What would a computer like this run?

Question

I asked my brother to build a computer for me for college. I told him I wanted a very fast computer that wouldn't be obsolete in a year.
This is what he came back with. Tell me if it's worth it.

Computer Specs are as follows:

RaidMax Mustang ATX 420Watt Computer Case

Rosewill 19" LCD TFT Monitor

NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GX2 1GB 16X PCI Express Video Card

(2) Seagate Barracuda 10000RPM 160GB Hard Drives (SATA)

LITE-ON Combo DVD-RW / CD-RW

Patriot 2.5GB DDR PC3200 RAM

DIAMOND xtremesound xs71 7.1 Channels PCI Interface Sound Card

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Windsor 2.0ghz Dual Core Proc.

Logitech z-5500 5.1 Speaker System (505 Watts)

BenQ Wireless Keyboard and Mouse (Red, to match the case.)

Windows XP

Total cost: $1251.31

I'm sorry, it is DDR2, And I don't understand how a 2.0GHZ Dual Core HT Proc is "Low-End" I don't know much about computers, maybe I typed some of the specs incorrectly. I was generally asking if the computer itself was worth $1200.

Answer 1

Looks like your brother sold you a good setup.

The only thing I think is a bit lacking is the proc. The 3800 is starting to show it's age, and will most likely need to be replaced in the next year or so.

Answer 2

Seems reasonable - but if you're going with the performance hard drives and 1 GB video card, why are you skimping on the processor and RAM? Primarily because the other specs are high, I'd get 4 GB of RAM and the 4800+ CPU - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103754


But strictly speaking, I wouldn't get most of this myself. I'd get a 256-512 MB graphics card, the CPU you're getting, 2 GB of RAM, and a single SATA 7200 RPM hard drive (two if you wanted to mirror them). That would be just fine for everyday use, especially in college. Now if you intend to play games, games are some of the most demanding applications around, in which case you want the best you can get.
(I've got a 3.5 year old laptop and it's NOT obsolete at 1.9 GHz Pentium 4 - it runs just fine for everything I do with it).

I mean, do you NEED a $500 top-of-the-line video card?

UPDATE:
Yes, it's worth $1250 or so... The graphics card is $500, the processor would be about $175-200, the hard drives (I don't see new egg selling Seagate Barracuda SATA drives - just SCSI - and there is a difference), I'll assume are Western Digital 150GB 10K RPM SATA drives, which sell for $200-$225 each, so right there, you're looking at $500+175+200+225 = $1100 - and you still haven't factored in the monitor, RAM, Case, Keyboard, Mouse, Speakers, OEM price of XP (make sure you get a LEGAL copy), and mainboard - all of these EASILY exceed $150.

Answer 3

A lot of problems I see with that configuration. In no particular order, unless you are a real sound freak nix those expensive speakers and that expensive sound card. No need for two of those hard drives, go with a single 320GB 7200RPM Seagate. He has a extremely high end video card, but a low end processor. He is using DDR RAM instead of the newer and faster DDR2 RAM. Finally, that power supply is too weak to power a system like this. Also, I don't see a motherboard listed. I bet you can guess I am not at all impressed with this list, drop me an email with your price range and I can help you pick out some better stuff.

Edit: Okay maybe not low end, midrange. But the point I was making was why spend so much on a video card and not enough on a processor. I suppose it is worth $1200, but I just thing it could be configured better for the price.

Answer 4

I agree with most here, the GPU and HDs are way over kill, i would say one 200+ GB 7200rpm Hard drive would be fine you can always get another one down the road if you need to and for a GPU I would get something with 256bit 256 or 512MB of mem with DDR3, i have a 6800XT and its more then fine for video editing and CAD and crap, and down the road you can always get another GPU if you have to and put it in SLI, most Main boards come with 5.1 or 7.1 CH audio built in, and the power supply should be 500+ watts, and I don't know much about the AMD CPUs

Answer 5

Sweet. That'll go 5 years.

You should have much more screen.

Answer 6

You got ripped off BIG TIME!

Some brother.