New computer?

[Heatherly84]

Hey, guys,

I'm planning to get a new computer in a few weeks when my tax return comes, and I have one I'm leaning towards, but I wanted to get some opinions. The specs look good to me, but I might be missing something, so I thought I'd ask.

This is the one I'm leaning towards at the moment:

Acer AX1420G-U5832 Desktop PC:

•AMD Athlon II X4 Quad-Core 645 processor
3.1GHz, 2MB Cache

•4GB of DDR3 SDRAM system memory (expandable to 8GB)

•1TB SATA hard drive

•16x SuperMulti DVD Burner

•10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet

•Integrated NVIDIA GeForce 6150SE Graphics

Additional Features:
•5-in-1 memory card reader
•6 x USB 2.0 ports, 1 x VGA port, 2 x PS/2 ports, 1 x headphone jack, 1 x microphone jack, 1 x RJ-45 Ethernet port, 3 x audio ports
•2 x PCI Express (x1) slots, 1 x PCI Express (x16) slots, 1 x 5.25" bay, 1 x 3.5" bay

Software:
•Genuine Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit Edition

---

I will, of course, be buying a dedicated PCIe video card with gaming capabilities to go with the new system. I'm pretty sure that's the only thing lacking with this one, but it never hurts to be cautious. Am I overlooking/forgetting anything here? 'Cause, like I said, the specs on this machine look pretty good to me and at $398, it's practically a steal.

[HystearicalParoxysm]

Looks like it also has a very weak power supply, so you'll need to get one of those as well along with a proper graphics card. I'd go ahead and throw some more RAM in there too while you're at it, but I'm having trouble seeing anything wrong with it other than the graphics, and the hard drive read speed being a bit slow. You also only have one PCI-E x16 slot so you couldn't do dual graphics cards, but really, one strong one is usually better anyway.

Still, that does seem like quite a steal... and while I don't have any experience with Acer desktops, I've been -very- happy with both my Acer netbook and our Acer laptop which have been running strong for years.

[Heatherly84]

Thanks! Hrrm. I don't have much experience shopping for power supplies, but I think Newegg has a search form where you can put in the machine's specs and recommend a good power supply for it, doesn't it?

I've never seen a computer with a quad-core processor for less than $800 before, so this one seemed almost too good to be true when I found it. (Pretty much the whole reason I was like, "...I better ask someone else if this is as good as it seems. That's insane.")

[HystearicalParoxysm]

I think there's some recommendations on good power supplies in the sticky along with info on getting a new graphics card.

Maybe someone more hardware-adept than me will have some objections but... well, when we bought our Acer laptop, we were standing in the store looking at the specs going, "Wait, what? No way is this right! Quick, buy it before they fix the price!" cos the darn thing had (at least at the time, a couple years ago) screaming awesome specs for the price, and even a real proper graphics card capable of playing TS3 on decent settings. Maybe it's just an "Acer does amazing deals sometimes" thing? Dunno, but good find, IMO!

[Heatherly84]

Would this work? http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.808883

[HystearicalParoxysm]

That looks decent, but that graphics card bundled with it ain't great - what are you looking to play, games-wise?

[Heatherly84]

TS3 with expansions through Pets. I play literally nothing else, except occasionally Solitaire and Mahjong Titans. Yeah, I just saw that card is a "Maybe/No" card on the chart. I'm really hoping that the card doesn't end up costing more than the rest of the computer!

Edit: Hrrm. This is a "Yes" card for a pretty good price: http://www.sabrepc.com/p-396-sapphire-ati-radeon-hd-2900-pro-512mb-pci-express-oem.aspx

But is that still a good power supply? (I'm not married to it or anything, but it has a name I can remember. ;-))