Choose cheaper desktop computer: DIY versus branded - part 2

In the last article, I have reviewed whether it's worth the hassle to build your own desktop pc. This time, I will take a look at what the famous brand - HP- offer to us with their latest promotion, "Kungfu Panda" desktop series :P. The desktop pc I will use for comparison here is HP Pavilion M9222 with the following specifications :

1. Processor : AMD Quad-Core Phenom™ X4 9500 (2.2 GHz, FSB 2200, Cache 4x 512 KB)
2. Motherboard : Unknown with chipset nForce 430
3. Memory : Standard 2x1 PC 6400 DDR2
   
4. Vga Card : NVidia GeForce 8500GT 256 MB
5. Audio : onboard 7.1 channel
6. Harddisk : 320 GB Serial ATA-II/300, 7200 RPM, Cache 8 MB
7. Keyboard : HP PS/2 Standard Keyboard
8. Mouse : HP Optical Scroll Mouse
   
9. Card Reader : 15 in 1 Media Reader
10. Operating System : Microsoft* Windows Vista Home Premium
11. Monitor : HP 19" LCD
12. Chassis : Mini Tower ATX
    

HP bundled printer HP F2180 with this desktop pc and gives price tag at $1185. Now, we will see if this promo is worth to be called as promo or not :P. Let's summon peripherals for our desktop pc then....

Tadaaa, the specifications is as follows:

1. Processor : AMD Quad-Core Phenom™ X4 9550 - $194
2. Motherboard : Asus M2N (chipset nForce 430) - $66
3. Memory : Corsair Twin 2x2048 - PC6400 - $58
4. Vga Card : Asus 8500 GT 2500 MB silent - $91
5. Audio : onboard - none
6. Harddisk : Seagate 320 GB SATA II - $77
7. Keyboard : Logitech KB Multimedia - $19
8. Mouse : Logitech Optical black (bundled with keyboard)
9. Card Reader : 15 in 1 Media Reader - $15
10. Operating System : Microsoft* Windows Vista Home Premium - $115
11. Monitor : Samsung 19" 940BW - $270
12. Chassis : CoolerMaster Centurion C5 tower - $78
13. Printer : HP F2180 - $74

We will spend total amount of $1057 for all peripheral above. Again it's proven that we can save more money if we put some effort for building our own desktop pc ;). Even with promotion price, branded pc is still more expensive -> the difference in $128 is not a little sum of money for most people in Indonesia, include me :P.

Choose cheaper desktop computer: DIY versus branded

In this article, I will try to compare the cost required for building a DIY desktop pc versus buying the branded pc. The branded pc used for comparison is HP Compaq DX2300MT which does not bundled with monitor. DX2300MT is priced at $559 (price is taken from www.bhinneka.com) and has the following specification :

1. Processor : Pentium Dual Core E2160
2. Motherboard : OEM with P946GZ intel chipset
3. Storage : SATA HDD 80 GB
4. Front panel : card reader, esata
5. Memory : 1 GB DDR2
6. Optical Drive : DVD/CDRW Combo
7. Operating System : Windows XP Pro oem
8. Chassis Form Factor : MicroATX
9. Keyboard and mouse : HP standard

Now lets count the all the components' price. Would it worth it to buy branded desktop pc instead of build your own and save $$$? Let's find out then and let the cheaper win!

After googling and seacrhing a while for all components used in HP Compaq DX2300MT, the result is listed below :

1. Processor : Pentium Dual Core E2160 -> $63
2. Motherboard : OEM with P946GZ intel chipset (use Asus P5B-MX)-> $81
3. Storage : SATA HDD 80 GB -> $42
4. Front panel : card reader, esata -> $15
5. Memory : 1 GB DDR2 -> $25
6. Optical Drive : DVD/CDRW Combo -> $32
7. Operating System : Windows XP Pro oem -> $135
8. Chassis Form Factor : MicroATX (used SimCool ATX 450W) -> $48
9. Keyboard and mouse : HP standard (used logitech multimedia) -> $18

All are totalled $459! The difference is $559 - $459 = $100. With that amount of money, you can buy a decent printer or speaker or both! How about additional Canon ip1880 ($48) and Divoom Titan 767 ($35)? And even after buying those two, you will still have money left ($17) for covering transportation cost :P.

The conclusion is straighforward. Let's spend a few extra hours for making our own desktop pcs instead of buying from branded if price is always be a concern for you :).

DIY recipe for Gaming PC

Okay, just straight to the point. I have a recipe for making a gamer's dream machine - my own dream machine and I would like to share it through this blog. Below is the specification I believe will satisfy any gamers, especially in Indonesia :

1. Chassis : Powerlogic Atrix 5000 -> $50
Powerlogic is the nicest computer case I found so far. It's equipped with LCD for monitoring temperatures, very useful features for gamers who tend to play games hourly. Just look at the image above, don't you agree with me?

2. Motherboard : ECS-nForce6M-A -> $60
I did use ECS board and it was rock stable for 5 years before it was broken.

3. Processor : Athlon X2 4200+ -> $70
Athlon X2 is the best price/performance ratio processor in the market today.

4. Memory : Vgen DDR2 PC 6400 2GB -> $53
Make sure you have DDR2 PC 6400, 2 GB is enough for games today.

5. Power supply : Acbel 400 W Pure -> $47
It's very important to have good power supply in order to keep your system healthy.

6. Graphic card : Winfast PX8600GT 256MB DDR3 -> $125
What can I say, we all know that gamers need good graphic card to play latest games nowadays and 8600 GT DDR3 version is known as the best mainstream graphic card at this time.

7. Harddisk : 160 GB Western Digital 8 MB cache -> $54
WDC has some cheap 8MB cache harddisk. Good for gaming use.

8. Sound card : Onboard -> $0
Sound card is not really necessary as the average onboard sound card is enough to give you good sound experience.

9. Keyboard & mouse : Logitech multimedia & optical -> $18
Logitech is the best keyboard and mouse maker so far.

10. Optical drive : Pioneer DVD-RW -> $34
Pioneer is one of the best optical storage maker in the world.

11. Monitor : Samsung LCD TV 32" -> $635
What can more please gamers than a big display for enjoying the fascinating of most advanced graphics today?

12. Speaker : Built-in -> $0
Just use the built-in speaker on LCD TV to save some cost...

And to sum it all, my dream machine will cost $1146 ~ Rp 10.550.000,-. Wow....so expensive! (That's why I call this a dream machine :P).

But if you are really tight in budget, then you may consider to buy LG 17" LCD Monitor and Edifier R401 speaker. Each will cost you $192 and $36. You will save $407 and the total money you'll spend will become $739 ~ Rp 6.800.000,-. A lot cheaper then ;)

Asus eee pc...the notebook killer?

Have you heard about Asus EEE PC ? It's a small lightweight notebook that becomes popular nowadays. Why is it so popular? Maybe because of it's affordable price - just $400.

For Asian people, especially Indonesian people whose salary are really low, saving money to buy their dream notebook is very difficult. So when the news of Asus eee pc is out, people in Indonesia are very curious of it. They expect that they can use it as their main mobile pc, for doing their work and entertainment.

Well, if I must say, Asus eee pc is really nice. The design is superb, except for the low resolution of display lcd being used. But as a technical engineer, I'm really disappointed of how small the storage in it. 2 GB, 4 GB, even 8 GB are just not enough for me.

But for most people, who will use Asus eee pc only for surfing the internet or making office documents or maybe playing some games in order to kill the time, Asus eee pc maybe is the right choice.

Why do I say that? I list some of good points of this product below :

1. It's very light, below 1 kilos
2. It's also very small and compact
3. It's come with wifi - this is definetely a major point
4. It's very cheap too, if we compare it to a real notebook in the market
5. The storage used is solid storage disk type which is claimed as shock proof

The weak points I found is :

1. The display resolution is very small so that we have to do a lot of scrolling
2. The operating system bundled is Linux
3. The softwares bundled are GPL's software. It means that there are no commercial support

But if you ask me : would I like to buy it? I would say no :P.

Because my work as technical engineer make me need more powerful beast than Asus eee pc ;)

And beside that, I have fall in love with my Toshiba with its elegant windows blue screen LOL..

As closing note, I would say that Asus eee pc is an awesome product but it cannot replace the role of real notebook. For ladies and kids, and even for men who will utilize their mobile pc for surfing the internet and doing small things for killing the time while they are away, this product maybe suits them.

Wanna try one?