Too good to be true? People clever with computers plz help

I really dont want to be a killjoy but normally if a deal seems too good to be true it normally is! You dont mention who the offer is from, if it's a reputable dealer you may be ok but if you've never heard of them i'd stay well clear! A friend of mine did the same thing and had nothing but trouble sent it back and had a hard time getting his money back and their "support" helpline was useless. He ordered this through "What PC" magazine or something like that. 😞

mossy,

I don't know what PC's go for on your side of the pond, but you're going to have to spend a bit of cash on this one for it to be useful. There's no operating system (can't do much without that). There's only one optical drive (ever want to copy a CD?). It's only a 350 Watt power supply (that's pretty small these days). I've never heard of that brand of motherboard (maybe that's okay, there's lots of things I've never heard of). And a second hard drive is really nice to have, for back-ups and such. Yes, you can buy an external drive, or install a second one yourself, but that's more money. Personally, I wouldn't use on-board sound, but then I do a lot with music and need more interface options, so it would need a new sound card. See where I'm going?

I'd say that if you're not up on the technical stuff, you might want to buy something that is more full-featured. Otherwise, you'd have to upgrade it all yourself.

Ed

I have realised why it is so cheap - because it dosent have all the extras (like a printer, mouse, moniter,etc) that would normally come with say a dell pc with 2gb of ram, which is fine because I have all those things. I spose the question now is: Is it a good system or should I change some things? (I already have changed a few in response to previous replies🙂

As the specs now stand:

CPU\AMD Athlon 64 X2 AMD ATHLON 64 X2 4200+ 2MB SKT-939

Motherboards\SKT 939 ASUS SKT-939 A8V-VM S/V/L M-ATX 2000MT/s

Optical Drives\DVD Writers NEC DVD±RW/DL 18x6x18x8 AD-5170A BLACK

Cooling Fans ThermalTake Heatsink & Fan Low Noise

Memory\DDR 2 GB PC-3200 DDR 400 MHZ

Hard Drives\SATA 250 GB SATA HDD UDMA 300 7200 8MB

Second Hard Drive NOT INCLUDED

Graphics Cards XpertVision 256/512MB GeF 7100GS PCI-E

Second Optical Drive BTC 16x IDE DVD BDV316E BLK OEM

Floppy Drives Black Floppy Drive 1.44 MB

Card Readers NOT INCLUDED

Computer Cases XBLADE - Black - 450W PSU

Power Supplies STANDARD PSU INCLUDED WITH CASE

Operating Systems WINDOWS MEDIA CENTER 2005 + FREE VISTA UPGRADE

Anti Virus NORTON ANTIVIRUS 2007

Sound Cards ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL 5.1 SOUND

Firewire Card NOT INCLUDED

USB Ports 8 X USB 2.0 PORTS

Networking FAST 10/100 LAN (BROADBAND READY)

Hardware Support 12 MONTHS 24/7 E-MAIL SUPPORT

Software Support 12 MONTHS 24/7 E-MAIL SUPPORT

Warranty Package 1 YEAR RETURN TO BASE

Delivery Options NEXT DAY AFTER COMPLETION

Thanks for your help

Ditch Norton. Please please do DITCH Norton A-V. NOD32 is what you want 😎

I agree with Ed, I have never heard of that first MoBo brand either.... Be smart and spend a few hours reading product reviews before you buy it......otherwise I'd go for the ASUS.
Can't do much with top-notch peripherals (hows that spelled? 🤔 ) if your mobo has a much lower bus speed for example.

Also, if you have a choice, check that the HD is not Maxtor. Their SATA Discs have had a few compatibility problems with certain mobo brands (ASUS mobo's for one..)

And be advised...you can (not necessarily, but you can) get a very loud PSU and CPU Fan if you go for the default ones. (Hey they gotta save on something to achieve that price, right?)
You dont want to be sitting next to a noisy PC...after a month you will really regret you didnt pull out a few extra $$ to get a quiet CPU fan(Zalman is very good) and a variable-speed PSU - fan with with ball-bearings.

It's a quiet fan. The motherboard was my main worry as I know nothing about them. Here are the specs for the motherboard, I dont understand them but hopefully there is someone here who does.

BIOS AMI
Chipset VIA K8M890 + VIA VT8251
CPU Interface Socket 939
Max CPU Support AMD Opteron 154 AMD Opteron 185 (Dual-Core) AMD Athlon 64 4000+ AMD Athlon 64 FX-60 AMD Athlon X2 4800+ AMD Sempron 3200+
FSB 1600MT/s
2000MT/s
RAM Technology DDR (Dual Channel)
ECC / non-ECC un-buffered
RAM Slots 4 x 184-Pin
RAM Speeds DDR266
DDR333
DDR400
Max Memory Support 4GB
Expansion slots 1 x PCI Express x16
1 x PCI Express x1
2 x 32-bit PCI
Storage Controller 2 x P-ATA/133
4 x S-ATA/300
RAID 0
RAID 1
RAID 0+1
RAID 5
On-Board LAN 1 x 10/100
Realtek RTL8201CL LAN PHY
On-Board Audio 6-channel
ADI AD1986A
On-Board Video Integrated VIA DeltaChrome GPU
Shared Memory Max. 256MB
Back Panel I/O Ports 1 x PS/2 Keyboard
1 x PS/2 Mouse
1 x Parallel
1 x COM
1 x 15-pin D-sub
4 x USB2.0
1 x LAN
3 x Audio
Internal I/O Connectors 1 x 24-pin ATX Power
1 x 4 pin ATX 12V Power
2 x USB2.0
1 x SPDIF
1 x CD Audio
1 x Audio
2 x FAN
Form Factor Micro-ATX
244mm x 229mm
Special Features AMD Cool 'n' Quiet! Technology
SoundMAX High Definition Audio
ASUS CrashFree BIOS2
ASUS EZ Flash
C.P.R.(CPU Parameter Recall)

ASUS are the best in my opinion. Foxconn AFAIK come from the same maker, but a lower standard, as does Asrock, much lower.

I have 4 HDs 2 Maxtor, and 2 Western Digital all SATA running perfectly on my ASUS Mobo' A8N32-SLI

Motherboards\SKT 939 FOXCONN K8M890M2MA-RS2H SKT-AM2 2000MT/s

Socket 939 and AM2 are not the same socket. 939 has been replaced by the AM2.

Actually this is a fair deal. But like what was mentioned earlier, make sure it is from a reputable dealer. You could make that same system, or better, at Newegg. I did. The only thing about Newegg is you have to put it together yourself. If you want to buy the parts, and have the knowhow to do it. From the items you listed it would be a low end system.