Crappy to be better box

[Phugbox]

well, as you may all know, we all have to start out with our first computer, and the objective is to make it not suck complete and total ass, while still remaining within the restraining limits our our wallets made of duct tape because we couldn't afford to by a new one.

Here's the idea, I've got about 800 bucks, Canadian, I know, painful, but i need a computer that's decent and has the opportunity to get better.

Having looked at what i have lying around here's what I need to go get. I'm gonna go as nice as I can on the Mobo.

Mobo MSI K7T 266 Pro2
Pro Duron 700 or so, for the time being
Ram 256 megs of PC266 DDR
Soundblaster live 1024
whatever network card
Cheesy case, good an cheap,
Whatever inexpensive monitor I can grab, I hope I can find one from a comodore 64
And an ATI radeon 64MB DDR card that my friend should be able to get at a decent price since he knows someone who works for them.
Plus any halfway decent CD-RW

keeping all this in mind and my bugdet. I'm glad a have some smaller HDDs to tide me over until I have more money, in the next few months or so

[Phugbox]

I'm using this tactic to break up my post and make it look like I have more than I have.

now, the way I figure this I can get it all for ABOUT 800$ with tax, not too bad, and it'll tide me over, and then the Pro, the HDDs will get upgraded, hdd first probably, and then whatever else I feel I want more from.

anyway feel like telling me what I'm doing wrong here if anything?
Anyone know better than me what this would run me? I'm sure one of you does, please help me a would be overclocker, because an OCer without a comp to OC is simply a lame excuse for a poser.

[klosters64a]

Tight budgets make for tough choices. If at all possible, buy a decent case. Cheap ones draw blood, again and again. You'll hate the case in a short period of time. I bought a cheapie a few months ago. Two months later, I threw it down the trash chute, laughing maniacally at every bang and boom it made while it fell ten stories. No lie.

[Phugbox]

actually I know what you're talking about, what I wish I could get is a nice aluminum case, it'll be one of the things I upgrade shortly after the pro and HDD, all I've got in the way of hdd right now is a 1.2 gig seagate and a 6 gig Fujitsu limited.

but yeah, I'll be getting a better case, maybe an antec, with a 350 watt ps or better, but yeah.

and I have this friend who is trying to convince me the DDR ram is crap and way too expensive and provides you with no benefit. I'm thinking he's getting his information from people running 100 or 133 FSBs so that they don't benefit from PC266 ram. I don't know what to think really but that's just IMHO. Who do I beleive?

[David]

If PC133 is a lot cheaper then go with that. However you would then need a KT266/SiS 735/AMD 760/Ali M board to use PC133.
If the price difference is not that much then stick with DDR but I don't think that mobo takes Pc133.

[Phugbox]

thanks, I'm gonna go check and see if the board supports pc 133, if it doesn't, then I'm just gonna end up getting some DDR because I want a good board that will last me, that I can upgrade to a better processor and not have to worry about needing a new board just to do that, then I'll bring in an update on this

[Phugbox]

well, this sucker supports a 200/266 fsb which I'm guessing means that there's no way that I'll be using PC100 or PC133 ram
It looks like it's going to be DDR for me, does my logic follow?

Here's what I'm looking at.

MSI K7T 266 Pro2
AMD Duron 800MHz
256MB DDR-266
LG 16x10x40 CDRW
(the case doesn't matter much now, I'll be junking it later or hacking it to bits)

This far I figure it'll run me about $600.30 with tax at the prices I've seen

In addition I need to snag myself a monitor.
And we'll see what deal my friend can get me on an ATI Radeon 64MB DDR, he says he knows someone.

This plus my 1.2gig seagate and my 6gig fujitsu limited should tide me over until I get a bigger HDD, which would be shortly thereafter, followed by probably a better processor, depending on how good my overclock is, and then definitely a nicer case.

is there anyone who has any reason they feel like teling me I'm an idiot and shouldn't go ahead right now?

[Phugbox]

unfortunately I still am having a hard time figuring out whether or not that Mobo will take PC 133 or PC 100 ram, but I know it definitely takes DDR.

Any help for a NuB like me?

its the MSI K7T 266 Pro 2 not the Pro2-RU I don't feel like paying an extra 50 bucks for Raid and USB 2.0 that I also don't need and am being told windows can't handle right plus, plus I can add that in later if need be.

thanks for all the help.
These forums are greatplaces for advice. i just hope I'm in the right section