The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
Picking up a (basic, affordable) tower PC
wasted pixels
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
The backstory: I'm staying in Canada for a while with my girlfriend, and she's getting none-too-happy about my doing web development work on her personal computer ("Why is my address bar nothing but links to localhost?", "What do you mean you uninstalled Skype because it conflicted with Apache?"). I left my laptop at home because of the recently disclosed data seizure policies on the US side of the border, and I'm going to be coming up here often enough that I can justify a dedicated "In-Canada" computer that can stay in my girlfriend's apartment.
One big, important preface: I don't play computer games. I just need something that can handle (not even kick the ass of, just handle) Photoshop, Flash, and some moderately intense PHP scripts. Building a machine from scratch is also probably out of the question (unless you can point me to some super-cheap parts in southern Ontario), as a look over TigerDirect.ca shows it to be prohibitively expensive for my needs.
I'm looking at the Dell Vostro 200 Slim. It seems to have a fair bit of muscle for the price, and the socket 775 mobo would lend itself to upgrades in the future if I decided I really did need a Core 2 Duo E8400 all along.
Locally, the most promising option I've found is a refurbished Dell E520 for $199 from a local computer shop. It's a considerably less powerful machine, but it's also only $180 (after my girlfriend flashes her Western student ID), and it also has a socket 775 board.
So what do you think, H/A? Should I get the Vostro, or could I limp by with the little E520? Are there any glaring problems with either of these machines that I don't see? Do I have some awesome third (or fourth!) option that I'm not aware of? Enlighten me!
One big, important preface: I don't play computer games. I just need something that can handle (not even kick the ass of, just handle) Photoshop, Flash, and some moderately intense PHP scripts. Building a machine from scratch is also probably out of the question (unless you can point me to some super-cheap parts in southern Ontario), as a look over TigerDirect.ca shows it to be prohibitively expensive for my needs.
I'm looking at the Dell Vostro 200 Slim. It seems to have a fair bit of muscle for the price, and the socket 775 mobo would lend itself to upgrades in the future if I decided I really did need a Core 2 Duo E8400 all along.
Locally, the most promising option I've found is a refurbished Dell E520 for $199 from a local computer shop. It's a considerably less powerful machine, but it's also only $180 (after my girlfriend flashes her Western student ID), and it also has a socket 775 board.
So what do you think, H/A? Should I get the Vostro, or could I limp by with the little E520? Are there any glaring problems with either of these machines that I don't see? Do I have some awesome third (or fourth!) option that I'm not aware of? Enlighten me!
wasted pixels on
0
Posts
1. Set up Dual Boot on your GF's machine, and install another copy of the OS on another partition (or even a 2nd HD)
2. Carry your laptop around, but leave one HD at home, an one HD at your GFs... so it's useless at the border, and your paranoid brain will be happy
But if you really do want a separate PC, then go for the cheap PC (just make sure it's upgradeable) and spend another $100 on a Core 2 Duo cpu to replace the celeron, and another gig or 2 of ram.
The trouble with that idea is that the cheapest Core 2 Duo readily available up here is the E7200 for $160ish, which pretty much erases the savings of getting the cheaper one. Whatever I pick up is going to be what I'm living with for at least a few months, so if your feeling is that the Celeron isn't serviceable for my needs, I should probably scratch it off the list.
Well, we've been looking. Everywhere we can think of. I don't mean to come off as ridiculously snarky or anything, but seriously, computers up here are expensive and people who sell their used stuff have no idea what it's actually worth in real-world dollars. Occasionally, it's possible to get lucky and find something cheap - my previous computer came from a guy out in the middle of nowhere, I paid $300 for what was, at the time, about two small steps below bleeding-edge. It lasted me for a good couple of years, and my boyfriend has actually been using it as his workhorse since last year. But the really good deals are few and far between on the sites we know of up here, and time is a fairly important factor - we need something soon.
Also, it makes me a very sad panda to hear that a computer roughly on par with my current gaming rig is only half a step below going to the landfill.