[Thinkpad] Re: OT: recommendations for desktop

Hello,

IBM has a line of ThinkCentre and NetVista desktop computers, but these
seem more geared towards the corporate environment than home use.

Besides Hewlett Packard (Compaq), Dell, eMachines (now a part of Gateway)
and Gateway all offer desktop PCs for the home market. These machines are
typically in the sub-$500 price, have a mini-tower or low-profile desktop case
and are not very expandable (few additional memory sockets, no AGP slots,
limited room for PCI expansion cards, lack of open drive bays and so forth).

Have you considered going with one of the manufacturers' business-grade
desktop PCs? While they might be more expensive, they should offer more
expandability and perhaps have a longer (two or three-year) warranty.

Another possibility you might want to consider is a PC from Micron (the
same company which makes Crucial brand memory). I have not used, let
alone seen, one of these for ages but they have recently been mentioned
in the press after bringing their technical support department in-house,
which kind of bucks the usual trend of outsourcing it/sending it overseas.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

At 12:47 PM 3/9/2004, you wrote:
>Message: 9
>Date: Tue, 09 Mar 2004 14:32:08 -0500
>From: Andrew in Ann Arbor <andrewaa@comcast.net>
>Subject: [Thinkpad] OT: reccomendations for desktop
>To: "Thinkpad list (new)" <Thinkpad@stderr.org>
>Message-ID: <404E1BB8.1010402@comcast.net>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed
>
>Hello all.
>I am in the market for a new desktop since my 8 year old daughter needs
>something faster. She will inherit my home brew 500 Mhz Celeron and I
>get to buy something new.
>I've been looking at the HP Pavilion 400 series because I want the built
>in card reader (to transfer files from my 560).
>
>I'm looking at two options, both with
>80 Mb HD, HP CD-Writer Drive (48x24x48x),
>3 USB 2.0 ports, 2 Firewire ports,
>7-in-1 card reader, Floppy Drive,
>Integrated Intel(R) Extreme Graphics,
>Integrated 5.1 Capable Sound.
>
>1> Custom Pavilion a410e PC - AMD Athlon(TM) XP2400+ operating at 2.0GHz
>with 512 MB DDR / PC2700 RAM for $560 less $50 HP rebate.
>This also has and AGP 8x video card slot so the video could be upgraded
>later.
><http://www.shopping.hp.com/cgi-bin/hpdirect/shopping/scripts/cart/cart_detail.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@1157361573.1078858163@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccciadckllgdkeicfngcfkmdfondfgg.0&clear_previous_order=true&click=viewcart>
>
>2> Custom Pavilion a400y PC- 2.5 GHz Intel(R) Celeron (R) with 256MB
>PC2100 RAM for $510 less $50 HP rebate.
><http://www.shopping.hp.com/cgi-bin/hpdirect/shopping/scripts/cart/cart_detail.jsp?clear_previous_order=true&click=viewcart&BV_SessionID=@@@@0696360341.1078856418@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccecadckllgdkhhcfngcfkmdfondfgg.0>
>
>Questions:
>Is the Athlon CPU more desirable than the Celeron?
>Is the additional memory (512 vs. 256) worthwhile?
>Should I pay an additional $75 to upgrade from XP Home to XP Pro?
>
>Thanks to all
>
>--
>Andrew in Ann Arbor
>technology is the answer, what was the question?

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Received on Tue Mar 9 23:31:20 2004