Halo's 750$ Computer Project. Courtesy of LIONS*LEADER

Heya everyone. My friend is interested in getting a desktop built for him by me.

this threads main purpose is for me and him to communicate. while letting everyone else put in thier 2 cents if they feel so inclined.

right now im undecided as to what way i should go.

dell refurbished dimension 4700's are decent.
upsides being the lga775 motherboard with a 915 chipset.
and a pciexpressx16 videocard slot
and dells willingness to replace faulty parts after hours of hellish tech support.

though the downsides are that they run on ddr2 which at the moment is inferior in reguard to tightest timings at any one speed.
and i dislike the fact that they make thier motherboards incompatible with non-dell heatsinks, they still keep the processor cool if the house is airconditioned to the 70-80 degree area.





im also considering a 478 motherboard build on an abit or albatron motherboard depending on how much everything costs.

the upsides being overclockability (faster processor and memory speeds and more bandwidth), tight DDR memory timings. good processor cooling.

and there arnt many downsides.other than it may be more expensive. but then you are getting all high quality rather than dell's low quality parts.

Ha, well thanx for starting this project with me. I'm not computer smart at all! so I trust you'll do everything top-notch! Well, turns out I've only go $700 to spend! Had to pay for somethings lately, but the $700 is in the bank now. Anyways, hope you get alot of good ideas!!!!

-Halo

well ive been looking at the options. im thinking the best performance overall for that money will be had buying a dell 4700 for around 300. adding a gig of ram to it, and buying a x850xt or 6800GT

may have to get an a powersupply as well since the dells one wont be powerfull enough im thinking. they usually come with a 18A 12v rail or maybe 24A if you are lucky.

heres the list so far


300$ dell 4700 with 3ghz 800fsb 40-80 gig harddrive. and 16x dvd rom/16x dvdburner and if we're lucky 512 mb of ram.



82$ buffalo memory
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820150624
279$ 6800gt
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814150091
55$ powersupply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817182017

assuming i can get a dell for 300$, cheapest i saw right now was 379 but that changes all the time, ill be checking occasionally

716$ total plus tax so whatever that is...


hopefully we can cut the costs more by only buying 512mb more ram for a total of 1gig

and possibly seeing if we cant get away with a cheaper powersupply that i selected, though i dont think thats a good idea.

Going with a Dell and upgrading is probably the way to go. Unless you cut corners somewhere, I don't see how you can do a P4 setup that OCs very well with the budget you have. It would help if Halo had some extra parts he could carry over.

I have to say thoughs parts look very slick. A good video card is a must for me, so that one looks real good. I've got around $730 in the bank right now and I'm going to try and get more money if i can. I look forward to not having to push Ctrl+Alt+Delete every 10 seconds! As for parts, I've got none. I don't think eMachines parts will work with dell, will they?

(eMachines......)

Probably not the motherboard or power supply since OEMs like to use propriatary mounting and such. But hard drives and CD/DVD drives can definatly carried over. Everything else will depend on how new the eMachine is, which doesn't sound like much.

Another thing to consider are refurb parts from Newegg or some other fairly large online store. You should also frequent slickdeals.net and fat wallet. SD has a lot of dell coupons and a lot of other deals, perhaps you can find a killer deal on some componet you need. I personally can't vouch for fat wallet but I hear its good.

hmmm i just got back into san diego and saw one of the leftover parts from a 4700 ive had come through. i have 2X256mb ram chips i cant use which i kept for charity. so with those in addition to the 2x256mb chips that will most likely come with the referb youll have your gig of ram. and that should be sufficient. so we dont have to spend money on ram.

especially if the computer costs more than 300$, though id like not to pay much more than that for it. since ive bought 4 of them now and the most i have spent on one was 360ish and i probly shoulda waited for a cheaper one. though the ones i got didnt come with 16X dvd burners.

the price goes up and down and they go in and out of stock. last post ther were many linsted and plenty in the 379-400 range but tonight they are 600+
so basicly once we decide on a configuration you should basicly buy a refurb since i cant post a link to it for you to buy. since the link wont work.

i would hold out for a 3.4 if you can get lucky enough to snag one. i got one for like 360. and another for around 370 if memory serves correctly.

they are the 550's ( the 3.4 in my sig i got from a dell) so when you get some extra cash in like a year you can get a good cheap (by that time)motherboard that will let you drop the multi to 14 so you can get higher processor bandwidth and faster ram speeds.(similar results to mine and probly better.) and some nice 2X1GB low latency (timings are the latency like my 3-3-3-7 for example) to complete the computer.

but hopefully by that time dual core processors with hyperthreading will come down enough be a better investment than those upgrades.

Hmm, since you seem to know when the best times to buy the parts are, maybe it would best if you got everything yourself, Including CD/DVD, and the shell (or w/e its called). I need to keep my eMachines togeather becasue I use that one too. Plus, I kind of need this computer soon, within 3 weeks. Don't mean to rush you, or make you do everything, but I'm not an expert in this and I trust you more than I trust myself to get the parts I need.

Right now alls I need is a basic computer with a good video card and enough ram. One CD/DVD drive should be okay. And a motherboard thats got room for plenty for upgrades.

Bad news, my car is having a major problem. I'm going to have to use most money to repair it. I'm afraid I'll have to end this project . Maybe when I get the money agian we can start up agian. Untill them, I'm sorry. So, Don't order any parts or anything. Sorry guys. Thanks for helping me anyways.

its cool i wasnt planning on building it, it comes pre built, i was just going to mail you the ram. and let you just have everything shipped to your place. and have you install the videocard and put in the 2 extra ram chips. thats simple enough


too bad about your car. that totally blows. but on the bright side. if you just buy a x600pro for like 125$ instead of a 6800gt you could get away with not buying a power supply so that comes to about 450-500$

i play bf2 without a hitch with mine.

Hey, great news. My parents decided to pay for my repairs!!!!!!!!!!! (I have really good talking skills) !AWSOME!, so I've got money agian! I'd feel so much better if we could talk instantly about the project. here are my s/n's.

MSN - [email protected]
AIM - WryanO 06
Xfire - froozenhelix

But yeah, send me some links on some good premade dells that you deem worthy!!!

AHH I'm so happy!

You might want to look in the clasifieds, or look at Abit's site for their "refurbished motherboards" link to some realy cheap fast mobos. Remember that Dell is known for using different wiring techniques for their power supplies so upgrading a P.S. might not be that easy

hmm you may be right, i havnt changed out a powersupply yet. thats so like dell tho..

send me an instant message through xfire if you like my sn is lionsleader i invited your sn.

though the downsides are that they run on ddr2 which at the moment is inferior in reguard to tightest timings at any one speed.
and i dislike the fact that they make thier motherboards incompatible with non-dell heatsinks, they still keep the processor cool if the house is airconditioned to the 70-80 degree area.

Click to expand...

In regards to DDR2 you are wrong my friend. Even the cheapest DDR2 can run semi tight timings, and now the ram is coming down to run similar if not faster timings than DDR. Look at my sig, with a tiny bump in voltage I can run 3-3-3-10, I'm a chicken so I don't go father. But I bet it could run 3-3-3-8 if I pushed it, but what you don't understand is that I get little to no difference in bandwidth with a change from 10-11-12, so anyway your wrong.

But the part about cooling is true. My friends dell overheats in 80F heat. Its terrible

im not sure what you think im wrong about. i agree that some ddr have loose timings that ddr2 can match or beat. like mine at ddr2-400 3-3-3-7 vs some ddr400 3-4-4-8

i think you may have misunderstood me. the tightest timings available on ddr2 memory, are not as tight as the tightest timings available for ddr.


heres a link to read for you, to better understand timings and memory speeds. and the differences between ddr2 and ddr.

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/167/4


this link gives some more detail on timings.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/memory/display/ddr2-ddr_3.html

oh and if you have a link to any ddr2 memory with timings that are beating out the current best timings of ddr. id love to see it.


id love to see ddr2 do 275fsb at 1.5-2-2-5
http://www.xtremeresources.com/modu...views&file=index&req=showcontent&id=79&page=3

hey do you get a monitor and such with that dell your looking at ??

or are you talking just the box ??

i priced out a nice system for $750.

7800GT PCI-E
3200+ venice
Chaintech NF4
400w FPS PSU
1gb (512mb x 2)
80GB sata 150 8mb cache Maxtor
el cheapo case
use old: cd drive/floppy/mouse & keyboard/monitor/

you can also save some money. i seen you have a emachine. you can re-use your hard drive, keyboard & mouse, cd-drive, etc......


you could probably knock off close to 80-100 dollars if you use your old system to your advantage.

sure that 400watt psu can handle that 7800gt?

im not keen on non hyperthreaded processors. or memory that cant run dual channel.

and you forgot about the operating system. thats gonna cost you at least 100$ but most likely plenty more. as well as computer cases plenty of shipping on those.

the psu should be ok for the 7800gt.
depending on what ram he has already sure you can get dual channel going
there is a cae included in that
forgot about xp beings most already own it.
and shipping i believe can be worked out at certain online stores for bundle shippment.

depends who ya know and who ya ... ah you know... hehehehe

Check this Dell deal out:Dell 2.8 ghz DC complete system