Is this a good price?

[Ingersoll444]

I have a chance to buy my old work PC, becouse we upgreaded. It is a Gateway 733 with a 20" CRT flat screen. They want $200 for it all. Is it worth it?

[Durwood]

Why buy something outdated? At Wal-Mart they have a nice E-machine that can be upgraded and it is an Amd 3100 with 120 gig hard drive with a dvd burner and a 17' crt monitor for $649.00 i believe. It would be hard to beat that price for that good of a machine and like i said the E machines can be upgraded with parts that don't have to be from them. 50 times the machine then you are looking at from work.

Edit- To answer your question if it is worth it or not depends on what you are gonna use it for. You will be paying $200.00 for a computer that is already outdated basically.

Durwood

[Ingersoll444]

Kinda my thought. Dell has the $499 specials all the time, and my wife got one, and its prety nice. But that 20" monter is REAL nice

[MowHoward2210]

I was going to mention that the if the 20" monitor is a good quality unit, then it doesn't seem like a bad price. Still, though, if you are talking about a 733mhz PIII, or especially a 733mhz Celeron, then I would be real hesitant to invest any kind of $$. Is the machine equipped with a 733mhz pocessor? And how big of HD and how much RAM?

I you can catch Dell's "now you see it now you dont'" pricing, you can find some killer deals. Also look at the Sunday paper fliers for sales at the brick & mortar stores like Wal-Mart, CCity, BBuy, Staples, etc.

[Durwood]

You have to watch out for some of those Dell specials. Sometimes they only include 128 ram which isn't near enough. Even 256 isn't enough. My computer had 512 and i added another 512 to make it fast enough. If you compare what you are getting and how easy can you upgrade it then i think the E-machine wins hands down.

Durwood

[Steve (Magnolia, TX)]

Well...
Depending on what you're upgrading and your financial situation (I know that in my case, I could PROBABLY come up with $200, but that $800 would be a stretch), I might go for the work machine.

I'm more of a Compaq guy (hardware-wise), so I don't know the specs of a Gateway 733, but... Assuming ~1GHz or better for a processor and MINIMALLY 256MB RAM (preferably 512MB or more) and 40GB (or more) of hard disk... I think that it'd be worth it...

:fing02:
FWIW...

[CatDaddy]

It came stock with a 733MHz P-III processor - that's about 4 times slower than every thing on the market currently.
How much memory does it have?
What operating system does it have? (I think they shipped with Win2k, but were often upgraded to XP). Are they going to give you all the system disks too?
How big is the harddrive?
What sort of peripherals (CD-burner/DVD drive) are installed? What sort of software are they leaving on it? (Are they going to give you those disks too?)
Does it have a network card, or a modem installed?
What kind of video card is installed - or is it using integrated graphics?
How old is the monitor? If it's more than a couple of years old, then... meh!
Are they giving you the mouse, keyboard and maybe a printer too?

My kids are using an 866MHz P-III w/ 512MB RAM & XP, it's O.K. for web-browsing & their kiddy edu-tainment games, but it chokes on anything advanced. The video card has a lot to do with that, but since it doesn't have an APG slot, it can only take PCI-based video cards.

[Ingersoll444]

Lots of Q's there CD.

Mostly I dont know. :D

it had 98 on it, and comes with all programs, but I will clear almost all off.

It does come with the keyboard but no printer.

Been a good computer though. I have used it sence new. Well Realy not in a hurry, so maybe I will hang back and see if they lower there price. :D

[MCG_LT180]

If the monitor is relatively new and in good shape, it would be worth close to the $200 anyway. You could then put linux on the computer and run a very nice firewall, or even a small fileserver. There are plenty of uses you could get out of it.

My recommendation in a nutshell:

If you are looking to pick up a spare machine then get it. If you are looking to upgrade your main rig, then you may want to pass.


Regards,

Mark

[Steve (Magnolia, TX)]

Well Realy not in a hurry, so maybe I will hang back and see if they lower there price. :D

If, as assumed by most, it is a 733MHz processor, I'd pass, at this price. Now... If they'll come down 25%-50% on their price.... That'd probably be worth it, just for the monitor (assuming you've got the space for a 20" CRT).

[guest]

Offer them $50 and see what they say.

[Durwood]

Chief has the right idea. If they take it then you got a cheap monitor. I would then take the computer and fill the case up with rocks and make it into a nice boat anchor. :fing32:

Durwood

[guest]

That was my yard sale pricing strategy. They may come back with $100 but you can always try $75 on the counter offer. They just want to get rid of it because it will cost them to dispose of it.

[CatDaddy]

You want to build one maybe?

I can point you to a good guide (http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NzU4). $500 will get you a good start on the latest tech (with an upgrade path :D ). You'll need to reuse some of your current components of course.

Or you can just hit a WallyWorld clearance.

-=A=-

[MowHoward2210]

Here's another link for BYO, Paul: Guide for first time PC bulders (http://www.omnicast.net/~tmcfadden/guides/build/index.html)

Angel or some other helpful PC folks can probably tell you if that site is any good or not.

[CatDaddy]

That's tight! Good photos, funny rap, solid directions.

[Ingersoll444]

Well I have built a few, and rebuilt a ton, but dont know if I was to go that route.

Right now I am on my old steam powerd PII 266 with 90 something of mem. Not great. Takes about 5-10 min to boot up, and locks a lot when online. Hmmmm so mostly I will hang to see if they lower the price. Unless the wife realy like the thought of getting that 20" flatscreen. I have no room for it where my computer is, but she does.

[Ken N Tx]

Tell them you will buy 10 of their flat screens for $50 each, then head for e bay!!