a second pc for my son?

Question

my friend has a pc he wants to sell , he wants £250 for it, the specs are as follows
mobile amd athlon tm xpm 3000+
cpu speed 1600
fsb 200MHz
512mb ram
its got a dvd writer on it, cd etc..
Its got an agp grahics card installed, i have a spare 15" sanyo lcd monitor, will that work with it?

Do you computer geeks (with respect) think it is worth the money?
It will be used by my son mainly for (i guess) gaming , internet.
all comes with win xp sp2

Answer 1

lets see here:
0: worst 10:best

Cpu : 1,6 mghz --> 8/10
FSB : 200 Mhz --> 7/10
512 Mb ram --> 8/10
CD/DVD burner --> 10/10

If the computer is in a good cndition itself, so it would definitely worth it.

Remember: CPU speed the most important thing to pay attention to.
why ?
because in Pc, you can upgrade everything later but not the CPU.
So it is very important to be careful about it and to be honest 1,6 Mghz Cpu (1600 ) is absolutely anough for gaming, internet, graphic designs and etc.

So make sure the pc is held in a good cindition, if yes, so grab it.

and regarding your question if your spare 15" sanyo lcd monitor will work with it: yes, it surely does.

Answer 2

Wow you have been offered some weird answers so far, some show a complete lack of knowledge. Now I am not saying I am flawless or even a deity on this subject but I can give you my view:

If your son wants to game, you seriously need to check the graphics card and also what sort of games your son plays. If he wants to play the latest graphics intensive games , no matter what graphics card is installed the CPU is going to limit you. You could upgrade the CPU but why spend £250 then need to upgrade, right.

512Mb of ram is plenty to start and matches the setup well but you can never have enough memory.

The DVD writer is basically accepted as a standard in this day and age so no great shakes.

Here is what you can buy brand new for around that budget with no monitor. This quote does not contain an operating system but you need to also check that his OS is genuine.

XL HOME START INTEL CELERON

Technical Specifications

* Intel Celeron D326 [2.53,RET,775]
* 16x DVDRW Silver DL
* 512MB PC3200 DDR2 SDRAM
* 3½ Floppy Drive
* 80GB SATA Hard Drive
* Arianet MIDI Tower2 Blk/Sil ATX2.0
* Asus P5SD2-X Socket 775 Motherboard Skt 775, DDR
* ATi Radeon 9250 128MB
* Sound On Board
* On Board LAN
* 1 X FREE 4 WAY SURGE PROTECTED MAINS ADAPTOR!!!!

Total : £258.44 inc VAT

As you can see you can get alot for your money these days, although it is still not ideal for playing the latest graphcs intensive games(£250 just wil not get you that), so consider trying to offer less, I have just sold a similar PC for £100, with OS.

In response to the person below. The amount of memory on a graphics card is not a measure of it's power. You can buy a Nvidia 6200 with 256Mb of memory but I would choose a 6600 or ATI X800 etc with 128Mb of memory everytime. It's all about, clock speeds, pipelines etc.

Answer 3

Are you sure its not the newer 2000mhz FSB? If this is an older Athlon Thunderbird or XP (not a newer 64 bit version) you could buy the same setup brand new for that price. Now the only thing you won't get if you buy the setup from a computer shop or online is the WinXP SP2. Thats probably worth $100 by itself. Take this into account, the fact that it has an OS drops the price on the hardware if you were to purchase them all seperately.

Answer 4

I think a 600$ Mac Mini would be perfect for a 13 years old boy and perfect for homework, internet and basic games. Just buy a screen with it and it would be perfect. plus Macs don't have viruses so you don't need to buy him another computer or buy an antivirus program. Mac OS X was designed for high security, so it isn’t plagued by constant attacks from viruses and malware like PCs. Likewise, it isn’t plagued by never-ending security dialog boxes like those in Vista. So you can safely go about your work — or play — without interruption. No other operating system, Vista included, offers the rich features and simplicity of Mac OS X. And just as Vista tries to get closer (emphasis on “tries”), Mac OS X Leopard is right around the corner — ready to leap even farther ahead. Intel Core 2 Duo processors are fast. As in really fast. But unlike any PC powered by Intel, the Mac runs Mac OS X — which is optimized to squeeze every bit of performance out of Intel’s engines. And Macs are beautiful. Your son will not want to hide his future Mac in a corner of the den. He will want it front and center in your life. The Apple style shows in every detail, from its sculpted surfaces to its gorgeous Mac OS X graphics. Hope this helps. Look at the TV ads on the website down there. And scroll down for 15 reasons of ¨why buy a Mac¨

Answer 5

Aside everything else, ensure you get the original install discs (and serial numbers) for the PC motherboard, Graphics Card, DVD writer and operating system (Win XP) You will need to get a driver from Sanyo for the monitor you have. Go to Sanyo's website.

Answer 6

The monitor will work if you have the drivers for it still, if not plug+play might do. you don't say what size HDd is there, if its 40GB , i think for a 2nd hand machine without a monitor it seems a tad expensive. If he's your mate try to get him down a little, i suggest around the £180 mark.

Answer 7

You should find out if the xp is a valid version, secondly if your son is going to be using it a lot and saving lots of stuff on it like photos or music then 512mb ram may not be enough and you will have to upgrade

Answer 8

sounds like a excelent deal but have you checked the quality of such things as the dvd writer.

Is this person trustworthly? is the main question.

I would get the memory wiped first and also before paying get all unecessary files and applications of and test the running speed.

Ensure there is a good anti virus installed as well.

Answer 9

Yes if the graphics card is 128meg.
£200 without.

Answer 10

If I understand the exchange rate that seems a little high.