Buying a low end desktop

[eddie]

Hello,

Someone I know needs to buy a low end desktop PC. The only use of this PC will be, to type lots of MS Word Documents to take print outs. To be more specific, this person sits in front of a court and types various documents for people. He just wants to give up on his old typewriter and buy a PC or in other words a glorified type-writer. You can see the situation...no internet...no multimedia...no games...no major hoo haa. Simple typing.

Now, my question is what hardware to buy and what OS to install. Windows 98 or Windows XP? Office 97, XP or 2003? Please remember that since this court stuff then it will also involve lots of Hindi typing. So please remember that while suggesting OS/Office combo. Also if you people can suggest a printer, then it would be icing on the cake.

Thank You

[Kniwor]

AMD sempron 2500+ with MSI K8M-V ~ 4500
256Mb DDR ram ~ 1000
80 Gb HDD ~ 2200
case with SMPS 1200
17" samsung monitor ~ 5100
CD-RW ~ 1100
Keyboard + Optical mouse combo ~ 650


Total = 15751+vat= 16381

[sakumar79]

Since this is going to be merely typing report and taking printouts, go for one of the sub-10k PCs such as HCL Ezeebee Pride. See http://www.hclstore.com/ezbpride/template.html for config info...

Printer - Assuming there will be lot of printing. Dot Matrix Printers have lowest running costs. Next are laserjet printers... For draft quality bulk printing, go for Dot Matrix, for high quality bulk printing, go for Laserjet. Both will cost around 9000.

OS/Office - To keep things simple, go for Win98 as it uses up less resources. For Office, since you need Hindi printing, better to go for separate Word processor such as Hindi Word Processor at http://www.krishnasoft.com/hwp.htm or Madhyam at http://www.balendu.com/madhyam/ (I have not used them before so I cannot guarantee their ease of use - try to download and check it out first).

Arun

[Kniwor]

yeah he is right if u never plan on doing anything else on that PC....

but what i suggested was a good 64bit PC with good options of upgrade.... and can be made more useful...

[vijay_7287]

for the printer i suggest goin for
HP-3745
cost= 2.5k

[sakumar79]

Deskjet printers may have low initial cost but they have high running (cartridge cost per page printed) cost compared to dot matrix and laserjet. In general, if printing is not on regular basis, you can go for Deskjet/inkjet printers but when you may have large printing to use, go for dmp/laser printers...

Arun

[Kniwor]

Dont purchase HP, it's costly to operate... if u are getting deskjet...

get Canon... it is also 2.5k but has low operating cost...

original canon cartridges cost 300/- & 600/-

cartridges for this printer also available for 100/- and 200/- in market, but not made by canon....

[eddie]

Thanks for the responses guys. Very kind of you all. I will tell the person about both the options and let him decide a bit on his own. About printer, I have heard that both Canon and Epson have cheap cartridges so wouldn't it be better to buy one of these solutions instead of going for a enxpensive thing like laserjet or dot matrix?

Thank you once again

[Andyiz]

Hey depending on ur application, I would suggest u to go for second hand P3 or celeron machine, it should cost u not more than 10000 bugs,

Canon Vs HP = Cannon Wins for me
simply bcoz Cartridges are so easily available
Qualitywise HP is negligably Ahead.

[dIgItaL_BrAt]

Originally Posted by Andyiz

it should cost u not more than 10000 bugs,

quite a lot,ain't it?

Anyways,go for a laser printer since there is bulk printing involved.It'll prove more economical in the long run.

[eddie]

Originally Posted by dIgItaL_BrAt

Anyways,go for a laser printer since there is bulk printing involved.It'll prove more economical in the long run.

Yes that is where I am inclining as well. Just confirmed with him and the person will need a duty cycle of approx. 3000 Pages P.M. which will probably kill a deskjet in no time.

Also going for a second hand system doesn't attract much. This person is a n00b (like me) and dealing with a second hand system might be tricky for people like us.