YugaTech | Philippines, Tech Reviews Blog

Everybody wants to take on the Mac Mini these days. Besides, Steve Jobs seems to have forgotten they have a Mac Mini to update. All of Apple’s products have been refreshed except that Minis. Well Dell is out and selling a shiny competitor — the Studio Hybrid.

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During our recent dinner over at Noem’s new home, she consulted me about getting a new desktop PC for her study/library. She already has a gorgeous white Macbook but she thought it would be better to get a desktop for those long-haul usage in the house. That should help ease the stress on the laptop battery too (since you won’t be using it that much when at home).

I saw her budget worth just over 50k and I thought I’d give her another option to look at. Here’s my recommended set up for the stay-at-home problogger and entrepreneur mom:

AMD Athlon 64 3800+ Dual Core (2.0 GHz) – Php4,250
MSI K9N Neo-F nForce 550 – Php 4,110
(Socket AM2, 4 SATA slots, 4 DIMMs, 1 PCI-E 16X; 2 PCI-E X1; 3 PCI; 10 USB, Gigabit LAN; RAID (0, 1 & 0+1); SATA2; ATA133, Realtek 7.1 CH HD audio)
2 x 1GB Corsair 667MHz DDR2 RAM – Php 3,840
320 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200 SATA – Php4,520
Lite-On 20x DVDRW w/ Lightscribe – Php 1,920
PowerColor X1550 256MB GDDR2 128-bit Dual DVI/TV – Php 3,430
2 x 19″ Samsung 940BW (1440 x 900) – Php 19,990 (Php 9,995 x 2)
Mars 722 Thermal Advantage 500 watts casing (with A4tech mouse & KB) – Php 1,720
Powercom Ace UPS 650 volt-amps – Php 1,770

Total — Php 45,550

The final set up should look like this:

The original quote to her by PCExpress was an Intel Pentium 925 3.0GHz and a 22″ AOC LCD screen. We skipped the Core 2 Duos entirely and I think the AMD Athlon x2 3800 still has the best bang for the buck. The dual monitor set up needed the x1550 for dual DVI support. Prices were taken from several sources including PCX and RSun Computers. I just love the mobo too — 10 USB 2.0 ports, 4 SATA2 slots and 4 DIMM slots of up to 4GB of RAM — lots of room for upgrades and add-ons.

Oops, I forgot the OS. You can get Windows XP Pro Home Edition for Php 4,580 or Windows Vista Home Basic at Php 5,250. Again, there’s always Ubuntu for free.