Buying a PC

[Remou]

A client has ask for a new Dell box for his one-man business, to replace his current desktop. This is not something I normally do, so I would like some advice. I was thinking of recommending the following:

OptiPlex GX520
Components
PROCESSOR Intel® Pentium® D Processor 820 (2.8GHz, 800MHz FSB, 2x1MB L2 cache, EM64T)
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® XP Professional English, SP2 WITH Media
MEMORY 1.0GB 533MHz Non-ECC DDR2 SDRAM (2*512MB DIMM) Memory
HARD DRIVE 160GB (7,200 rpm) Serial ATA2 Hard Drive
OPTICAL DRIVE(S) 48x DVD-ROM/CD-RW Combo Drive + SW Decode - NO MEDIA

SPEAKERS Dell A225 Speakers edit
Business Support 3yr (incl. e-Learning Pack)

He uses lots of USB devices such as a dictation device, palm pilot, external drives, printer etc and he likes music while he works (hence the speakers). He uses Powerpoint and Word a good deal, but not a lot else. He already has a fun family computer and a laptop. Everything is linked by a wireless network.

It would be great to have my mistakes pointed out.

 

[vacunita]

Probably toss in a USB 2.0 hub. for the extra usb slots. Other than that its seems pretty good to me for what he wants. Personally I would add a second drive for backup purposes but thats just me.



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Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

 

[kmcferrin]

I agree, if he wants it for his business then there has to be something in the mix to allow him to backup his data regularly and restore it in the event of a catastrophic failure. Maybe he already has something in place with his current PC, but if not I would defeinitely recommend one of those USB external hard disks that have the "one button backup" feature. Those work quite well.

 

[Remou]

Thanks for this information, he has two external hard drives so he can keep one off-site. I set up dos batch files to back-up the laptop and desktop to these drives and to 'synchronise' the laptop and desktop.

 

[ceh4702]

By the time you buy one of those expensive external backup hard drives you could probably pay for a low end PC from Dell for around $300.00 and use that just for backup. I think a separate PC for backup might work better. Might have to add a couple big hard drives to it.

In reality what you need is a tape backup unit, but they are expensive.

If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.

 

[riverider]

I would get a larger hard drive my backup external is a 160GB prices are so low on HDs I would go for a 500GB 7200 RPM unit.

As for a back HD I don't think you can beat the external units you can get them in a USB or Firewire interface.

 

[jheine]

Since this is his business PC, and I'm guessing everything is on this one PC, it may be worth looking into a second internal hard drive and setting up a mirror (RAID 1). He should still do the external backup, but this way he won't have to worry about the downtime should his hard drive up and quit on him.

Jarrett

 

[Remou]

jheine
I will certainly suggest a second hard drive.