Hardware Required for Level 2.

[del]

OEM tower case
FIC Motherboard
1.2Ghz AMD Athlon XP86 CPU
(PSU is 300amp/watt …not sure)
Heavy Duty AMD approved Heatsink & Fan
256mbDDR Memory
40gb HDDrive
Floppy drive
CD Rom 54x
Nvidia TNT2 32mg Graphics card
Matrox Millennium G550 graphics card.
56k Modem
Logitec Cordless Keyboard/Mouse
2 x 17"inch Sampo Monitor (alpha 712) 85Kw

Windows 2000 Professional
(Windows Office 2000)
Norton 2002 SystemWorks Antivirus
Norton Personal Firewall
Winzip
Symantec PcAnywhere
Acrobat Reader 5.0

I was quoted £1,185.00 (excl.vat @17.5%) for the above.
Is this good value or excessive?

Any suggestions/amendments for trading level 2 purposes.
del.

 

[Trader333]

Del,

This is certainly much more than is needed but I would add that broadband access to the internet is probably as important as the rest. I know that not everyone can get it but it does make life much easier. The spec you have given here is more than adequate for level II. I think you could get almost as good a system and at much less cost but it is up to you.

Good Luck


Paul

 

[del]

Thanks Paul. Just asked chartman for his comments - all welcome.

 

[ChartMan]

That's way OTT on price.Even if it included vat. The spec is poor and no way would I buy FIC motherboards...... I'll pvt you.
PS the 1.2 Athlon went out of production ages ago..... A 1.2 Duron is the lowest spec CPU you can get. Retail price around £30 . For £60 you can have a 2 Gig Athlon XP that will run at least twice as fast if not more.. I can't see this as a fair deal....... Sure it will do everything you want, but as already stated, the block is the dial up modem.....

 

[Mayfly]

Hi Del,

I agree with the others here - you can check to see what you should be getting for your money by looking here: http://www.meshplc.co.uk/DesktopDefault.aspx or http://www.evesham.com/Index.asp?e=80855016-6C6C-459A-9CC8-166040481A47 I've had Mesh machines before and I've been really happy with them; Evesham have a good reputation too.

If you want something really nice, then I suggest you take a look here: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_Full_Systems_43.html and scroll down to the bottom of the page for the topline machines.

You should be able to get ADSL or cable in Dublin, surely?

Cheers

Mayfly

 

[del]

Very good replies....I'm sure other novices will find this benefical.

Chartman - pm.

Mayfly. Yes broadband is availble in Dublin via NTL cable modem- speed of 525.5kbps with www.bandwidthplace.com this am. It is an always on service, charged at a flat rate fee of 40.00euros per month. This is the best internet access service in Ireland for speed, service and price. Unfortunately you have to be an NTL subscriber which is very restricted ...... only new estates in dublin/galway etc ...... as NTL have stopped rolling out (digging up roads). All other services use the old telcoms infrastructure dial up service of 33.3kbps e.g. eircom, Esat BT. They claim to have 'high-speed' internet connections of 128kbps but its really 56-62.5kbps charged at 5c per minute and is unreliable.
From this you may have noticed Ireland /Dublin is not the Digital Hub of Europe as our government claims!

 

[HornedGod]

DSL in Dublin

As well as NTL's Always On 600 (600/128) service, you can also get DSL (actually RADSL) from Eircom and various resellers (Netsource, Esat BT). There are also a few wireless broadband services depending on your location within Dublin. I have the Netsource DSL and find it to be generally excellent (even if it does cost slightly more for the privelege of being uncapped).

Your best bet for more information is to check out the broadband forum over at http://www.boards.ie/

 

[del]

Cheers HornedGod......good info.