How's This System?

[brandon184]

I'm building a new system for my dad's home office. He'll just be running business & financial apps, nothing huge. No games, nothing video or processor intensive. Isn't a huge audiophile.

I've configured this... What do you guys think?

Case: Antec Sonata Black Quiet Case
Power Supply: ZALMAN ZM300A-APF 300W w/ Temp. Sensitive Silent Mode
Processor: AMD ATHLON XP 2500+ 512K
Heatsink: ZALMAN CNPS3000+ Aluminum Flower Heatsink
Motherboard: ASUS A7N8X (Integrated Sound & LAN)
Memory: 2x256MB OCZ PC2700 Dual Channel w/ Black Heat Spreader
Hard Drive: Maxtor DMax 80GB Quiet Version w/ 8MB Cache
Video: ATI RADEON 9600SE 128MB DDR w/ TV-Out
Display: Samsung 181T Black 18" LCD Monitor
CD/DVD Drive: LG Black 52X24X52 CD-RW & 16X DVD-ROM Combo
Modem: LUCENT PCI 56K V.90 Dial-Up Modem
Keyboard / Mouse: Logitech Cordless MX Duo Kybrd/Mse Combo
Speakers: Altec Lansing Black 121 2.1 Speaker System
O/S: M$ Windows XP Professional
Floppy: 1.44MB Black Sony Floppy Disk Drive

Total Cost: $2184 CDN

I've included a lot of memory to ensure that things are consistently running pretty quickly. Plus, he has a habit of minimizing programs when he's done with them, instead of closing them.

Think that'll work okay? Comments on any of the hardware? I haven't exactly been following the "latest and greatest" trends...

- Brandon

[SiRK]

Are you sure that you need that much memory? I probably put my computer through the same amout of 'stress' and I only have 128. But I guess you can never have too much

If you dont mind me asking, whats the total price?

EDIT: I'm either going blind or you just edited that in there.

[I2n0ld]

looks pretty good. you cud try adding ups/surge protectors, hardware firewall (if u try to connect to broadband) to protect ure investment

[Sixpac_XP]

beef up your video card.

get yourself a nice ATI Radeon 9600 card... do you nicely.

[VHockey86]

Even if hes not a gamer, for a small increase in price you could vastly improve the video card, and make the computer overall of much higher performance.

For a system running XP I highly agree with at least 512 MB of ram, 128 is kind of foolish, ud be running on virtual memory right from startup. Even 256 will get used up once you open a couple browser windows and perhaps microsfot excel/word

Personally I think that an 18" screen is overkill in a price/need sense. I could perhaps see a 17" LCD, but even a flat CRT would do just fine.

[teengeek88]

i noticed u had a v.90 modem in there....if he is on dialup service i would go with a v.92 modem.....there are alot more things you can do with it like the whole internet on hold thing. looks like a great system tho.

just my 2 cents

-Rob-

[brandon184]

I've never really understood the need for an expensive video card... I have crappy integrated Intel video on my system, and it performs wonderfully... He'll be doing even less video-intensive things than I do. If someone could explain, that would help.. because an upgrade to a 9600 isn't exactly a slight increase in video card cost.

As for the 18" LCD - that's something he specifically requested. He said he wants pretty much the same thing he has at the office -- which is an 18" LCD.

As for the modem, he's not on dialup internet .. But head office (for reasons unbeknownst to me) still dials into his PC on occasion. I'll still probably upgrade to the v.92, in case that helps in that department.

Thanks!

[slinky]

PC3500 for business apps? A business comp will do with PC2700 for the Barton.

[Bizkitkid2001]

And since its an Office PC. I'd go with a quiter HS/F. Get a Zalman heatsink, no noise at all and they are still good at keeping the cpu cool.

Same with the PSU, try and get one of them stealth PSU(lol, forgot the name) Since he ain't gonna be doing any intense video, gaming, ocing, etc... getting him an almost soundless system will be easy. If you get the correct psu, hs/f, and case fans, the only thing you will be able to here would be the hard drive, which i see you got the quite version so you probably won't be able to here it anyways.

you can save in some areas, like the memory and video(going on board) to get him a nice 21" monitor or somthing. If he is doing office work, the bigger the monitor, the better.

[DallasDon]

I would expolore a Zalman passive heat sink fan combo to lower noise levels. I've built two now with the smalllest one, CNPS 3100 and Athlon 2500, and both run under 40C running office apps.

A Logitech Cordless MX duo really cleans up the clutter on a desk, and he will have a ball with all the hotkeys, and 8 button mouse.