IS THIS A GOOD COMPUTER? (For $499)?

Question

These are the specifications of a computer i was looking to get...Is this good? Should I upgrade/ downgrade anything??

PROCESSOR Intel® Pentium Conroe Dual Core Processor E2200 (1MB L2 Cache, 2.2GHz, 800MHz FSB), English edit

OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista® Home Basic Service Pack 1 edit

MEMORY 2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz- 2DIMMs edit

HARD DRIVE 250GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™ edit

SOUND CARD Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio edit

GRAPHICS CARD Integrated Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 3100 edit

OPTICAL DRIVE 16X DVD+/-RW Drive edit

MONITOR No Monitor edit

MODEM AND WIRELESS 56K PCI Data Fax Modem edit

FLOPPY DRIVE & MEDIA READER No Floppy Drive Included

Answer 1

The CPU, memory, and disk are good.  Myself, I wouldn't accept WinVista on a bet.  Integrated sound card doesn't say anything about the quality of its synthesizers.  The integrated graphics unit based on the Intel chip set is not that good.

No monitor isn't as bad as all that.  Flat-panel LCDs have come down in price considerably.

The lack of a floppy isn't much of an issue.  It would be really nice if it had a media reader.  I also didn't see anything about a USB port but these days that is almost a show-stopper if you don't have one.  Just about every modern printer and some network interfaces use USB.

Answer 2

It would depend on what you want to do with it, the graphics card shares your ram. If this is a business computer then it is a good deal, I think you could do better though, If this is a home computer for internet use, then it is just fine.  You will not be able to play any really hardcore games on this one though without some serious upgrades

Answer 3

Get a better graphics card, if to be used  for Gaming..

I also recommend getting Vista Home Premium, as home basic really sucks.

But the real question is, what are you going to use it for?

If gaming, you want a good CPU (Processor), at least 2GB of DDR2 Ram, and a half decent graphics card (i recommend at least an Nvidia Gefore 8600 series card or an AMD/ATI HD 2900XT card.

If for office, that machine will serve you well.

If you need any more help, just ask.

Answer 4

It's a decent computer but it depends on what your using it for. If you're a hardcore gamer you will need a much better graphics card. Also you don't have an Ethernet card listed, you might need one to get on the inter net, unless you use super slow dial up.