Micro Express PCs?

[Welly Wu]

Hey guys,

My old Toshiba laptop stopped working late last year. I need to buy a new budget desktop PC soon and my budget is about $1,000 USD excluding shipping, handling, insurance, and taxes.

1. Do any Head-Fi members own or have any experience with Micro Express PCs specifically the MicroFlex 66B: http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,127980/article.html ? What are your opinions about the company and their products?

[size=x-small]66B - MicroFlex 66B
Mid Tower Black ATX Case with 450W Silent Fan Power Supply
17 Inch flat panel LCD monitor
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600
2048MB DDRII Memory 667MHZ
250GB Serial ATA 7200 RPM
No Second Hard Drive
All in 1 Card reader with sockets for CF/MD/SM/SD/MMC/MS/XD (No Floppy)
16X Dual Layer (8.5GB)Multi Format DVD Burner
NO Modem
On Board 10/100/1000 Network Card
No Keyboard & No Mouse
Intel® High Definition Audio subsystem
ATI Radeon X1600 256MB
No Speaker
No OS

[/size] [size=x-small]Total Goods[/size] [size=x-small]$1044.00[/size]
[size=x-small]
[/size] 2. I have been looking at competing deals offered by Dell, Gateway, and HP both online and in my local holiday circulars, but I am looking for the most bang for my buck. Any other options for me to consider?

3. Should I wait a few more weeks for Microsoft Windows Vista to release and get a new PC thereafter? Stupid question: will it cost more to get a new PC after it releases or will there be no change in prices?

In general, I plan on using my new PC for research, writing, e-mail, office productivity, groupware, etc. I would like to rip and encode my CDs into FLAC files and build a music server on a separate HDD. Podcasting, online music purchases, Internet radio, and streaming music are of interest too. I also want to watch upscaled DVD-Videos and perhaps buy an ATSC HDTV tuner later on. I also plan to install Microsoft Windows, perhaps Vista Ultimate, Red Hat Fedora CORE 6 SELinux, and FreeBSD 6.1.

Thank you and happy new year.

Edit: I included the silent fan power supply for an extra $20 USD. Hopefully, Intel will reduce the cost of the Core 2 Duo E6600 by $90 USD. I will wait until after Microsoft Windows Vista releases.

 

[skitlets]

For the price, that computer has pretty good components. However, Intel is going to be slashing prices January 14th, with the e6600 dropping about $90 in cost.

Computers bought now should have a free upgrade to Vista, depending on which OS you buy now. I believe MCE should have a free upgrade to Vista Home, whereas XP pro leads to Vista Pro. Might want to double check. Hmm...I see you have no OS selected. If you're set on getting Vista, I would wait just a few weeks, seeing as how Intel will be cutting prices.

Finally, that computer may be a bit noisy. Looks like the case will rattle and come with 120MM fans, so a fan controller will be a must if you want to quiet the thing down.

 

[Welly Wu]

[size=x-small]66B - MicroFlex 66B
Mid Tower Black ATX Case with 450W Silent Fan Power Supply
No Monitor
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600
2048MB DDRII Memory 667MHZ
250GB Serial ATA 7200 RPM
250GB Serial ATA 7200 RPM
Mitsumi FA402A 7 in 1 Media Drive (1.44 Floppy and CF/MD/SM/SD/MMC/MS Card reader)
16X Dual Layer (8.5GB)Multi Format DVD Burner
NO Modem
On Board 10/100/1000 Network Card
Microsoft Internet Keyboard and Optical Mouse
Intel® High Definition Audio subsystem
ATI Radeon X1600 256MB
No Speaker
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium

$1218.00 USD excluding shipping and handling fees plus insurance

[/size][size=x-small]66B - MicroFlex 66B
Mid Tower Black ATX Case with 450W Silent Fan Power Supply
No Monitor
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600
2048MB DDRII Memory 667MHZ
250GB Serial ATA 7200 RPM
250GB Serial ATA 7200 RPM
Mitsumi FA402A 7 in 1 Media Drive (1.44 Floppy and CF/MD/SM/SD/MMC/MS Card reader)
16X Dual Layer (8.5GB)Multi Format DVD Burner
NO Modem
On Board 10/100/1000 Network Card
Microsoft Internet Keyboard and Optical Mouse
Intel® High Definition Audio subsystem
ATI Radeon X1600 256MB
No Speaker
No OS

$1064 USD excluding Microsoft Windows Home Premium, shipping, handling, and insurance fees

Things have gotten a lot cheaper recently. I can't wait until early February to see if hardware prices will continue to decrease. The second configuration is a lot of computer for relatively little money.
[/size]

 

[Welly Wu]

Hey guys, I have a quick question. The Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 is a 64bit dual core processor. I decided to install Red Hat Fedora 6 SELinux on the first hard drive and FreeBSD 6.2 on the second hard drive. Which version should I get: the i386 of both OSes or the Fedora x86-64 and FreeBSD 6.2 amd64? I'm thinking I would get the latter, but I just want to be sure. Thanks.