Computer Illiterate needs spec help

[jaded1]

I am looking at a computer with the following specs :

Dell Dimension 2400 Pentium 4 2.40 Ghz. 512 Ram,40 Gig HD,Dvd reader,cd burner,Windows Xp Pro,service pack 2,Ms Office 2003,Ms Money 2004,G-force 5500 Graphics card, Monitor,Keyboard and mouse!

He's selling for $250.

I have no idea if these specs are decent or not (other then I know I'm gonna need more RAM), as I am computer illiterate. Could someone please clue me in as to if these are decent specs for what price he's offering? This chick is confused!

 

[eyeCpc]

Offer him $200 and call it a day! Besides increasing the amount of memory installed you'll run out of drive space fast for the old prebuild there unless you simply want a web browsing case and not much else.

The old video card can be replaced with some of the more recent AGP models seen like the ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro. The plus there however is including the monitor, keyboard, mouse if you agree with those and don't plan to do any serious gaming.

 

[Neodude1123201]

I Dont thinks it's worth $200,I Would pay $100,if that for that rig.

UNLESS,It comes with an LCD Monitor

 

[eyeCpc]

I was trying to be courteous before when mentioning you would likely end up spending more trying to upgrade the system then it would be worth for any long term use. You could use it for just the absolute basics the way it is simply to browse online, check the mail, and help out a friend by taking it off that person's hands.

You could simply buy it as a beater for a kid you may know for the simple things like some basic educational programs, kids games as a first system. But for about $150 more then the $250 you would spend there you could have a brand new Dell, Gateway, HP, or Sony even sitting on your desk rather then some old clunker.

Then there's that one other option of putting the money towards a custom build if you know someone who works on their own. Then it can set up with the things you want to see in it.

 

[jaded1]

Well, that's a shame. I took your earlier advice and bought it for $200. It's still much better then what I have, nor can I afford to drop more then that on a computer regardless of how much nicer or newer I could get one. Mine is 7 years old, runs so slow I can feel my hair growing, and freezes on me every time I try to save a file in Photoshop. This one HAS to be better. If it turns out to be a lemon, well, I learned a (fairly) cheap lesson, and I'll FUBAR the seller on the forum he posted, cause we're all friends. You don't screw your friends.

Thanks for the help guys! I appreciate the responses!

 

[eyeCpc]

That 40gb besides adding some more memory will be a concern for you if you plan on saving numerous files. As far as the rest that will depend on how well it was maintained.

For adding in a second drive for storing files that would be one other idea to consider. You would simply leave the 40gb as the OS drive and hopefully wouldn't run out of space when going to add more programs on.

 

[Snake2135]

Just checked on Crucial.com for max memory. You're in luck. You would be able to max it out at 2GB DDR-400 which is not bad for win XP. It would cost you around $60.00.... Your call. If performance is what you're looking for, especially for photoshop, then go for it. The only problem would be it's an old system and you can't really tell when those things will just die out on you. What I am saying is it may not be wise to upgrade such an old system.

 

[eyeCpc]

I looked over the specifications earlier on that being the typical 2 o 3gb max seen on most systems at the time. It's not that's too old for the types of programs being though about but the two items of increasing ram and seeing a preinstalled OS on a much smaller hard drive then what you see in a newer model alone.

If you were looking now you can easily find either ide or sata 500gb capacity drives for under $100. But the need then if used as a replacement would be the cost for a new Windows disk and downloading the drivers needed for a case that could go soon or still last for some time yet. unknow factor

 

[Neodude1123201]

I did a google search and that model's max RAM is 2gb

 

[eyeCpc]

Any search engine will turn up a ton of links for that model since it's simply an older one. The $100 tab you suggested is rather on the money there however since I was being generous earlier.