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Subject: Re: Intel releases a new chip (Gateway for only $3000 !

Author: Keith Ian Price

Date: 09:49:56 05/07/02

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On May 07, 2002 at 11:07:04, Roy Eassa wrote:

>On May 06, 2002 at 19:11:48, Keith Ian Price wrote:
>
>>Of course, it just occurred to me that you might be being facetious with the
>>"only $3000.00" header. But at the time I added up all the costs at the cheapest
>>I could get on price-grabber or pricewatch, and the total to put together a
>>similar system at the time was $4860. So I checked other mail order companies
>>and they ranged from $4200-$4600 for the same setup, or close. I wanted a large
>>flat screen and the cheapest 18.1 inch was $1000.00 at the time. DVD-RAMs were
>>$500.00, The video card was $400.00, the processor was $749 (it had just been
>>released) 1Gig of PC-800 was $900.00. Fast CD-RWs were $125.00, Microsoft Office
>>XP SBE was $300.00, Surround sound 5 speaker systems were $300.00, and sound
>>card at $150.00. If you are looking for a plain jane box to run chess programs,
>>then Gateway is not for you, since they use Intel, and their cheap boxes don't
>>have the fastest processors. When I put together s system for chess, it will be
>>just a box, motherboard, AMD processor(s), memory,  CD-ROM, and cheap monitor
>>and keyboard/mouse. No sound, built-in video, etc. Only the processor,
>>motherboard and memory will be high-end.
>>
>>kp
>
>
>I don't doubt your research regarding the price of that Gateway system.  It's
>just that most people don't have $3000 available to buy a PC.  If Gateway's
>other systems were similarly underpriced (as compared to putting them together
>yourself), I'd be interested in finding one with a very fast CPU (Intel is OK),
>plenty of RAM, WinXP Pro (or Win2k), and a good motherboard and case and a
>decent video card and maybe a sound card.  As for the monitor, I already have a
>19" one with a switchbox to share it among computers, so I wish to OMIT the
>monitor entirely.  I also have an extra hard drive and can buy new ones very
>cheaply, so I wish to minimize the expense of that component too.
>
>Does Gateway have such a system with a 2.x GHz current P4 (Northgate or whatever
>it's called) at an extraordinarily low price?

No, Gateway doesn't put high-end processors in low-end computers. However, all
P4s are now Northwood, so even a 1.8Ghz will have the 512K L2 cash and the
cooler operation. But for chess, if you want a pre-built system, I'd get an HP
like this one at Compusa for $1049.00:

AMD® Athlon™ XP 2000+ 1.67GHz Processor, 512MB RAM, 80GB Hard Drive, 16X DVD and
24X10X40 CD-RW Drives, Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition

or if you want to build one yourself, I'd ask Aaron about which M/B would be
best for his tweaks to the BIOS, and go with that. But in that case, I'd at
least wait for the thoroughbred core.

kp




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