Office Computer

Technology and Gaming Help and Support
#1

My dad wants a new office computer and his boss is willing to shell out 500 for it. He’s commissioned me to do pick it out. He won’t be doing anything strenuous, just web surfing and word processing, and all that on a 1024x768 CRT he insists on still using. I plan on assembling a barebones and installing windows 7 professional (his boss insists it be professional) and a wireless card from his old desktop.

Here are the four options I’ve found so far:
Computer 1
Computer 2
Computer 3
Computer 4
At the moment I’m leaning towards computer 4.

#2

If the boss is laying out £500, spend it all I say, unless you get to keep the change personally

#3

See their location.
Location: in the land of the free and the home of the dumbasses

America obviously. $.

Your point still remains relevant though.

#4

If all he’s literally going to be doing is web surfing and word processing, then just go with the cheapest thing you can.

#5

Spend as minimal as possible then take the rest of the money

#6

Like repeating things do you?:retard:

Anyway, seeing as it’s his boss who’s doing it, I hardly think that he’s going to let you ‘keep the change’

#7

Well, I do more or less get to keep the change, but both the boss and my dad want me to buy something more expensive, and if the change is too much then the boss’ll just keep the extra. I’m looking for more of technical advice on the options I put out there, specifically number 4.

#8

Here’s my advice.

DON’T DO IT

Anytime something goes wrong you will be the one expected to fix it for free.
If a drink gets spilled on it, if there’s a power surge or brown-out, if a bug get’s on it, if there are network issues, if the monitor actually just wears out, no matter what…you’ll be expected to take care of it because you were the one who built it so it’s your fault. You’ll end up finding out that you’ll be expected to take care of these problems forever and for free!

Don’t get yourself into it. You’ve been warned!

#9

wow, that’s either one very generous boss, or one who’s not great at financial management. When you spec up a PC and it comes in under budget, you don’t just give the guy the left over cash. What an idiot.

#10

I always mention that I give a 1 year warranty on software only, and charge 50$ for 2 years.

#11

Very generous. It’s a very informal situation, the boss and my dad are close friends etc. so it’s not anything so serious as that. I’m expected to, and will, do my best to deliver and will probably only take at most like 50 bucks or less regardless of the final price of the computer.

#12

Wow, it seems everyone here is being pretty profoundly unhelpful.

I would stay away from pre-builds, as they’re usually more expensive. With that in mind, here’s a build that I made earlier this year for my friend’s mother. Very easy to put together, and works like an absolute charm.

And bear in mind that all of those prices are in AUD, so it’ll obviously be cheaper (and you can likely now get slightly more advanced tech at an equivalent price).

As for the wireless card, I’d just get a motherboard with Wifi built in, given that its one less thing to worry about (as well as it likely being better than the card you have to work with, if the other components, like the monitor, are anything to go by). I didn’t worry about it for my build, but there are definitely options.

#13

Pretty sure most wifi-enabled mobos are more expensive than a regular mobo+15$ PCI wireless card.

#14

I’d just build one yourself, it’ll cost much less, and probably work better, overall. But, also, as CPU stated, that’d be a good thing to think about, as that’s very true. You’ll become the “tech guy” who knows how to solve the problems, and “oh, you’re a workers son, it’s free.” so, if you don’t know how or simply don’t want to, then pretty much any of those will work great based on what you say he’ll be doing. I’m leaning towards 4, though, as it’s both the cheapest you provided, plenty of RAM, plenty of HDD space, and looks neat, heh heh. But if surfing and word processing are it, you might wanna save the dude some money and go even cheaper, because those all are way more than enough to get the job done.

#15

Thanks for the advice. I was under the impression that all those are simply hardware bundles not pre-builts. Your replies (crypt and loony) seemed to imply otherwise, am I mistaken? I’m willing to deal with any tech difficulties that may arise. Also, I’m off to college next fall so if shit goes wrong it’ll be harder for them to make me deal with it.

I think I’ll buy option 4. My dad wants a fast computer, so I’ll get him a fast computer. It’s the bosses money anyway, so I’m not too concerned with price efficiency.

#16

I was also under the impression that they were pre-built, but if not, they’re practically disassembled desktops.

Founded in 2004, Leakfree.org became one of the first online communities dedicated to Valve’s Source engine development. It is more famously known for the formation of Black Mesa: Source under the 'Leakfree Modification Team' handle in September 2004.