" I am new to this group and would like a bit advice on this system i am
thinking of purchasing, what are your views is it worth the money he is
asking. "
The seller is asking for £526 (£490 + £20 postage + £16 Paypal charge). The
copy of Windows XP Pro surely won't be the retail version, due to the way he
words the auction like all other sellers who include OEM versions on their
systems. The seller doesn't appear to be a shop that is selling numerous
systems, so it might be a used system, with tons of junk on the operating
system. If that's the case, then not having the XP Pro disk for a re-format
could leave you with a few headaches. You should ask a few questions.
I worked out what it would cost to build the systen brand new. All tinyurl
links go to the products at
www.dealtime.co.uk , where I got the following:
- Asustek P4C800 Deluxe = £118.68 (
http://tinyurl.com/24dxr )
- Intel Pentium 4 2.8Ghz 800FSB CPU = £120.51 (
http://tinyurl.com/2h59d )
- Corsair 512MB PC2700 DDR-RAM = £54.00 (
http://tinyurl.com/36yem )
- Maxtor Diamond Plus 9 SATA 160GB = £78.14 (
http://tinyurl.com/2ofx5 )
- Samsung 52x32x52 CDRW = £18.74 (
http://tinyurl.com/33p78 )
- Asustek V-9520 GeForce FX5200 128MB = £64.63 (
http://tinyurl.com/39mqz )
- Black Zorro 450W case = £45.77 (
http://tinyurl.com/27jb7 )
The total comes to £500.47, but I'm sure you can find some of the stuff a
little cheaper, but I haven't got time to hunt around. You can get an
Academic Upgrade version of Windows XP Pro for £86.99 from eBay (
http://tinyurl.com/3b9f8 ), which brings the total to £587.46. The Academic
Upgrade version allows you to do a clean install if you insert any old copy
of a previous Microsoft OS for a few seconds. I've done exactly that with a
copy of Windows 98, and you don't need to input the old licence key, so you
aren't stepping on anyone's toes by doing this.
You should ask yourself what you want the system for. The FX5200 card isn't
going to hold up to many future games, as no matter what people will tell
you about its DirectX 9 compatibility, it is still slower than a tortoise.
For £97.47 you can get a Sapphire Radeon 9600 Pro 128MB (
http://tinyurl.com/262gk ) to round off the system a little better, or even
wait until the Radeon 9800 Pro comes further down in price.
If the system they are selling is used with an OEM version of XP Pro, then
you can build yourself a new one with a better graphics card and the retail
version of Windows XP Pro for £620.30, which is £94.30 more than the eBay
deal. That makes the eBay deal a little less appealing to me, seeing as you
don't know what problems you may run into with that.
