up for a "wired" lan.

The biggest negative on HP (or dell) packaged systems is all the crapware they load on their system. Remove most of this stuff prior to loading your own software.

 

[brad81987]

The biggest negative on HP (or dell) packaged systems is all the crapware they load on their system. Remove most of this stuff prior to loading your own software.

Couldn't agree more. One reason I bought a Dell Latitude business laptop- 3 yr next day on site warranty standard and comes with literally NOTHING installed (and that's a good thing). Any consumer line computer I buy, I always make sure it comes with the raw OS CD (not some automated recovery crap) and wipe is and do a clean install as soon as I unpack it. Even if you uninstall all the crap-ware, I still feel like the system is being bogged down.

 

[x47b3207]

One of the great benefits of building your own is being able to load a pure unviolated version of the OS. You can ask, but I don't think HP gives you an option to provide the actual OS disk (from Microsoft, not their bastardized) and I'm surprised Dell did dude. It's a definite plus.

Another, item. If you do video having a external sata II and power supply connection is nice for working with an external harddrive. You can add on, but check that your motherboard has a couple of spare slots for these little extras. Your motherboard may already have these extra connections and you only need to add a backplate and cables.

 

[Drinky]

Couldn't agree more. One reason I bought a Dell Latitude business laptop- 3 yr next day on site warranty standard and comes with literally NOTHING installed (and that's a good thing). Any consumer line computer I buy, I always make sure it comes with the raw OS CD (not some automated recovery crap) and wipe is and do a clean install as soon as I unpack it. Even if you uninstall all the crap-ware, I still feel like the system is being bogged down.

Yea I worked at a company where we sold HP desktops and Dell servers,
I prefered dell desktops, since hp desktops came with office 2007 trial including the business contact manager (called something like that) which actually used a sql db.. NONE of the customers ever used it, but it slowed down the system pretty bad (on startup).
So always do a clean install and get the latest drivers from the HP website.

 

[grommit]

I think I would go for a Graphics card which supported DirectX 11, I don't think the GT220 does.

FakeRaid it is better than nothing I suppose.

 

[brad81987]

I think I would go for a Graphics card which supported DirectX 11, I don't think the GT220 does.

FakeRaid it is better than nothing I suppose.

That's my pholosphy. Even if you don't have a mobo that supports it, Dynamic Disk mirroring in Windows 7 seems to work fine too.

 

[RJ2112]

No its a HP build. basically you just pick the line of computers you want and spec it out the way you want. I get a 15% discount at HP through work so i figured i would just go that route. :thumbup:

One thing I got PO'd about, over the years has been the corporate discounts offered on PC's for employees. Before you lay out your cash, make sure you are buying brand new equipment, rather than 'factory refurbished'.

I've been burned on this multiple times. That 15% sounds too familiar to me. There's a reason someone else sent it back..... odds are better than 50-50 that the tech in the rework facility didn't correct the initial problem.

Find out for sure what your warranty is, and what the return policy is on whatever you buy through the corporate discount site. Most of the time, you don't get to deal with the local repair facility.

 

[dako81]

Honestly, I'd build your own. You can spend a little bit more, and have upgradability in the future. My friend did something similar a couple of years ago, thinking he could upgrade his machine later, nope. The motherboard sucked.

You have to remember that the more people that touch your components, the more money you are wasting. That is, everyone that handles them is making money from them. So you're either getting crappier stuff, or overcharged. Price out your systems components on a couple of different sites and see what it comes out to. If it is more, just remember you probably won't be able to buy as crappy as a motherboard they're going to put into the machine so you are actually getting something better. Idk that's just what I can say about it from my experience.

 

[brad81987]

Honestly, I'd build your own. You can spend a little bit more, and have upgradability in the future. My friend did something similar a couple of years ago, thinking he could upgrade his machine later, nope. The motherboard sucked.

You have to remember that the more people that touch your components, the more money you are wasting. That is, everyone that handles them is making money from them. So you're either getting crappier stuff, or overcharged. Price out your systems components on a couple of different sites and see what it comes out to. If it is more, just remember you probably won't be able to buy as crappy as a motherboard they're going to put into the machine so you are actually getting something better. Idk that's just what I can say about it from my experience.

Build the desktop, buy the laptop is what I say. I've built myself a new rig about every 4 years now. I like having control over what I buy. I base what I buy heavily on Newegg reviews and have never been dissatisfied. You get a sense of accomplishment too when you build something like that from scratch, fire it up, and it works (usually, got burned on that once...... CPU stepping revision issue). But for some building it just isn't their thing and that's perfectly ok.

 

[x47b3207]

I've built my own. There is only a limited number of items you need to buy. Know what your trying to accomplish. First determine the chip and motherboard you want and work out from there. I usually shoot for the n-1 bleeding edge chip as its price has usually already dropped significantly.

A good place to start is at:

ExtremeTech - Computer Hardware and Software News, Reviews, and Advice

Follow the how to pages and determine if you think it is something to you think you can handle. The first time I built, I researched every step (and every component) on the setup before I purchased a single item. Then move on to newegg. Prices, discounts, and free shipping can change daily.

On the other side, if your concerned about having problems, have no interest, or believe it would be too stressful. Definitely stick to buying a package.