[geeks] Wow, PCs are cheap...

[Lionel Peterson]

>From: Lionel Peterson <lionel4287 at verizon.net>
>Date: 2008/08/22 Fri PM 10:18:38 EDT
>To: geeks at sunhelp.org
>Subject: [geeks] Wow, PCs are cheap...

>Sorry, I had to tell someone - I just bought a new desktop for my father in law

Just a quick follow-up: The Vostro 200 I ordered arrived yesterday, looks and runs great. I decided to load Vista Ultimate (give my father in-law a bit of eye-candy) and will load Office 2007 as well.

Anyway, I know Nadine asked - yes, this system arrived with a Foxconn G33M02 motherboard.

As a general note, the Vostro 200 looks alot like a nice, low-end Antec chassis, but there are two thumbscrews that hold the cover on instead of a tool-free latch like most Dells I've seen recently.

As for noise, the machine is not *silent*, but it is far from noisy. I'd call it "reassuringly quiet" - you hear it when it comes on, but it is easy to "tune it out" and not notice it. The chassis has a fan in the power supply, a fan on the CPU (of course), and a rear blowing chassis fan, but none appear to be straining to cool the system. The drives mount firmly on the chassis using four screws - no "sled" or green plastic sled pieces to isolate the drive from the chassis, not noisy, but not silent either.

Anyway, the system came to $599 + tax after all discounts, and included a 22" analog widescreen display, speaker bar, and 4 Gigs of RAM with an E7200 CPU. I think it was a good deal.

Lionel