good deal for a desktop?

[ilovejedd]

I'm looking to build a general purpose desktop and decided to check out CyberPower and IBuyPower before I tried Newegg.

CyberPower
CASE: Apevia X-Telstar Junior w/420W PSU (S Type Red Color with Side-Panel 250mm UV LED Fan)
CPU: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E8400 CPU @ 3.00GHz 1333FSB 6MB L2 Cache 64-bit
OPTICAL: Sony Q170A 18x Double Layer Dual Format DVD+-R/+-RW + CD-R/RW Drive
HDD: 160GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 8MB Cache 7200RPM HDD
MOTHERBOARD: MSI P35 Neo-F P35 Chipset LGA775 Supports Core 2 Duo CPU FSB1333 DDR2/800 Mainboard w/GbLAN,USB2.0,&7.1Audio
MEMORY: 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400 DDR2/800 Dual Channel Memory (Corsair Value Select or Major Brand)
VIDEO: ATI Radeon HD 3450 PCI-E x16 256MB Video Card
PRICE: $602

IBuyPower
CASE: Nzxt Hush Gaming Tower Case w/420W PSU (Black)
CPU: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E6750 @ 2.66GHz 1333FSB 4MB L2 Cache 64-bit
OPTICAL: Sony Q170A 18x Double Layer Dual Format DVD+-R/+-RW + CD-R/RW Drive
HDD: 160GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 8MB Cache 7200RPM HDD
MOTHERBOARD: MSI P35 Neo-F P35 Chipset LGA775 Supports Core 2 Duo CPU FSB1333 DDR2/800 Mainboard w/GbLAN,USB2.0,&7.1Audio
MEMORY: 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400 DDR2/800 Dual Channel Memory (Corsair Value Select or Major Brand)
VIDEO: ATI Radeon HD 3450 PCI-E x16 256MB Video Card
PRICE: $588

So would you guys recommend either of the above configurations? Is it possible to build something similar or better for the same price?

[JohnnyMalaria]

Does it come preconfigured with an operating system? If so, which and do you have a choice? (i.e., are you required to get Vista or can you get XP Pro SP2?)

[ilovejedd]

Price above is just for the hardware. They can install either Vista or XP.

Hmm, come to think of it, it might be a good idea to have them install the OS. That way, if there were any driver issues, etc, I won't have to deal with it. They have pretty much OEM prices for Windows (some are actually a tiny bit cheaper than Newegg):
Vista Home Basic w/SP1 (32-bit) (+89)
Vista Home Premium w/SP1 (32-bit) (+104)
Vista Business w/SP1 (32-bit) (+135)
Vista Ultimate w/SP1 (32-bit) (+209)
XP Home w/SP2 (+89)
XP Media Center 2005 (+104)
XP Professional w/SP2 (+135)

64-bit versions of Vista are available for an add'l $19.

Is there any particular reason why I should opt for XP Pro instead of XP Home? As far as I know, XP Pro only makes sense if you need to join a domain which I don't.

The desktop will be used mostly for internet surfing, email, office tasks, and hi-def content viewing. Maybe a bit of video encoding until I get my hands on an affordable Penryn quad ($300 is reasonable) for my file server/media encoder rig.

[soapBAR]

Is there any particular reason why I should opt for XP Pro instead of XP Home? As far as I know, XP Pro only makes sense if you need to join a domain which I don't.

from winsupersite (http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_home_pro.asp), here are the key differences that might affect you

- Multi-processor support - Windows XP Pro supports up to two microprocessors, while Home Edition supports only one.
- Remote Desktop -[...] But Only Pro supports the new Remote Desktop feature, which is a single-session version of Terminal Services
- Dynamic Disk Support - Windows XP Professional (like its Windows 2000 equivalent) supports dynamic disks,
- Encrypting File System - Windows XP Professional supports the Encrypting File System (EFS), which allows you encrypt individual files or folders for local security (EFS is not enabled over a network). EFS-protected files and folders allows users to protect sensitive documents from other users.

the best value for money is probably to buy a xp professional upgrade kit - all you need is the cd for a previous version of windows [95/98/2000/ME/XP Home/XP Pro] - it prompts you to insert the cd from the older OS on boot. my version set me back $60 AU, and that was about a year ago - so you could probably save yourself a few dollars if you do the install yourself. As for drivers, if all else fails you could try Driver Packs (http://driverpacks.net/DriverPacks/) - a massively comprehensive collection of thousands of xp drivers (just the DLLs, use the windows "update driver" tool to apply them). But most hardware comes with driver cds, so I wouldnt worry about it :)

[JohnnyMalaria]

XP Media Center 2005 is XP Pro without a few components that are irrelevant to a home network (e.g., joining domains etc).

If you go the XP Pro route, consider MCE instead. Same functionality, cheaper + more multimedia stuff.

[Shinigami-Sama]

home is fail, you can't do a lot of things on it like edit your group policies

MCE is a good choice, you can edit GPUs I think

PRO you can do what ever you want to it, nothing is locked out

also
and file shares
shares in home are awkward, only uses old permision(fat32 style) rather than ntfs, which can be a bitch