Building a bargain system

[StoneRyno]

A friend of my brothers needs a new pc. All he does more or less is browse the internet, do email, play cheezy games that come with the OS and maybe some website based games like card games and the like. Maybe uses word and other basic low impact software like a finance app like MS money.

So far I have thought about the following parts:

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16813127001
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16819103537
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16820145026

I really haven't followed mobo and PSU stuff all that much and wanted to know what kind of PSU would be sufficient to run the hardware. Aside from these parts there will be 1 HD, a CD drive, and maybe a modem card. I was looking at this as a possible PSU.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817154013

I've had two other of this brand and they worked fine and did what was needed even on my OCed system. Although we will not be doing any OCing on the one I'm building for him.

[mantralord]

Looks fine, but might be worth it to get a Sempron and 1 GB of RAM instead.


More memory might help out in the long run, since "casual computer users" tend to accumulate about 20 IE spyware search bars over time.

[R4z0r4mu5 Pr|m3]

i agree with mantralord, it might also be a good idea to wait a little bit for the AM2 platform to stabilize and build that as it will be more futureproof, have better performance, and cost the same

[chubchubcullen]

http://www.mwave.com/mwave/viewspec.hmx?scriteria=BA22673
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813135011
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820141225
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817104952
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822135106

Maybe overclock the sempron to about 2.0ghz for a performance boost.. but if all hes doing is surfing and light gaming then I dont think you need to. I guess you could buy better/more ram for future upgrade but ddr2 800 and up are pricier. The ddr2 533 should perform roughly the same as low latency ddr400 I think.

[StoneRyno]

Although it would be ideal to wait the problem he is without a functional pc currently. I am working with him with options but I'm only comfortable with loaning a PC to him on a short term basis. I could setup a pc with o/c but after that he is not very knowlegeable about pcs and thus if something doesn't work right he is clueless as to what to do even the most basic problems. Thus why I come into the picture. I build, fix, virus, and spyware clean etc as a form of income. Occationally seeking the advice of forums and such as this for odd things.

Another factor I have to deal with is he is more or less living paycheck to paycheck which basically limits me to building it as cheap as possible without giving him something that is so crappy that he is going to be calling me everyday to troubleshoot something. The OS is likely to require more system capability than anything else he will ever run on the pc.

[R4z0r4mu5 Pr|m3]

for someone like that, i would suggest using an Asus board with a good rep as they use some of the best physical parts such as capacitors and resistors for long term reliability, something with onboard video, pair it with a sempron 64 or cheap athlon 64, cheap 300w or more antec/enermax/fortron psu, seagate hard drive (5 yr warranty), and as much ram as he can afford with the budget, and forget about overclocking for this system - you don't want to compromise reliability at all

if you're willing to go with an agp slot board, i'd go with this classic cheap reliable psu:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103463

[StoneRyno]

I was mainly avoiding AGP because I figured in short term like 2-3 years if a piece of hardware were to go bad and need replacement it would be better to have a newer set of hardware. And concidering the prices or the 4 parts I linked to its hard to justify shaving off what to me seems a trivial amount and going with some generic or semigeneric cheap manufature that may not be as reliable. There is an asus board with S3 Graphics UniChrome Pro IGP onboard video and an AGP slot but since it was only $1 cheaper I thought it best to go with the abit board and have the PCIx. In the event there is a problem down the road with the onboard video and its out of manufarture warranty on the mobo a cheap PCIx card can be put in with no worries of non-existant parts.

[R4z0r4mu5 Pr|m3]

i was under the impression that he'd be using onboard graphics anyway, general uses doesn't need a video card, video cards don't really go bad easily anyway, since this system is limited by budget the money saved buying a $25 PSU opposed to a $50 one can be used towards memory

asus is a better promise in the long run, abit has had capacitor problems in the past

just my 2 cents

[StoneRyno]

ah i didn't think of that. Getting the asus mobo with the integrated video and the psu cheaper due to the agp system would allow for the added 512 of ram. I've had like a dozen different model abit mobo's myself and have loved each one of them. Although I have had experience working on pcs with asus mobos I have never owned one with one in it. If the integrated video is reliable and not prone to problems in the short term of 2 or 3 years then I won't have to worry about him needing a replacement video. I'll list up the details and see what he thinks. I'm not even sure if he really cares whats in it as long as it works and will last him a number of years.:)