Should I go for the trade?

QuarterMaster

I'm looking at trading my current desktop system:

CM Centurion 5
Abit AW8
HIS X800XL
Corsair VS 2x1GB
Enermax Liberty 500W
Pentium D 930
1 80GB HD (WD IDE), 1 160GB HD (Maxtor SATA)
Pioneer DVD/CD burner
AC Freezer 7 Pro
Windows XP Home
Also added a CM Aluminum 120mm Fan and a generic firewire card.

For two older systems, a shuttle and a laptop:

Shuttle:

nForce 3 (S939)
FX-55
X800Pro
250GB HD
DVD burner
2GB RAM

Laptop:

Alienware 51m
P4 2.8 GHz
512MB RAM
DVD burner
5600Go
60GB HD

I mainly use it for browsing the web and graphic design stuff, with some occasional gaming (BF2, CoD, etc..) Does this sound like a good deal? I've done some research, and it seems like the shuttle should be able to do design stuff pretty competently. What do you think? Thanks!

drxand?

i hope i'm right in assuming you mean getting both the shuttle and laptop for your current setup, so:


would you like a laptop and a shuttle?
could you find more use in them than your current rig?

i'd do it, because it'd be cool to have a laptop for portability and shuttles are nice tiny little machines - both systems could easily run design software (the laptop would be nicer with a bigger boost of ram)

but price wise, im not too keen on new tech pricing (no $$ to stay in the know) but if they're worth around the same, why not?

exoplasm

The shuttle alone is as good as if not better than your current rig (due to CPU efficiency). The laptop is also good. If you are getting both in the trade, I would do it. If you only get one, I would decline. If you do the trade, definitely add more RAM to the laptop. 512MB is basically the minimum memory needed these days, more is better. 1GB should be fine.

theclam

Don't get an Alienware laptop if you're getting a competent gaming desktop. Go for something cheap and light, with good battery life. The P4 and the 5600Go will suck battery power and burn your lap.

Now, if you don't have the ability to specify which system to trade for, then it's a good deal.

stigweard

It looks to be definitely trading up, which makes me suspicious. Do you know for certain the gear isn't stolen?

Back in April 06, the pD 930 was ~330$ while the fx-55 was ~800$. Even if you put all the rest of the components down to their cheapest usable parts, that Shuttle is going to come up about the same price as your machine's components. Now add a previous generation gaming laptop and you are coming out ahead for sure. That laptop is entirely overkill for web browsing, etc, and it is more of a desktop replacement. It will be heavy, hot, and have an abysmal battery life.

QuarterMaster

Well, I get both in the trade. He also said he would ship first, so that makes me feel better about it. I'm pretty sure it wasn't stolen or anything since he has the invoice for the laptop.

I figure I'll keep the shuttle for gaming/graphic work and sell the lappy, and with the money either get a smaller, more portable one or just save the money for later.

blincoln

Wait, this isn't an in-person thing? How do you know this guy? I would seriously reconsider this.