new computers for the office : compaq s4000 vs ibuypower.com p4

[john erickson_1]

as you know i am an administrator and have been asked by my boss to come up with a recommendation on these two systems. I know nothing about hardware and fall prey to the gooble-de gook doubletalk of the pc sellers. this is the bare bodkin: to buy or not to buy: from Best Buy: compaq s4000v 2.4gz p4;512mb ddr/pc2700;80 gig hd(7200rpm);16xdvd-rom;48xcd-rw;integrated 5.1 sound;128nvidiageforcefx5600;floppy;xp home; %$50 rebate=$850 before tax. my questions are: (1) can i add a generic firewire etc. or does compaq have that "you got to buy everything from us" problem they used to have?
(2)is this system compatible with a dell 19 lcd monitor?

Other choice: from ibuypower: 2.4 p4 w asus p4p800 865 chipset;420watt p/s;512 d/c ddr400 pc3200mhz; ati radeon 9600 128mb;16x dvd;cd-rw; creative labs 5.1 sound; pci10/100 net card;floppy;xp home;ieee 1394 f/w
for $1134 +65 ship= $1200. will the dell monitor work well here?

if i recommend "junk" i will be looking for a new job. my boss wants photo processing and data base capabilities with good speed. if anyone has any suggestions on these two machines please let me know.

[Martin Simnett]

You should be able to add a generic firewire card to the compaq and any monitor should work on any PC.
If these PC's are to join a domain (properly) you will need to upgrade them to XP Pro.
I have not dealt with ibuypower before but I have not had problems from Compaqs in the past. Both specs however seem OK.

[Alexander M. Ermes]

Hi there.
Remeber :
you might run into compat problems with Compaq.
The BIOS for sample is configured for Compaq use und you have to go to Compaq to get any updates, not to the manufacturer of the mobo.
Same thing can happen for firmware of any devices in your computer.
parts :
go for the Radeon graphics card. It is faster than the GForce.
Harddisks should be WD 800 JB ( 8 MB cache, 7200 rpm ) nice, reliable and fast.
Why not go for a DVD burner +/-R +/-RW ?
The monitor is ok for both machines.
why do you have to use Intel P4 ?
Why not look for AMD CPU and a socket A board
from ASUS or Gigabyte ?
ASUS A7N8X deluxe is really working
2 LAN onboard / nForce2 chipset / 5.1 sound onboard / S-ATA ( raid possible / firewire

check ASUS homepage for details of your suggested board, it should have some of the parts you want to buy separately, onboard.
Rgds
Alexander M. Ermes

[Roger Faucher]

John:

Right now you should buy systems based on motherboards (MOBOs) which support 800MHz FSB (Front Side Bus) Pentium 4 CPUs. The ibuypower PC you describe has such a MOBO. I prefer Intel motherboards.

Indeed, it used to be true that any monitor will work with any PC. However, with the advent of LCD displays, there are Analog, Digital, and Analog/Digital variants. If your monitor is Digital only and your video card is Analog only, it won't work.

The Windows XP PRO is critical! You WILL have a lot of explaining to do if you install XP HOME on a business LAN.

You should call Dell and see if they'll match the ibuypower pricing. Their Dimension 4600 configured the same comes pretty close (within $200). You should have no trouble getting the difference under $100 (including 1 year of onsite service).

HTH

Roger

[Clyde Moore]

Considering the experience I am having with iBuyPower.com, you probably should go with buying a Hewlett Packard at your local store.

I had iBuyPower.com put a computer together for me with an Asus p4c800 motherboard, Pentium 4 2.4 GHz processor, and Raid 0 - dual 80 Gigabyte Wester Digital Hard Drives.

It took iBuyPower.com a month to ship the computer. They couldn't figure out the Raid-0 and didn't want to call about it. After more than a week of supposedly being tested, they ship the computer with defective media reader and speakers.

They charged me $80 for Corsair memory upgrade and install ordinary Kingston "Value Memory" -- insist they did me a favor and won't refunded the difference. Reseller Web sites put Corsair memory at nearly $100 more than the memory in my machine.

They charged me for Sony DVD player and install a generic player. Poorly installed the Thermo monitor unit, so it reads the back of the unit's temperature on 3 displays instead of CPU, Hard Drive, and top of computer.

For more info check out,
http://burlingtonvt.org/society-and-culture/discussion-boards/messages/232.html
http://cvpcug.addr.com/cvpcug/newsletter/from-the-editor/editor-2003-10.html

[Roger Faucher]

John:

I (and probably other people, as well) will be disinclined to reply to your future posts since you have such a poor record of assigning points (13 of 67).

Please check out Patrick Wallek's article (particularly the 'after posting...' section here: http://66.34.90.71/ITRCForumsEtiquette/

FYI

Roger