New Computer!

[Triadcool]

I am thinking about getting this HP Media Center desktop for $900 from Best Buy. I only have $600 right now but I will be able to get it because Best Buy has free Financing on there computers for 12 months. I wan't to know if you think this is a pretty good computer for watching movies, listening to music, and playing games, ( not extreme detailed games or anything). Im not worried about the graphics card that comes with this system, and I already have a monitor to use with it. Well here is the specs:


Specifications:
Processor: Intel Pentium 4 2.8 GHz Hyper-Threading
800 MHz Front side; Socket mPGA478
Motherboard: ASUS P4SD without on-board graphics: Motherboard Specifications
Memory: Comes with two 256MB (512MB total) PC2700 or better dual-inline Memory Modules.
Motherboard accepts DDR400/PC3200, DDR333/PC2700, or
DDR266/PC2100 Dimms. Dual Channel supported only when identical
pairs are used.
Motherboard contains four memory sockets in two pairs (sockets 1:3, and 2:4).
Upgradeable to a maximum of 4GB (Maximum of 1GB Dimm per slot).
Motherboard requires a minimum of one 64MB module.
Drives: 3.5 inch, 1.44 MB floppy drive
160GB, 7200 rpm, Ultra-IDE hard drive
48x CD-ROM drive; 4x DVD+R/RW drive
Drive bays: Two 5.25 drive bays for optical drives (both in use)
Two 3.5 drive bays for hard drives (both in use)
One 3.5 drive bay for a floppy drive (in use)
Modem 56K Data Fax Modem.
Network: On-board RealTek 8101L 10/100 Ethernet.
Audio: On-the-motherboard 5.1 sound.
Altec Lansing 221 speakers (one subwoofer, two satellite).
Video: ATI Radeon 9200 with 128MB memory.
Television: TV and FM radio tuner card (supports stereo sound, does not support HDTV).
Memory card reader:
7-in-1 card reader with four slots that supports the following card types:
Compact Flash I or II; Memory Stick and Memory Stick Pro; Microdrive;
MultiMedia; Secure Digital; SmartMedia
External communication ports:
Serial (1294) port; Two PS/2 ports (one keyboard, and one mouse);
EPP/ECP Parallel port; Six USB 2.0/1.1 ports (two in front and four in back);
Two FireWire (1394) ports (one in front and one in back);
RJ45 network interface port; RJ11 connector (on the modem)
Expansion slots: Three PCI slots (two in use, one open);
One AGP slot (in use); Two serial ATA connectors
Power: 200 watt (max) power supply for ATX style motherboards
Input devices: Keyboard and mouse
HP PS/2 Media Center keyboard with multimedia controls
HP PS/2 optical scrolling mouse
Remote control with USB infrared receiver.
Software:
Supported operating system: Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004
Arcsoft Showbiz 2 DVD video editing software; MusicMatch 7.5;
Intervideo WinDVD 4 for playback of commercial DVD movies;
Real-One Player; Adobe Acrobat Reader 6.0; Microsoft Encarta Online;
Microsoft Money 2003; Microsoft Works 7.0
RecordNow 6 for burning data and music CDs and DVDs;
Symantec Norton AntiVirus 2003 (with 60 days of antivirus updates);
HP PC Help and Tools;HP Recovery CD Creator (now supports DVDs);
AOL 8.0 CD


Think its a pretty good buy for the what I will be using it for?

[tesco]

Seems like a good deal. Could use a better video card though...

I think you could build one for cheaper thoguh, even chpeaer if you go amd instead of intel...

Windows XP Media center could (i think) be downloaded by bittorrent or another p2p app. TV Tuner's\fm tuner's aren't very expensive at all, do u need a 6-in-1 card reader?

edit: two more things.

1) It's HP, and i hate HP. POS company imo...

2) why would they include in the specs that it comes with an AOL 8 cd It's an old vversion, and they are free, practically spam mail with all the cds they send...don't know why they wrote that.

[Storm]

kinda expensive.......

i dont know what FSB the CPU runs on, but unless you're overclocking the ram, max is 166MHz..........

and look these neat things you're getting:
-56k modem (notice how they mention this "plus point" twice)
-tv tuner

nice, but if you would put together your own comp, would you add that????

thats the question you should keep asking yourself when you buy a pre-fab comp.......... "Would i pay extra for it?" if the answer is no, dont buy the thing, cause you ARE paying extra for it.........

build your own.......

(btw, whatever you do, dont get financing, that sucks, you know you're getting ripped off

the only thing you should borrow money for is buying a house, i know its popular (especially in the US), but you're buying stuff you cant afford, on the long run, this WILL get you into serious financial trouble, trust me, enough of my friends are in dept for life )

[sparsely]

not bad.
but
sparsely has a profound dislike for HP

[lynx]

Power: 200 watt (max) power supply for ATX style motherboards

Avoid this machine like the plague.

[Keikan]

Hp sucks ass

I rather get a Compaq

[clocker]

Originally posted by Keikan@9 July 2004 - 05:00
Hp sucks ass

I rather get a Compaq

Ah, yes.
The ever popular choice;

"Should I get the plague(HP) or herpes(Compaq)?"

Kill yourself now.

[scottwile]

Hp and Compaq are pretty much the same. one owns the other or vise versa. I had an Hp and it worked perfectly. They have really good customer support and are really good for sending new stuff if you break it. I had one of Hp's amd computers and it did everything the computer i built does. If you know how too build one then you would be better off, if not that HP will be fine.

[Storm]

Originally posted by lynx@9 July 2004 - 12:25

Power: 200 watt (max) power supply for ATX style motherboards

Avoid this machine like the plague.

damnit, saw that, but forgot to mention it.........

yeah, you're rite........ im wondering how fast that thing would fry...........

200Watts wasnt even enough on my parents comp (AMD 500, 20GB HDD, 1CD drive, 1CD burner) when i inserted a 120GB HDD.......... the f**ker just blew up......... luckily nothing was damaged, but you might not get so lucky

[tesco]

Originally posted by Storm+9 July 2004 - 12:19--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Storm @ 9 July 2004 - 12:19)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-lynx@9 July 2004 - 12:25

Power: 200 watt (max) power supply for ATX style motherboards

Avoid this machine like the plague.

damnit, saw that, but forgot to mention it.........

yeah, you&#39;re rite........ im wondering how fast that thing would fry...........

200Watts wasnt even enough on my parents comp (AMD 500, 20GB HDD, 1CD drive, 1CD burner) when i inserted a 120GB HDD.......... the f**ker just blew up......... luckily nothing was damaged, but you might not get so lucky [/b][/quote]
It must be a quality power supply though, HP&#39;s never have cheap power supply&#39;s in them, i&#39;ll tell you that much...

my old computer&#39;s 150watt power most of my computer back when I fried my 350watt. Only things it wasn&#39;t powering was my cd drives, too afraid to try them...