Appreciate all opinions

[Dave]

My ten year old computer is dying, and rather than go with a Dell or
other such brand I'm looking at buying a barebones system assembled by

Ibex Computers, Inc.
http://www.ibexpc.com

to try to find a middle ground (expandability, assembly, burn-in,
warranty) between buying a more limited off-the-shelf system larded
with things I don't want and assuming all the risks of building it
completely myself. I am reasonably comfortable poking around in the
box, changing or adding drives, cards, and such.

Usage would be general all around home office and still graphics with
little probability of gaming or video, limiting costs up front with
any eye to expanding or improving elements (drives, cards,
peripherals) later. Sooner or later I may try to to set up a dual
boot Win98SE & 2000 arrangement.

Components:

Their case
Antec 450 watt power supply
Intel D865PERL motherboard
512 Megs PC3200 DDR RAM
40 Gig IDE HDD
CD-ROM drive
U S Robotics 56K v.92 modem card
ATI Radeon 7000 32 Meg video card
Win 2000 Pro

My existing monitor, keyboard, mouse, printer, speakers

Any and all comments regarding this company and/or the
hardware-software choices and implementation welcomed.

I realize posters here prefer more complex and interesting problems
and questions, so I appreciate any time and effort any of you spend
replying.

Thanks in advance,

Dave

 

[JK]

My ten year old computer is dying, and rather than go with a Dell or
other such brand I'm looking at buying a barebones system assembled by

Ibex Computers, Inc.
http://www.ibexpc.com

to try to find a middle ground (expandability, assembly, burn-in,
warranty) between buying a more limited off-the-shelf system larded
with things I don't want and assuming all the risks of building it
completely myself. I am reasonably comfortable poking around in the
box, changing or adding drives, cards, and such.

Usage would be general all around home office and still graphics with
little probability of gaming or video, limiting costs up front

An Athlon XP processor (perhaps the 3000+?) would be perfect for that. Great
performance in business software at a great price.

with
any eye to expanding or improving elements (drives, cards,
peripherals) later. Sooner or later I may try to to set up a dual
boot Win98SE & 2000 arrangement.

Components:

Their case
Antec 450 watt power supply

More than what you need. An Antec 350 watt power supply would be
more than enough for you.

Intel D865PERL motherboard

Forget about Intel. Go with an Athlon XP processor.

512 Megs PC3200 DDR RAM

Good. Make sure it is name brand ram. Samsung, Micron, etc.

40 Gig IDE HDD

Get a 120 gig 7200 rpm hard drive. The price difference is relatively small.

CD-ROM drive

Get a CDRW drive. A LiteOn 52x CD burner is good and rather inexpensive.

U S Robotics 56K v.92 modem card

Do you plan to use dial up? If so, make sure it is a full hardware(controller
based) modem. It will say good for Linux or Dos. Avaid modems that require
Windows.

 

[Dave]

My ten year old computer is dying, and rather than go with a Dell or
other such brand I'm looking at buying a barebones system assembled by

Ibex Computers, Inc.
http://www.ibexpc.com

to try to find a middle ground (expandability, assembly, burn-in,
warranty) between buying a more limited off-the-shelf system larded
with things I don't want and assuming all the risks of building it
completely myself. I am reasonably comfortable poking around in the
box, changing or adding drives, cards, and such.

Usage would be general all around home office and still graphics with
little probability of gaming or video, limiting costs up front with
any eye to expanding or improving elements (drives, cards,
peripherals) later. Sooner or later I may try to to set up a dual
boot Win98SE & 2000 arrangement.

Components:

Their case
Antec 450 watt power supply
Intel D865PERL motherboard

Intel Pentium 4 CPU w/800 MHz FSB
(specific CPU unknown)

 

[Dave]

An Athlon XP processor (perhaps the 3000+?) would be perfect for that. Great
performance in business software at a great price.


More than what you need. An Antec 350 watt power supply would be
more than enough for you.

The default PS is a Cotytech 350, never heard of it. The 450 is the
only Antec PS option specified.

Forget about Intel. Go with an Athlon XP processor.


Good. Make sure it is name brand ram. Samsung, Micron, etc.


Get a 120 gig 7200 rpm hard drive. The price difference is relatively small.


Get a CDRW drive. A LiteOn 52x CD burner is good and rather inexpensive.


Do you plan to use dial up? If so, make sure it is a full hardware(controller
based) modem. It will say good for Linux or Dos. Avaid modems that require
Windows.



Why?

My wife uses it at her office and can migrate all her apps home, and I
don't want to have to screw with XP's activation scheme.

Thanks

 

[Dave C.]

My ten year old computer is dying, and rather than go with a Dell or
other such brand I'm looking at buying a barebones system assembled by

Ibex Computers, Inc.
http://www.ibexpc.com

to try to find a middle ground (expandability, assembly, burn-in,
warranty) between buying a more limited off-the-shelf system larded
with things I don't want and assuming all the risks of building it
completely myself. I am reasonably comfortable poking around in the
box, changing or adding drives, cards, and such.

Usage would be general all around home office and still graphics with
little probability of gaming or video, limiting costs up front with
any eye to expanding or improving elements (drives, cards,
peripherals) later. Sooner or later I may try to to set up a dual
boot Win98SE & 2000 arrangement.

Components:

Their case
Antec 450 watt power supply
Intel D865PERL motherboard
512 Megs PC3200 DDR RAM
40 Gig IDE HDD
CD-ROM drive
U S Robotics 56K v.92 modem card
ATI Radeon 7000 32 Meg video card
Win 2000 Pro

Looks great other than the really small hard drive. Even as a starter
drive, that's too small. It's only going to be about 36GB formatted. Oh,
and that's 36GB as hard drive manufacturers measure it. If you want to
dual boot, I'd probably be looking at 160GB to start. Formatted, that will
be about 75GB per OS, if divided equally. That's pretty reasonable size to
start with. -Dave

 

[Shelly F]

Check with Mwave.com, also

Looks great other than the really small hard drive. Even as a starter
drive, that's too small. It's only going to be about 36GB formatted. Oh,
and that's 36GB as hard drive manufacturers measure it. If you want to
dual boot, I'd probably be looking at 160GB to start. Formatted, that will
be about 75GB per OS, if divided equally. That's pretty reasonable size to
start with. -Dave

Anti-Spam: Change shellyfnospam to shellyf to respond.
Retired to Cyberspace from Green Valley, AZ.

 

[Mac Cool]

(e-mail address removed) (Dave) said:

http://www.ibexpc.com

They aren't listed on resellerratings.com and I've never heard of them.
What about this store do you like?

 

[Dave]

(e-mail address removed) (Dave) said:


They aren't listed on resellerratings.com and I've never heard of them.
What about this store do you like?

They offer a complete assembled computer with a standard 1 year parts
and labor warranty, their prices are reasonably competitive with the
alternatives I'm currently aware or, and they appear to be well
thought of by people and firms who have done business with them.

But I inquired here precisely to guide my decision: if you know of
others I should look into, I'd be grateful if you'd let me know.

Thanks,

Dave

 

[Al]

My ten year old computer is dying, and rather than go with a Dell or
other such brand I'm looking at buying a barebones system assembled by

Ibex Computers, Inc.
http://www.ibexpc.com

to try to find a middle ground (expandability, assembly, burn-in,
warranty) between buying a more limited off-the-shelf system larded
with things I don't want and assuming all the risks of building it
completely myself. I am reasonably comfortable poking around in the
box, changing or adding drives, cards, and such.

Usage would be general all around home office and still graphics with
little probability of gaming or video, limiting costs up front with
any eye to expanding or improving elements (drives, cards,
peripherals) later. Sooner or later I may try to to set up a dual
boot Win98SE & 2000 arrangement.

Components:

Their case
Antec 450 watt power supply
Intel D865PERL motherboard
512 Megs PC3200 DDR RAM
40 Gig IDE HDD
CD-ROM drive
U S Robotics 56K v.92 modem card
ATI Radeon 7000 32 Meg video card
Win 2000 Pro

My existing monitor, keyboard, mouse, printer, speakers

Any and all comments regarding this company and/or the
hardware-software choices and implementation welcomed.

I realize posters here prefer more complex and interesting problems
and questions, so I appreciate any time and effort any of you spend
replying.

Thanks in advance,

Dave

There are a lot of questions to ask. The main advantage of going to a
shop is that they can provide the software at OEM prices.

Most questions are about expansion - how many free PCI slots? How many
free memory slots/capacity? Sound card or AC '97 onboard/brand? CD
drive brand/reputation/speed?

DVD/CD writers cost as low as $59 now, but you don't want to have to
upgrade your system too soon after buying it.

My main reason for buying from a shop would be to have them load on
lots of software, and make sure they give you an original install
disks (not recovery disks) for all software. I'd ask for Win XP Pro
and MS Office Pro unless you specifically want Win 2000.

 

[Mac Cool]

(e-mail address removed) (Dave) said:

if you know of
others I should look into, I'd be grateful if you'd let me know

poke around here:
http://www.newegg.com/app/manufact.asp?catalog=3&DEPA=1

 

[Dave]

(e-mail address removed) (Dave) said:


poke around here:
http://www.newegg.com/app/manufact.asp?catalog=3&DEPA=1

Thanks, Mac

Dave

 

[Dave]

(e-mail address removed) (Dave) said:


poke around here:
http://www.newegg.com/app/manufact.asp?catalog=3&DEPA=1

Thanks, Mac

Dave