Posting Freak
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So, liek, my current desktop is like over 5 years old and I obviously need an upgrade.
I keep eyeing this desktop in a store which I can get for 681 dollars exactly. Here are the specs.
Acer Aspire AM397G-UW (< No idea what it means but I wrote it down anyway for those that do)
Intel Core i5 2320
1 TB HDD
8 GB Ram
Also comes with a 23 inch Widescreen LED monitor
What I am wanting to know is if this is a decent deal?
Are there better ones out there I can buy for around the same range?
Can I build one like it for cheaper, or build one better for around the same range?
How good are Acer products? (Never had one before)
And any other infomation the computer experts on this forum could provide me would be really awesome.
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I don't know a lot about computers and had a friend help me pick one out and he found this one for me
http://slickdeals.net/permadeal/86520/de...windows-8?
quick specs
===============
PROCESSOR _ 3rd Generation Intel® Core i5-3330 processor (up to 3.20 GHz)
MONITOR _ No Monitor
MEMORY _ 8GB Dual Channel DDR3 1600MHz - 2 DIMMs
HARD DRIVE _ 2TB Hard Drive, 3.5", 7200rpm, SATA
VIDEO CARD _ Nvidia GeoForce 1GB DDR3 GT620
OPTICAL DRIVE _ DVD+/-RW Tray Load Drive, 16X, SATA
WIRELESS _ Dell DW1506 (802.11 b/g/n) WLAN half mini-Card
Network Card Integrated 10/100/1000 Ethernet
SYSTEM COLOR _ Inspiron 660 Chassis, MT, Black w/8:1 media card reader
KEYBOARD _ Dell KB113 USB Wired Entry Keyboard - US
MOUSE _ Dell USB Optical Mouse MS111
SOUND CARD _ Integrated 5.1 audio
PORTS _ (4 each) USB 2.0, (4 each) USB 3.0
POWER _ 300W
SPEAKERS _ No speakers
OPERATING SYSTEM _ Windows 8, 64-bit, English edit
PRODUCTIVITY SOFTWARE _ Microsoft® Office trial
FREE SHIPPING
Technical information: Dell Inspiron 660 Owner's Manual [dell.com]
PRICE _ $449.99
===========
He said it should be a perfect fit for me, I'll be happy with it, and it's a good deal. Not sure how good it'll work for you though but more options are always nice.
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I wasn't aware that Acer made desktops, but I can vouch that Acer stuff is typically crappy. I also couldn't find anything by googling AM397G-UW, which I'm not sure is a good sign or bad, but based on the tidbit of specs you gave there's no way to tell if you're getting a decent deal or not. At the very least I would go for a combo by a different manufacturer because Acer monitors have crappy contrast ratios, color saturation, and viewing angles. Most of the reason Acer stuff is as cheap as it is is because they cheap out on things like power supplies, displays, and hard drives.
If you want a good answer, though, you need to be more specific on what your price range is and what exactly it is you want your computer to do.
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This desktop's main objective, is it gaming, work or just "all in one"?
There are some brands out there that are perfect for a certain function so yeah.
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2012-12-28, 09:51 AM
(This post was last modified: 2012-12-28, 03:37 PM by MetaSeraphim.)
FabledGumbo Wrote:I also couldn't find anything by googling AM397G-UW
I left 3 things off. AM397G-UW10P
By Googling it I found this site : http://www.meetgadget.com/gadget/58127/A...970G-UW10P
However since I am half computer stupid I don't know if all the stuff it lists are good things or bad things.
One big reason why I am having a hard time deciding is that half my friends I ask say Acer sucks, the other half says it is pretty good. And a couple more say it is in the middle. Which, I won't mind if it is in the middle, that is the exact kind of desktop I am looking for anyway.
Nion Wrote:This desktop's main objective, is it gaming, work or just "all in one"?
There are some brands out there that are perfect for a certain function so yeah.
50% gaming, 50% other stuff.
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MetaSeraphim Wrote:Also comes with a 23 inch Widescreen LED monitor
Keep in mind that it doesn't "come" with it, you are most definitely paying for it, 700 bucks for this kind of PC is not worth the money.
8GB of RAM is $40, a 1TB HDD is about 70-80 for a similar model that you would be getting in that PC.
The Core i5 2320 is a Sandy Bridge and they no longer sell it in most markets. TigerDirect still sells it for $185, but its not even in stock.
Those parts alone only ballpark to 300ish. A decent motherboard will set you back 60-80, and a case is 50. That leaves you at 410-430.
Throw in a dedicated graphics card (not in your desktop) for about $100, thats 530ish.
Bump your i5 2320 3.0ghz to a i5 2500k 3.3ghz for another 15 bucks, throw an extra case fan in for $10, youre sitting at $555 with a much better Desktop than you're looking at.
Now you have about $130 bucks to spend. You can pick up a 23in LED monitor for that price.
You should also keep in mind that all parts are negotiable, and sometimes there are deals.
I forgot about the Power Supply, so it went up a slight bit.
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I thought the deal sounded really expensive for those specs, but then I looked at the link. The discrete graphics card is pretty important to mention, as you wouldn't be able to run many games without it. Unfortunately, the other parts are all previous-gen (Intel 2xxx processor, H67 chipset), so you'd essentially be buying a PC from 2010~2011. The monitor is 1600x900, which is a little small. As far as brand goes, Acer products are typically a little on the cheaper side, and neither terrible nor very good. Overall, I'd say it's an okay deal, but you could do better.
You can definitely save some money and/or get better quality if you're interested in building your own PC, but you'll have to do some research to figure out your needs. Below is an example sub-$600 build that has current gen parts. It would be faster, and it comes out to about the same price if you buy a 23" 1920x1080 monitor to go with it (you'll still need to hunt down a copy of Windows if you don't want to pay extra, though). Assembly is pretty simple and takes an afternoon. The hard part is making sure the parts you buy are compatible and you're not wasting money on a particular part that doesn't boost performance by much.
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Dusk Wrote:
Ooh, you found better deals than I did Vic!
CPU: I didnt even think about checking Ivy I5's, so I chose a well known/used Sandy.
RAM: I'm partial to Corsair so I stuck with that for RAM.
HDD: I decided not to go for the caviar black because of the $20 difference.
GPU: I prefer the video card I chose over the one you did, personal preference really.
Case: Case doesn't look great, worth the 15 dollar savings I spose.
PSU: Corsair makes good PSU's, I just didnt see this one. I like that price for the bonus wattage.
Drive: Didn't even think about a disk drive.
[MENTION=2462]MetaSeraphim[/MENTION]; I don't imagine you've built a PC before, but as you can see it is quite a viable alternative to purchasing prebuilts. Both of the builds I and Vic have made are pretty good, and are cheaper than the one you're looking at.
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Thank you Zelkova and Dusk. Those are exactly the kind of answers I was hoping/looking for.
Taking Dusk's build and adding this on: http://www.amazon.com/Dell-ST2321L-23-In...ch+monitor (First one I found so there might be cheaper, but I believe dell is pretty good.)
I would be looking at 711.83 at the moment (with deals I may or may not find could go cheaper and such) which is a little more than I would be paying for the pre-build, but it would overall be better.
Something I am going to have to spend some time thinking about. Thank you once again guys you helped out a lot.
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Zelkova Wrote:Ooh, you found better deals than I did Vic!
CPU: I didnt even think about checking Ivy I5's, so I chose a well known/used Sandy.
RAM: I'm partial to Corsair so I stuck with that for RAM.
HDD: I decided not to go for the caviar black because of the $20 difference.
GPU: I prefer the video card I chose over the one you did, personal preference really.
Case: Case doesn't look great, worth the 15 dollar savings I spose.
PSU: Corsair makes good PSU's, I just didnt see this one. I like that price for the bonus wattage.
Drive: Didn't even think about a disk drive.
[MENTION=2462]MetaSeraphim[/MENTION]; I don't imagine you've built a PC before, but as you can see it is quite a viable alternative to purchasing prebuilts. Both of the builds I and Vic have made are pretty good, and are cheaper than the one you're looking at.
The Ivy Bridge I picked is way cheaper for about the same speed, and the H77 motherboard chipset supports it, so I figured it was the way to go. I went with the Caviar Black HDD because it's got better performance and a 5-year warranty. And I've always used Radeon cards and I've never had any issues with them 
[MENTION=2462]MetaSeraphim[/MENTION]: Wow, monitor prices went up a lot recently. I bought this monitor in November for $119.99 (after a $20 rebate). It's still $154.99 now, has about the same features as the Dell monitor, and comes with a 3-year warranty. That Dell monitor seems to lack a warranty unless you pay extra.
I also looked at some other cheaper monitors but the ones currently in the $100~$120 range look kind of flimsy or low quality.
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Dusk Wrote:The Ivy Bridge I picked is way cheaper for about the same speed, and the H77 motherboard chipset supports it, so I figured it was the way to go. I went with the Caviar Black HDD because it's got better performance and a 5-year warranty. And I've always used Radeon cards and I've never had any issues with them
I figured Ivy would be higher, but that Microcenter price is amazing. I also didn't see the full ATX board H77, so I went with the H77X.
As for the Caviar Black, I did not know it has a 5 year warranty. It's the one I purchased for myself so thats great!
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MetaSeraphim Wrote:Thank you Zelkova and Dusk. Those are exactly the kind of answers I was hoping/looking for.
Taking Dusk's build and adding this on: http://www.amazon.com/Dell-ST2321L-23-In...ch+monitor (First one I found so there might be cheaper, but I believe dell is pretty good.)
I would be looking at 711.83 at the moment (with deals I may or may not find could go cheaper and such) which is a little more than I would be paying for the pre-build, but it would overall be better.
Something I am going to have to spend some time thinking about. Thank you once again guys you helped out a lot.
Assuming you're willing to spend about that much on a monitor anyway, I would go with this one instead, as it's probably of higher quality and it has speakers built into it. Also if you consider yourself computer retarded, you might want to consider any kind of issues you might have with building one yourself or getting someone to build one for you. If you wanted a prebuilt around the same price range and a relatively better deal, you might try this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6883220217
If Windows 8 doesn't bother you, it's pretty competitively priced, and I personally would trust an ASUS product to be of good quality more so than I would trust an Acer product to be.
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FabledGumbo Wrote:Assuming you're willing to spend about that much on a monitor anyway, I would go with this one instead, as it's probably of higher quality and it has speakers built into it. Also if you consider yourself computer retarded, you might want to consider any kind of issues you might have with building one yourself or getting someone to build one for you. If you wanted a prebuilt around the same price range and a relatively better deal, you might try this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6883220217
If Windows 8 doesn't bother you, it's pretty competitively priced, and I personally would trust an ASUS product to be of good quality more so than I would trust an Acer product to be.
I like the idea of AMD's new APU's, but I wouldn't use it in a gaming desktop.
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Zelkova Wrote:I like the idea of AMD's new APU's, but I wouldn't use it in a gaming desktop.
APUs have cores that can act as a GPU, right? Are you just left with a weaker CPU since your graphics card will be using all the video memory anyway?
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Dusk Wrote:APUs have cores that can act as a GPU, right? Are you just left with a weaker CPU since your graphics card will be using all the video memory anyway?
Correct.
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XTOTHEL Wrote:Build away！
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/budg...,3364.html
Looks fine, but they're really cheaping out on the cpu and hard drive to fit their $500 budget and still have a good graphics card. You could follow that, but stick a better processor in there and replace the hard drive with a 1 TB.
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Dusk Wrote:Looks fine, but they're really cheaping out on the cpu and hard drive to fit their $500 budget and still have a good graphics card. You could follow that, but stick a better processor in there and replace the hard drive with a 1 TB.
It is a TINY bit out of date, since this was before xmas, now you can get the 7850 for about $150 and maaaaybe squeeze in a SSD for $100 more and use an old hard drive from his current computer to store media.
As for CPU, I don't think he'll notice the difference unless he started doing lots of video encoding.
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If you want to have a good gaming pc, don't buy a prebuilt. Build it on your own, or find someone who knows what they're doing.
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Try these builds. I made the $500 one and it runs well. Skyrim runs great along with other games.
http://lifehacker.com/5962684/give-the-g...ese-builds
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