What to buy for EUR 4k?

[Katja]

Originally posted here by mark_boyle2002
but wait "soon-to-be-family-in-law ".

Were not even dating yet. Stop talking about my mom like you own her already !

God damn it. I hate it when girls get ahead of them selves.

Don't worry. I wasn't referring to you or your family. I've told you before, I'm not single. I'm happily ever living together right now. And since we can get officially married in the Netherlands, we are considering this option. First finish our studies, of course...

[the_JinX]

To get back to the topic before macho_boy2000 stole the show,

Originally posted here by Katja
Now, my knowledge about hardware is a bit limited. Building my own PC is therefore no option.

Well then it's Dell for you, check out (the Small Business / Kleine Ondernemingen ) section..
Seeing that you are willing to spend Euro4K, I'd go for a Dual XEON 3Ghz with 4GB of ram and a raid1 (2x) 300GB ultra 320 scsi and redundant power suply.
Too bad you are goning to be running windows on it... No 64 bits for you yet..

I do feel silly saying Dell pc's are really good value for money..

[BlackHatHunter]

I agree with Jinx.
Here's your deal. Save lots of $$$ on a Dell Dimension 3000 Desktop, P4 3.0GHz w/ HT Technology, 1GB DDR, 160GB, 16x DL DVD±RW/±R/CD-RW, XP Professional, Speakers w/ Subwoofer, Wireless Keyboard/Mouse, Dell 720 Printer » only $626.00 + Free Shipping
Nothing special, but very nice for the price. Click here
THEN:
Under "Dell Dimension 3000 Series" section, change the selection to "Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor w/ HT Technology (3GHz, 800 FSB) [add $32]"
Under "Operating System" section, change the selection to "Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional [add $95]"
Under "Memory" section, change the selection to "1GB Dual Channel DDR SDRAM at 400MHz [add $128]"
Under "Hard Drive" section, change the selection to "160GB Ultra ATA/100 7200RPM Hard Drive [add $64]"
Under "CD or DVD Drive" section, change the selection to "Single Drive: 16X CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) w/double layer write capability [add $39]"
Under "Monitors" section, change the selection to "No Monitor [subtract $40]"
Under "Speakers" section, change the selection to "Dell A425 30 Watt 2.1 Stereo Speakers with Subwoofer [add $40]"
Under "Keyboard and Mouse Bundles" section, change the selection to "Dell Wireless Keyboard and Optical Mouse [add $40]"
Under "Operating System Backup & Recovery" section, change the selection to "Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional backup CD [add $8]"
Check each and every option to make sure you are getting everything that you need
Proceed to checkout
During checkout, apply $500 off $1099+ coupon code "PBHWM?KJK6RZMM" on it (Expires: 08/25/2005 @ 5:59AM CDT or after first 5000 redemptions)
Dell Home is offering Free Shipping on any Dell Dimension order greater than $549
There is a handling charge of $19
Your Final Price: $1107 - $500 + $19 = $626.00 + Free Shipping

Kinda a long process, but worth the savings.

[Katja]

Wow... Two times the advise: buy Dell. My currrent system is a Dell, so I am pretty familiar with them. Good computers, considering the fact that mine is 5 years old now.

Following the "Small business" wizard for some advise, Dell advises me to buy a PowerEdge 1800. And wow, available from €769 so still reasonable cheap. But then all the extra's... And suddenly I realise that it gets expensive pretty fast afterwards.

And another thing to consider. Windows XP is pretty good but I would be more interested in 2003 Server. The system would be powerful enough for that. Just have to find out the difference between 2003 standard and 2003 Premium. I've also considered using Linux but with VMWare I could run a Linux box within a virtual machine. (And with a dual-processor system it would be a fast linux-box too. )

I could strip away some hardware components from my current system, though. For example, I already have a dual-layer 8x DVD/RW and many other components on my current PC are actually USB devices. A RAID system would become a bit expensive in the end, though.

But it would still be more expensive than what I have in mind for spending on it. Oh, well... I can wait. I'm not in a hurry to buy, just want good suggestions. (Not too many smilies again?)

[BlackHatHunter]

Here is a good site if you're looking to buy a Dell.
Here's some more smilies

(this is as many as I could post )

[!mitationRust]

I'd go Dell too if I felt like getting swindled and getting stuck with a dying socket!

[morganlefay]

IMHO...

Dell builds good servers.........

WS and laptops...well....depends on the product and all the integreted sht...

But...I have some slick dell servers out there....dual xeons, lots of memory, redundant PS and SCSI hardware RAID....no one can match thier prices....

and so far(crossing my fingers)...not one has had a hardware failure.....other than travan drives

MLF

[BlackHatHunter]

amen.

[foxyloxley]

Now is not a great time to buy major kit.............a lot of new things are coming onto the market?

when buying PC's, there are only two times that you will get it right ............

Yesterday ............when it was at a better price / offer
Tomorrow ............ there is ALWAYS something else coming onto the market

Today is NEVER the right day

Yet another who would advise DELL [Sorry !mitationRust ]
use the online builder

if you DO go to a local shop ............ do NOT say you have 4K Euro's
they will push you towards kit that you neither want nor need..........

[Katja]

Since I bought my previous computer at Dell, I do consider buying my new computer there too. But as an alternative, I might use the Dell site to determine the configuration I like and then go to a local shop to ask them if they can compete with this offer. But first I need to know what I want, exactly...

About waiting a while, I think that is a pretty good idea. I might want to use Windows Vista instead of XP or 2003. And Intel has apparantly created a newer processor too, recently. As I've said before, I want a system like the one I have now, something that will last for several years at least, being still pretty high-tech in the first two years, still able to compete with newer systems during the next 3 years and barely behind modern technologies during the next four or five years. And afterwards it would still be a very usable piece of antiquated hardware. In other words, I'm aiming for quality. For something that still takes a while before it is really outdated.