FTO AUSTRALIA

so im not the best at using a computer, but i was thinking about buying my boyfriend a new computer for his 21st..

what i need to know is do places like dick smith rip you off or are the prices that places like that have are pretty much right on?

what i want is a computer with basically..

enough memory for pics and mp3s etc.
a dvd burner and cd rom
flat screened moniter
modem
etc..

can anyone recommend anything for me?... im clueless when it comes to computers and what they should cost... i dont want to be ripped off.

When it comes to computer you are much better off getting one from a good independent computer store, rather from places like Harvey Norman, Dick Smith. You get much more value for your money.

What sort of budget have you got? I can work out what sort of computer you able to get, with all the brand & model parts named individually, so all you need to do is bring it to any computer store & match the list, & see who can give you the best price.

Dam I forgot to ask, what you/your bf mainly want to use this computer for? So I can match it according to you guys need.

hahaha. bexie you do know that 40% of the population of FTO Australia are in all some sort of computer line of work... lol... now u got us started...

Anyway. personally I don't buy computer packages any more, as most components can be bough and assembled quite easily. And you actually know what's being put in there. But i don't think that applies to you...

Now, back on topic. Some more info on what your bf will use it for, like does he play PC games?

The problem with some of the computer packages (hides from Kev) is that sometimes with the cheap ones you get not so good hardware...

With a new computer, i reccoment you try going to a computer fair in your city. That way you know what costs your up agains, best thing is to pick a couple that you like price wise, and get info about them and go home and compare to other places like harvey norman, etc. there are also many many decent places on the internet which have very competative prices.

>> http://www.computerfairs.com.au
One website for computer fairs anyway 4 u to look at.

I also have to tell you that going for big brand names has it's advantages to some ppl, because they offer longer warranty in some cases.

But generaly, kevin is right, with smaller shop u stand a better price. BUT
from my experiance be very carefull as smaller shops tent to put crapper manufacturer components into their systems, beacuse these days it's mostly about specifications, not quality brand names, such as eg Asus Motherboards.

Well, i will stop my rambling.

I agree with you Boris, there are lots of dodgy operator everywhere, is them who bring the industry down.

Make sure who/where ever you getting the computer from have clear written warranty, & a technician onsite, if not you be up for lots of surprise when things go wrong.

basically he/we will be using the computer for d/ling/ripping mp3's, burning cd's + dvds, web browsing and downloading digi camera pics...
as for playing games... hes got his playstation

the computer will probably end up being for the two of us for when we move out.. I which we will probably get adsl then...

oh.. p.s..

thanks for all your information... i muchly appreciate it.

Bexie,

Sounds more like a nice laptop would be a better option?
atm you can get some nice ones really cheap from toshiba and TPG have some well priced ones, 1200-1500 should get youa decent one.

if you buy a dell or a toshiba youll get good value for money with laptops but NEVER buy a laptop thats not a big brand name.

the advantages of them are

A) if you get a dvd one, you can use it in the car with a sigerte lighter for long trips

B) much easyer to share/if your good about it you can hook it up to your tv

C) you seem to be mroe after practicality then gaming so a laptop is much more versatile for work/usually more robust.

D) you can take it away from your bf if he gets obsesed

E) they actually hold value well compared to a normal computer if you ever want to upgrade, itll be much cheaper

F) every one thinkgs your cooler with a laptop then a desktop hehehe


but what ever you get
make sure it has at least 512MB of ram, it will make your computer use SO much better.

wireless networking is also a good thing ot grab youll love being able to go to a cafe, steal your neighbours internet connection,
but seriusly, it allows you to goto friends houses and share photos etc.

also, if you go laptop + wireless and broadband, youll be able to access the internet from anyware in the house, so recipies from the net in the kitchen or for the bf, crusing car forums while you watch home and away and still paying you attention on the add brakes

The problem with laptops are that they're expensive to upgrade...
and for sharing photos with friends a USB thumb drive can solve that problem... i would buy the desktop for myself... but as a gift a laptop would be much cooler...
if buying a desktop computer for a cheap price i would buy

CPU: AMD Athlon 2700XP Boxed 3 Years Wty $145
Motherboard: Asus K8V-X $128.50
Memory: Kingmax 512MB DDR400 PC3200 $109
Harddrive: 120G Western Digital IDE 2MB $95
VideoCard: Ati 9200 se 128MB $59
DVD Burner: LG 4163B Dual Layer 16x DVD Writer $85
Case: X51 Case with 500PSU $90

Total = $711.50
and i think to assemble would be about $60
which is about half the price of a laptop

I'm going to talk some bullsh*t techno bubble here now, so if anyone doesn’t understand just asks ok hehehehe

AMD Althlon had been replace by Sempron, so the one you see on the market are left over stock that people can't sell.

If you going to get AMD I would suggest the AMD64 bit either 754 or 939socket, at the moment the price for the 64Bit 3000+ chipset are the same price as the old Althlon XP 3000+ & the new Sempron 3000+.


The motherboard that jonowong had recommended is base on 64bit 754 socket, other alternative to that which had the same feature & similar price is the Gigabyte GA-K8VT800M

These two motherboards are very value for money as they both feature SATA with RAIO. In short this feature will free up your IDE channel & also had a much faster processing speed when it comes to large files.

Since the board support SATA, so mine as well get the SATA Hard Drive, even if you not going to get a pair to run RAID, it’s still going to be faster then the IDE hard drive. IDE133 Vs SATA150, they should be only around $5-10 dollars more then the IDE Hard Drive.

With Graphic Card, if you after a great value one, then you can't go pass GeCube 9550 128mb Xtreme edition, only GeCube makes Xtreme edition for the 9550 Chipset. The reason had been its base on a 9600GPU with ram rating of 400/500 while most 9550 base on 200/300. It’s got the speed of 2.8ns, which is faster then most 9600pro, even some 9600XT. It’s around $150 for the card, it’s more expensive then the one jonowong had recommended, but its beats lots of $250+ graphic cards. It’s also the only graphic cards that can run Doom 3 on High resolution within its price range.

Regarding to power supply, please aware there are two types out there at the moment, one are Peak performance, and the other is Constant. What it means is like measure P.M.O.P & RMS. The Peak one aren't true to what it label, eg; a 350w constant power supply will give out more power then the 500w peak. So don't get full, ask the person if it’s Peak or Constant, most people wouldn't know though, they just sell the bloody thing.

I’ve done a few test on 64bits 3000+ 754socket Vs Intel 3.0Ghz 775socket, base on the same internal configuration the 64bit out perform the Intel Pentium 4 in many ways, & also when the 64bit Windows release, only those machine that equip with 64bit hardware can run it.

Final note regarding to notebook/laptop, their only advantage is portability, if you not going to travel a lot with it then it’s a waste of money, because they’ll always be slower then a desktop. I’m running two laptop & two desktop at the moment, both AMD & Intel, & my lower spec desktop is so much faster then the newest state of the art laptop, even they base on the same amount of RAM, HDD…..etc.

I stop taking now

The majority of all that would be overkill in my opinion. 64-but cpu for playing mp3s and web browsing? Come on...nice hardware recommendations, but not necessary at all.

Personally Bexie I think roughly what Jonowong has recommended would suit you well. My only other suggestion would be to just get a case that you like the look of, don't worry about the power supply (PSU) rating. Instead, buy a nice high quality brand-name power supply seperately - I highly recommend anything from Antec, something around the $120 mark. I agree with the above that most power supplies are crap.

If you need any help sourcing parts etc, let us know, I'd be glad to help. Otherwise, if you would prefer to just get a "bundle" type thing from somewhere and not have to worry about all these different parts, speak up

alku83 wrote:The majority of all that would be overkill in my opinion. 64-but cpu for playing mp3s and web browsing? Come on...nice hardware recommendations, but not necessary at all.

You got a point, and its very valid, but each have their opinion, to me its only $120-150 max different, but lots of perfomance different.

Btw there are lots of different when you running a 64bit window vs 32bit window while you playing mp3 & web browsing. On the same 512Kbps speed of ADSL connection, as soon as u presses enter, everything on the website is there, no waiting for the site to load up pictures here & there. But thats another point.

FTO338 wrote:Btw there are lots of different when you running a 64bit window vs 32bit window while you playing mp3 & web browsing. On the same 512Kbps speed of ADSL connection, as soon as u presses enter, everything on the website is there, no waiting for the site to load up pictures here & there. But thats another point.

Really? That's interesting. I've never actually used one myself (yet). Gotta love progressing technology.

Yeah we had been testing the 64bit window for 5mths now, with both 754 & 939 socket base hard ware. And I've got to say its well worth waiting for it.

All the things I said are not base on theory or some magazine write up, our team build & benchmark test machine everyday, from duo processor server whether Intel or AMD to budget box for POS, & no we not some backyarders, dodgy dealer or kiddies just finish school. We are qualify MSCE, CSICO, D-Link & Charter Engineer.

I didnt think ms has released their 64bit windows to the public yet. I am aware of the trial version, but I wouldnt reccomend Win64 for the First time computer buyer
As for buying brand name laptops, I agree, but not DELL Avoid Dell Computers at All Costs.
If you go for Brand Names go for IBM or HP
Everyone here is going to reccomend this or that spec, let me reccomend what brands to look for if going to a PC Store.
Motherboard: Look for a Gigabyte, Asus or Intel
Processor: You can go wrong with Intel, but AMD are also Better Value
Case with Power Supply: Antec or Coolmaster
Ram: Kingmaster
Soundcard: Creative
Videocard: Since you are not playing games, Onboard would be sufficent Otherwise the GeCube 95550 Fto338 Mentioned looks good. If he decideds he does want to play games on the pc, Go for a PCI-E motherboard above, and go for a 6600gt Card, Great Value for money for performance
Monitor: Benq Have some great Priced LCD Monitors, I have seen 17" LCD Benq's for under $360. Definitly worht paying the extra 220 over a 17"CRT, because you have a much bigger viewable area on a LCD and you have 0 radiation
HDD: May as well go for a Western Digital or Seagate SATA, these have come down in price so much these daysthe extra $10 is worht it for the speed.
Keyboard and Mouse, you cant really go wrong, unless you want wireless go for a Microsoft or Logitech

If you dont want to go through the details of the computer just go for the brand name, for first time computer buyers these are the best options, whilest they are more expensive, the warrenty and options for finance is geat. just promise me you dont buy a dell

I actually own a laptop myself. Its great, but nothing special. No dvd rom, burner etc. Got it a year back from a friend to keep me going till i could afford something else.

I've also asked Jeremy before if he'd consider getting a laptop, but he would prefer a desk top. We also will probably move in together by the end of the year, or early next. This meaning two laptops would be silly..

But i do thank you all for your information.. some of it was a little bit boggling for my simple computer mind.. but i THINK of got the jist of what i should be looking for..

thanks again...

One Machine We all overlooked, was the Macintosh
/me Hides
I have worked with Macs for a little over 2 years, and have nothing but nice things to say, oh an also the new IMac's and Imac Mini's are damn sexy

Yeah I've got Mac as well, they are brilliant, perfect for graphic & audio, so simple to use compare to Window base PC. If only they adjust their price a bit

I like the old imac, the new one doesn't look as funky as the "Lamp"