You must choose...but choose Wisely
Apr 18 '00
Rule #1, www.pricewatch.com is your best friend.
Rule #2, if you build it, they will come.
Rule #3, prioritize.
OKay, first off $2000 is a good amount of money to spend on any PC, but you really need to decide if you're starting from scratch or carrying old stuff (monitors, hard drives, floppy drives, etc.) For the sake of argument, let's presume you're starting from scratch.
Now for those of you who are technologically gifted and want to put together a PC yourself, by all means, go for it. But beware of a few caveats. First off, if you buy OEM equipment, don't expect much (if any) sort of warranty. If you don't, still plan to be your own tech support and be prepared for some hassles should equipment ever fail. On the bright side, you get to put together EXACTLY the PC you want and can overclock it till the cows come home.
On the other hand, if you're going to buy a prebuilt machine, go with a brand name. In my experience, the local guy always charges you a hefty amount for putting it together and gives you sub-par goods. If it were me, I'd go Dell or Micron (and as a last resort, MAYBE Gateway). Also, know exactly what it is you want to do with your PC. If it's general business applications, then $2000 is more than enough. If you're a gamer, then the video card makes all the difference. Did you know that a Celeron 2 566MHz scores within 2fps as PIII 850MHz on Quake3 (high quality) at 1024x768? Now keep in mind that the PIII costs about four times as much as the Celeron and you'll start to see my point.
If you're a professional who wants the highest level of expandibility and performance, then go with a workstation. I'd recommend starting off with 1 CPU and adding another when its price has gone down, but if you need two right from the beginning, you can get a nicely configured PC for under $2k. For example, Dell's Factory Outlet offers a Precision PC with 2 PIII 667MHz CPUs, a 13GB drive, a Diamond VI graphics card, and 64MB RAM. Odds are you'll want at least 128MB, but that's still a fantastic deal.
Speaking of Refurbished models, they can be an excellent deal. Many vendors give them the same warranty that new models have but at the fraction of a cost. It's certainly something to consider.
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
mojobobo
|
|
Reviews written: 21
Trusted by: 1 member
|
|
|
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.