AMD Sempron 3200+, new ACER (low cost) PC

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I mentioned in the recent new PC thread we got the older kids a new PC.

We just watched the ads and stuff for the best deal and pounced. $329 total (including 8.2% sales tax):

ACER made in China (of course)
AMD Sempron 3200+ (please talk to me about this processor - no thought of AMD vs.INTC went into the purchasing process - it's a cheap PC and my old AMD seems to be great)
512MB Ram - seems to be fine
Win XP Home and a few other software titles, NAV, etc
CD-DVD R/W
17" LCD Monitor (pretty nice IMHO)
Excellent multi memory/media card reader (I want this!!!
The usual LAN etc built in
And best of all? The puppy is SOOOOO quiet. Amazing. Seems REALLY fast for built in graphics.

I'd say an OK bargain from the usually crappy Circuit City.
 
For the love of Peter Norton, remove NAV at once.
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Use the freeware stuff mentioned in this forum.

Has Mr Norton written a single line of code this century? Amazing how his name is still on the outside of the box.

Just about any processor will do for generic things like online browsing, email, word processor, spreadsheets, etc. RAM is the key. 512 may by OK now, but 1GB is a nice place to be.

Good price!

www.openoffice.org for a free office suite. Yeah, it's a little slow and needs some polish, but heck, it's worked flawlessly for the year or so I've been using OO. Free is good
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What size hard disk?
 
Sounds like a pretty good deal. My sister just bought an Acer laptop for $400. (Pentium M, 512MB RAM)

Seems that Acer has some good deals, not sure on their quality though.
 
quote:

Originally posted by Pablo:

AMD Sempron 3200+ (please talk to me about this processor - no thought of AMD vs.INTC went into the purchasing process - it's a cheap PC and my old AMD seems to be great)


I've been using AMD processors for years. No problems and they seem to perform about as claimed.

They have almost always been more bang for the buck, although with prices moving around you never know for sure unless you check right when you are going to buy.

All else being equal, I would still buy them because Intel needs the competition.
 
Acer makes pretty decent laptops, but the battery is very weak, it only lasts for 1 hour.

Sony also had problems a few years back with their batteries.
 
Whoever invented the media card reader should have a gold medal!

I had an old AMD K6-300 in a PC I bought in 1998. It worked flawlessly for 7 years.
 
quote:

Originally posted by LT4 Vette:
Acer makes pretty decent laptops, but the battery is very weak, it only lasts for 1 hour.

Sony also had problems a few years back with their batteries.


With what processor? I see they do use Celeron Ms(like dell
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) which don't get the power savings features of the Pentium Ms. I ask her how the battery is doing, it's a smaller laptop so I wouldn't expect a lot.

-T
 
You paid only a little more for the entire system than I paid for a 17" LCD monitor some time back! Nice buy!
 
AMD processors is what I have along with my wife and daughter. Her's is my old copmuter with an AMD Barton core that has 512 MB L2 cache. I can overclock that up to 2.25 GHz pretty easy as it is an early week Barton core processor, only need to remember NOT to enable the CPU enhanced in the BIOS, or won't boot.

ALL of the computers, save the UNIX server at the winery are AMD based. They are great running processors and handled the volume of graphics that Doug and others put them through with the Adobe CS Illustrator and other Adobe stuff they use.

At home I run a 64 bit AMD on my computer with 1.5 GB DDR RAM and 3 SATA hard drives and the AMD works flawlessly. Good processors by my book.
 
Not bad. I have an AMD Athlon XP 3200+ with the 400Mhz Front side bus that I've overclocked from 2.2 to 2.35Ghz. It runs quite stable, which is very shocking. I don't use NAV, I use SAV. Symantec Anti-Virus.... basically Norton minus all the ****. Free from LSU... same with the Office 2003 Pro I have.
 
Been using AMDs since the original K6. Usually a much better value than Intel, and at the high end, they've been relative equals for some time now. Their 64 bit cores are first-class.

But that's in the desktop world. In the mobile realm, AMDs are still not quite as energy efficient as the best Intel offerings, which is what I prefer in our laptops.

Dump the Symantec and put on NOD32 without delay. The former has bloated into a resource pig and registry killer. Acer tech support will thank you for it.
 
I have been looking for a cheap laptop to use for work that will just basically be for printing paperwork. This may be worth a look. I was just about settled on a Toshiba Satellite for $768 but I will def. have a look into this one.
 
How about this link then? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16834115262 I buy stuff from www.newegg.com all the time, for myself and for the winery. 3 days of less for us here in Michigan, and no hassels..none!! Not bad!!$499.99 after rebate of $50 and comes with 40GB Hard drive, and DVD/CD writer drive along with TFT XGA screen. WOW!! even has wireless and hardwire LAN if you want, and Acer is not that bad. We just bought 3ea 17" flat screen LCD monitors for only 149.00 from Newegg.com and they were free shipping!!
 
My last two boxes have been AMD, and I'll use AMD the next time also.

cheaper, and I've never had a glitch.

Got Open Office the other day, and am quite impressed at its FREE flexibility. I'm used to microsponge, and Open Office is different, but I can still track my mileage, blood pressure, write things, do nasty little power point type snides etc.
 
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