We recently purchased parts for a home desktop PC in India for the value oriented price sensitive segment (along with several new computers for office). My objective was to choose a solid home desktop personal comnputer with decent graphics, solid sound system and strong processor speed. There should be no compromise on quality and yet it should be priced at the sweet spot of around Rs 21, 000, which is very acceptable in Indian market today. In other words what is the best value we can provide within Rs. 21, 000. The set should include a PC (obviously), a good UPS and Monitor.

We ended up with Pentium 4 HT 3.06 CPU with Intel original mother board 865, 160 GB Seagate SATA disk, 512 MB DDR RAM, Combo DVD CDRW Drive, Intex 2000 Watt Speaker with Subwoofers, APC UPS 500 VA.

Intel Pentium 4 HT 3.06 is a decent CPU at a moderate price of Rs. 3400. While it isn't a trail-blazer like Core 2 Duo series, it gives pretty good value for the buck. It doesn't have the heating problem of later Pentium D series and yet it supports hyperthreading which gives some of the benefits like a dual core cpu. For a desktop system at home what more do you need?

I selected 160 GB SATA because harddisks are cheap these days and having a huge harddisk allows you to backup movies and audio cd's along with your programs and files. In short it would be long time before you have to spent time on cleaning up your hardisk for more space. It is a great value for Rs. 2475.

Intel original motherboard gives you a peace of mind. It also comes with inbuilt LAN. Nowadays you can get cheap ADSL connection from BSNL for Rs. 250 / pm. Having a LAN means you don't have to spend anything extra to get connected to the net.

512 DDR RAM will make your application run faster even with multi-tasking. The price here is for ZION RAM, which is the bext quality RAM available currently in India.

I have added an extra fan for extra cooling keeping in mind the hot Indian climate.

A screen filter will go a long way to protect your eyes.

An UPS is must for India where power-cuts are frequent. I have learnt the hard way the importance of UPS in India.

So finally here is our dream value home desktop system for the value centric but price conscious market:

Price (Rs.)

Parts
Mother Board Intel 865 2900
CPU Intel Pentium 4 HT 3.06 GHZ 3400
160 GB Seagate SATA Disk 2475
DDR 512 MB 2180
Combo Drive LG 52X 1060
Speaker Intex 2000 Watt 800
APC UPS 500 VA 1940
Monitor Samsung 17″ Color 4400
Floppy Disk Samsung 230
Cooler Fan 40
Chasis 850
Keyboard 550
Mouse
Screen Filter 17″ 80
VAT @ 4% 836.2
Total 21741.2

Note 1: The prices quoted are for Calcutta / Kolkata. The prices vary from day to day and from place to place.
Note 2: We purchased parts in bulk so the price you get may be slightly higher.
Note 3: VAT is value added tax which is compulsory.

BTW: Samsung CD ROM has chronic heating problem. So I avoid Samsung optical drives.

Overall my suggestions for new PC owners is to play safe and purchase parts from reputed brands like Intel. Asus, Samsung, LG, Sony etc.

I recommend Fedora Core 6 as desktop operating system instead of overpriced Microsoft Vista.