Refurbished Gateway GT5473E Desktop PC - better value than HomeBuild?

[T. T.]

Hi there, I'm just curious what people think about this PC:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3402775&body=REVIEWS

Currently it's on sale on tigerdirect.com for US$299. I know it's
using ECS c51pvgm-m motherboard. Just wondering if I'm to build a
exactly same system would I be spending more money? I'm kind of
tempted to buy one. The only thing that I don't like is that it only
has two memory slot and it came with 1GB memory only, which in general
is not really good enough for running Windows Vista...

I'm building a system mainly for PHP development purpose, not for
gaming..

Another thought that I have is to build one with Intel E2140 CPU
(which has great overclock capability), but if I'm going this route
I'm not sure which motherboard I should get and how much I would end
up paying for everything to build such a budget system, any advice or
thought? Thanks!

 

[Kent_Diego]

Hi there, I'm just curious what people think about this PC:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3402775&body=REVIEWS

That is an amazing value. I build many PC's from parts and given the best
deals I have seen on parts it adds up to exactly $300. Throw in that it is a
name brand engineered system with Vista, you are doing very well. I built a
4600+ X2 system for my home theater recently. The with Cool-n-Quiet enabled,
the 2.4 GHz 65 Watt processor loafs at 1 GHz while playing HD video at 18%
CPU utilization. I spent well over that price. A very cool and quiet system
indeed. The Intel system's Speed Step do not lower speeds that much. The
only extra you would want is an extra GB of RAM to make Vista really blaze.
If you need a PC, do not hesitate.

 

[Pecos]

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?Ed
pNo=3402775&body=REVIEWS

Hello T.T.,

A couple of thoughts FWIW.

It is a refurbished unit which generally means that it has been in the
hands of someone and returned - possibly due to a failure of one or more
components. While in those hands, who knows what has been done to it
including possible extreme overclocking. It could still work out well
for you, just be aware of that refurbs have a higher return rate.

If you are a developer, consider at a minimum the Business version of
Vista which has built-in 'Previous Versions' (Shadow Copies). It will
more than pay for itself the first time you have to go back to an older
copy of the file and restore it because you lost all or part of the
original. It *does* have to be 'turned on' - a simple two minute
exercise.

My experience with Vista is that that it will run well with 1 GB.

I don't think ECS when I think overclocking.

If I can offer some advice, buy a computer that you will be happy with
both now and a couple of years from now.