A local shop help me put this together. What do you think of this system?

W

werewolf831

New member
These are the parts we picked and the prices he quoted me.

case: x821 w/350w ps....$49
case fan: 80mm 3 pin...$7
MOBO: Asus p4p800...$117
RAM: (forgot the brand) 512mb PC3200 (x2)...$198
CPU: P4 2.6, 800mhz fsb...$199
Floppy: Mitsumi......$12
HD: WD 80 GB w/ 8mb cache...$83
CD-RW: Lite-On 52X...$39
VGA Card: Chaintech GF4-MX 440...$47
Modem: Intel v.92...$18
IDE Cable: $1.50
OS: WinXP Home...$99
ASSEMBLY: $50

TOTAL: $988.89 (this includes 7.5% KS taxes)

Mind you I have no desire to build my own, I just don't feel capable, I'd still like good components for my DAW though.

OR..................

DELL: $719 for the same specs, but only 512 mb ram.

OR

TigerDirect: $703 same specs, but only 512 mb ram, but I didn't get to pick brand names of my components.

I was hoping to stay between $700-$800, but if the system the local guy quoted is a decent deal, I'll shell out the extra cash.

Any opinions? If I get some feedback I may purchase today, the shop here closes at 6 PM. I'm anxious, haha!

Thanks,
Werewolf

P.S. software and soundcard are already taken care of.
 
I worked in a mom&pop computer repair/build shop for about 7 years.
I can tell you that the price isnt bad but you could prob. search around for better prices on the net.

not to nit pick but $1.50 for an IDE cable that should be included with the motherboard seems a bit strange(unless for some reason they get bulk motherboards and dont have any of those retail extras, in which case the price on the mother board should be lower.

As for the motherboard what version is it? -Delux, -VM, -S?

I can tell you the assembly seems very small, usually it is a per hour rate and its usually 50 an hour. So he is prob. recouping on the parts.

also, make sure that the hard drive is the special edition (WD800JB).

bottom line,
Is this the deal of the decade?
-No
Is this a good deal?
-Maybe, depends on warranty and service that they offer
Can a better deal/Price be found
-Of course
 
Are custom build shops negotiable? I've never even been in a local computer shop until today, so I wasn't sure if they are generally firm on their prices or not.
 
Usually they are very stringant on their prices. Unless you brought in a quote from a competeing shop that is lower then theirs,
they will prob. say "this is the lowest possible price"And send you packing.

Most of the clients that had custom built PC's from us,did so because of our service and location.
No sending it back to dell or having some indian guy on the phone talking you through what sounds like a schematic to a blender.

what kind of warranty does it come with?

Another option is that you buy the parts and they put it together , if they let you do that,
we allowed that because we had an hourly labor charge.

Only downside is that if some part turns out bad, it will be all on you to get a replacment
and you won't get any kind of warranty with the shop.

Yet another option is to order the CPU/Motherbaord/RAM/Case combo from an online store,
have them install, give you a warranty for the parts and have the shop put the CD-rom and HDD and what not in.

hmm...i feel like i can go on forever here, ill stop.................................................................................................................................................................................................................now.
 
If the service is good I suppose it's a decent deal. Understand that it's hard for the local places to be totally competitive when building Intel based stuff. You do an AMD based machine and the price will drop a very significant amount. . I gave up selling Intel based machines a long time ago since I know people are gonna directly price it against a Dell computer and I can't compete on the low end, especially since I can't scam an extra $100 on shipping. At any rate, I think quite highly of AMD products and would still push the Athlon even if I could get better deals on Intel CPUs.
Anyway, figure how much those other computers would be with 1GB memory ($100 more), and always add shipping and handling where applicable. This is where Dell makes another $85 profit out of the $100 thewy charge to ship.
 
Thanks for the replies.

DAFFYDRUNK said:
Anyway, figure how much those other computers would be with 1GB memory ($100 more), and always add shipping and handling where applicable. This is where Dell makes another $85 profit out of the $100 thewy charge to ship.
Click to expand...

1GB adds an additional $180 to the Dell! We're up to $900 now, and the deal now is free shipping. You can see why this is tempting. Still, I wonder if the quality I get in the custom build will make up for the extra cash.

I seem to remember the website saying it had a year warranty, and they say in their paper ad 24/7 on-site service (?) The web site is www.hypertechcomputer.com if you want to check it out. Not much to see there really.

Daff, now you have me thinkg AMD. Can you recommend an amd cpu, and mobo/chipset in a similar price range? I've really only researched Intel, so AMD seems like a whole other world!
thanks,
werewolf
 
Last edited:
I'm scared of going AMD

I remember about 4 or 5 yrs ago a somewhat computer savy friend of mine told me AMD couldn't touch Intel. Think I have a complex?

I just looked up some amd processors, and I'm wondering how these can be as good as Intel? The 2500+ has like an 1.8Ghz operating speed and a 333mhz FSB?! Is overclocking the only advantage in going with AMD? I really don't want to start overclocking. I can just see me cursing my brand new burnt up computer now....
 
Get the Dell with 512 (or even 256) and buy more memory from http://www.crucial.com
It will be alot cheaper than upgrading the memory from Dell. I have a Dell 4550 2.53ghz for my recording rig, and I haven't had any problems with it. I also have a Dell 450mhz that's been chugging along since 1999 without a hiccup (except for the "hiccup" that was Win98, I've since put Win2K on it)

Only thing to be aware of is that if that Dell is the 2400, you might want to make sure you can add a second HDD to it in the future. I think it wasn't designed to take a 2nd drive, but someone might sell a 3rd party bracket thingy to deal with that.

Good luck!
BTW - What SW and Audio HW are you getting?

werewolf831 said:
Thanks for the replies.



1GB adds an additional $180 to the Dell! We're up to $900 now, and the deal now is free shipping. You can see why this is tempting. Still, I wonder if the quality I get in the custom build will make up for the extra cash.

I seem to remember the website saying it had a year warranty, and they say in their paper ad 24/7 on-site service (?) The web site is www.hypertechcomputer.com if you want to check it out. Not much to see there really.

Daff, now you have me thinkg AMD. Can you recommend an amd cpu, and mobo/chipset in a similar price range? I've really only researched Intel, so AMD seems like a whole other world!
thanks,
werewolf
Click to expand...
 
Re: I'm scared of going AMD

werewolf831 said:
I remember about 4 or 5 yrs ago a somewhat computer savy friend of mine told me AMD couldn't touch Intel. Think I have a complex?

I just looked up some amd processors, and I'm wondering how these can be as good as Intel? The 2500+ has like an 1.8Ghz operating speed and a 333mhz FSB?!
Click to expand...

4 or 5 years ago could put it when the K6 was still the mainstream AMD CPU. Then perhaps yes Intel was better. The K6 had a weak FPU. If he said it after August 199 he was flat wrong. AMD was kicking Intel's ass for a long time. Not sure who's the absolute fastest these days with the P4 extreme and the Opteron, but AMD makes a great product for the money.
Clock speed? AMD does more in a clock than Intel. The 333-400 fsb sounds low untill you realize Intel is hyping their numbers. An Athlon 3200+ runs a 200 MHz FSB. A 3.2 GHz Intel running an internal "800 MHz" bus is running.... Yep, 200 FSB. Just take a loot at the type of memory in it. They both use the same stuff.

Clock speed sells, so even if an Athlon can compete with cheaper CPUs for the speed, they have to get the clock speed numbers up to increase market share. Personally I did my XP2500 oc'd works great for recording, games, whatever thrown at it.
....Which reminds me of another reason I don't buy Dell. This computer case I have has slowly evolved into about 3 different machines. When you have a standard ATX setup, it's easy to swap out parts to update the computer.
 
werewolf831 said:
Daff, now you have me thinkg AMD. Can you recommend an amd cpu, and mobo/chipset in a similar price range? I've really only researched Intel, so AMD seems like a whole other world!
thanks,
werewolf
Click to expand...

Here's a similar setup I posted in another thread. If I ever build a second dedicated recording PC this is the spec I'm gonna buy except I'll probably just go with 512 MB total memory:

-------------------
New Egg prices listed:

$37 400 watt case A+ GPB CA-3688
$88 Biostar M7NCG PRO Nforce2 board with DUAL integrated video
(I really dig this board for the money, and it will be ready for dual monitor)
$184 (pair of Kreton Blitz Extreme PC3500 CL2.5 512 MB modules for 1GB) BLZ512M-433
$35 Samsung 52x32x52 CDRW
$14 Mitsumi floppy drive
$4 2nd IDE cable
$82 Seagate ST380013AS 80GB 8MB 7200 RPM HDD
$12 Ortek MCK-800 keyboard (love this thing for the price)
$9.50 Generic silver Optical wheel mouse KOPMPSL905
$90 AMD Athlon XP 2500+ Barton Retail (comes with a reasonably quiet heatsink/fan)
$91 Win XP Home CD

TOTAL Cost = $646.50 shipping included
-------------------------------------------

While it has integrated video it's basically the same thing as the card you had listed, only it has 2 VGA ports and all you need is a second monitor if you ever want to to dual monitors. The 1 computer I built based on the board isn't a music computer but crunches database stuff all day at a publishing company. Works great. I've bought alot of Biostar boards recently and they've all been rock solid boards. If you wanted a computer place to build that computer figure about $150 labor for building, software/driver setup and software updates. Then when you get it home OC by upping the FSB to 185 and set the memory to 6,3,3, CL2. Easiest overclock I've ever done. Take 2 minutes and roughly equals a 3000+ speed (2050 MHz) They crank up alot farther, but I'm throwing out a setup that is rock solid and brainless to do..

You could also get another quote and ask them what that same computer with and Asus A7n8x-Deluxe + AMD Barton 2500+ would run...
 
Thanks for all the advice. I don't really have anymore questions, it's time for me to just use this advice and make up my mind! I realize there's been a lot of "what do I buy" talk lately, so thanks for the patience answering another one! I'll update you with what I choose.
werewolf
 
gordone said:


Good luck!
BTW - What SW and Audio HW are you getting?
Click to expand...

I'm using the Audiophile 24/96, and using Adobe Audition (formerly Cool Edit Pro.)

BTW, for the past 3 1/2 yrs I've been an Adat and Mackie user, so using a computer for multitracking is pretty new turf for me! So far I like it, but it's killing my poor old 550mhz gateway!
 
case: x821 w/350w ps....$49
case fan: 80mm 3 pin...$7
MOBO: Asus p4p800...$117
RAM: (forgot the brand) 512mb PC3200 (x2)...$198
CPU: P4 2.6, 800mhz fsb...$199
Floppy: Mitsumi......$12
HD: WD 80 GB w/ 8mb cache...$83
CD-RW: Lite-On 52X...$39
VGA Card: Chaintech GF4-MX 440...$47
Modem: Intel v.92...$18
IDE Cable: $1.50
OS: WinXP Home...$99
ASSEMBLY: $50

Well, I went ahead and got this system, except I only went with 512Mb of ram, so they scaled the price back $100.00. Comes with 1yr warranty, manufacturers warranties, I can call them for tech support and I can bring it in anytime if I'm having problems with it, and they are about 10 mins away from my house.

I could have saved a bit going with AMD, but oh well. I had every intention to change this to an AMD machine, but when I got there the only words I could utter were "Intel" and Pentium"! Anyway, they said it would be ready by Tuesday or Wednesday.

Hope I didn't blunder too bad with this. As I see it, the only way I could have saved more was to buy OEM parts, or barebones kits and do it myself. And maybe by next Christmas it would be put together, haha!

Thanks for all the advice,
werewolf
 
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