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Building a low budget computer.

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dylskee

Member
Joined
Mar 3, 2005
Location
Central MA
I'm putting together a computer for a family friend which will be used for nothing but web surfing email and occasionally burning audio cd's. I would like to find a decent s775 motherboard with DDR2, onboard video and sound. I'm probably going to pair it with a 531 or something and a gig of ram. He was recently involved in a motorcycle accident and has been out of work for months so his budget is limited to approximately $400.~$600. He already has a decent crt, printer, keyboard and mouse so this budget is just for the cpu, motherboard, ram, psu, case and fans etc. Any suggestions would be appreciated. :beer:
 
Evilsizer said:
Thanks for the links man, that looks like a nice setup. How are thos sparkle psu's?
 
dylskee said:
Thanks for the links man, that looks like a nice setup. How are thos sparkle psu's?
that sparkle one if you notice the model name fsp550 is really a forton unit. i have one and its solid. i paid 110 for it back in jan so this is a steal IMO.

also i would stick with intel chipsets unless money was really tight, i mean if you only had like 300 or so for the build is the only way i would consider the via chipsets.
 
I know you said you wanted an Intel system, but I thought I would chime in with a system I recently configured for a friend that I feel is really nice for the price you pay. Also Evilsizer, you left out HD/DVD drives.

AMD A64 X2 3800+ AM2 65W version (low power ftw!)
Biostar Geforce 6100 AM2 mATX board (integrated graphics much better than GMA 950)
1GB Mushkin Enhanced DDR2 667
80gb Hitachi Deskstar 7K160 Sata3.0Gb/s
Samsung 18X DVD+-R
Cooler Master Centurion with 430W PSU

Total price shipped (newegg doesn't really care about distance):
$492
 
Evilsizer said:
that sparkle one if you notice the model name fsp550 is really a forton unit. i have one and its solid. i paid 110 for it back in jan so this is a steal IMO.

what i so don't get is why doesn't it have a power switch on the back? how much money can that possibly be shaving off the price? $1?

and FunnyP, i think he left them out on purpose, because of this:
dylskee said:
this budget is just for the cpu, motherboard, ram, psu, case and fans etc.
granted, he didn't mention already having a HD/DVD, but maybe dylskee has some extra stuff kicking around.
 
Yea I saw that too, I included them as part of the etc. since it didn't seem implied to me that he did have them :).
 
i've been sitting here trying to figure out what the etc could entail, besides some thermal grease (HD/DVD seemed too major to me to call it "etc")....

and then it came to me...what about an OS? :D
 
hUMANbEATbOX said:
i've been sitting here trying to figure out what the etc could entail, besides some thermal grease (HD/DVD seemed too major to me to call it "etc")....

and then it came to me...what about an OS? :D
os is free go LINUX! lol :)
 
i would do that as a last resort...linux is such a pain (please no flames from linux lovers, its IMO).

but hey, free is always nice!
 
hUMANbEATbOX said:
i would do that as a last resort...linux is such a pain (please no flames from linux lovers, its IMO).

but hey, free is always nice!
well i played with one called winux or something for basic webbing and email why not, real easy to use. im not a linux person but im thinking about linux for a folding rig i want to setup.
 
Actually I would say Linux would be perfect for such an application. Once set up by a moderately knowledgeable person, Linux can browse the web, check email, and burn CDs/plays MP3s just as well as Windows.

And honestly the only part of this that is mildly difficult is getting the Firefox Flash/Java plugins working along with Mplayer and the Quicktime/RealMedia/WMV codecs. Email will work out of the box, MP3 players abound, and CD burning is easy with K3B or GnomeBaker.

Once initial setup is done, it will run as is without any maintenance required for years.
 
i'm sure Linux would be perfectly fine, if set up by a moderately knowledgable person, like you said. this is key.

i've played with Linux a bit, i'm sure if i wanted to, i could set up a sweet Linux box for myself, but it would probably take me a couple of weeks of tinkering to get everything working properly. that's time that is usually not available when building for someone else. with windows, at least you can install it, validate it, get the updates in there, av software, the basics, then leave it up to the customer to install what they want. with Linux, you've basically got to get everything they'll ever need/want installed from the get go, unless you want to be making housecalls all the time, whenever new software is wanted. and what happens when the client sees some software they want to try, or need, and finds out they cannot use it, or have to use an open source alternative that maybe they aren't so keen on?

its a nice idea, but you can't really "set it and forget it".
 
hUMANbEATbOX said:
i'm sure Linux would be perfectly fine, if set up by a moderately knowledgable person, like you said. this is key.

i've played with Linux a bit, i'm sure if i wanted to, i could set up a sweet Linux box for myself, but it would probably take me a couple of weeks of tinkering to get everything working properly. that's time that is usually not available when building for someone else. with windows, at least you can install it, validate it, get the updates in there, av software, the basics, then leave it up to the customer to install what they want. with Linux, you've basically got to get everything they'll ever need/want installed from the get go, unless you want to be making housecalls all the time, whenever new software is wanted. and what happens when the client sees some software they want to try, or need, and finds out they cannot use it, or have to use an open source alternative that maybe they aren't so keen on?

its a nice idea, but you can't really "set it and forget it".

I don't know. I'd be using Ubuntu now if it weren't for the gaming issue. You need to be a little more careful when picking hardware, but I think Linux would work great for people who just want to do web browsing, and office type tasks.
 
hUMANbEATbOX said:
granted, he didn't mention already having a HD/DVD, but maybe dylskee has some extra stuff kicking around.
I thought i did have some hdd's and a dvd burner but they are all in the scrap pile. So yeah, i'm going to need a hdd and dvd burner and as far as the OS he has a copy of XP Home. I don't want to install linux because i know nothing about it and i'm sure i'm going to be support once he has this thing and i'm going to be the one fixing it. Thanks for all the replies guys. :beer:
 
May I suggest:

http://www.retrobox.com/rbwww/home/unit_view.asp?id=1738272&bin_id=world

U N I T F E A T U R E S

Bus Type: PCI and ISA Bus
Case Style: Desktop Case
CPU Speed: 1.8GHz
CPU Type: Pentium 4
Drive 1 Size: 20.0 GB HD
Free 3.5 Floppy Bays: No Free 3.5 Floppy Bays
Free 5.25 Floppy Bays: No Free 5.25 Floppy Bays
Hard Drive - Type: EIDE HD
Hard Drive Quantity: One Hard Drive
Included 3.5 Floppy Drives: 1x 3.5 Floppy Drive
Keyboard Type: PS/2 Keyboard Port
Media Drive 1: CD-ROM
Memory: 1 GB
Modem: None
Mouse Type: PS/2 Mouse Port
Network Adapter Type: Fast Ethernet (100Base-X) Network Adapter
Operating System: NO OPERATING SYSTEM INSTALLED
Parallel Ports: 1 Parallel Port
Serial Ports: 2 Serial Ports
Sound Card Included: Sound Card Included
USB Ports Included: USB Ports Included
Video RAM: 16 MB VRAM (Card)
 
interesting "buyers guides":

intel: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=106479
amd: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=101396
anandtech most recent midrange guide: http://www.anandtech.com/guides/showdoc.aspx?i=2839
anandtech most recent budget guide: http://www.anandtech.com/guides/showdoc.aspx?i=2791

and since other people touched on it, i would say linux is definitely worth looking in to. If it wasn't for my gaming habit, i would not use windows ever (on my personal computer). I would suggest Debian (www.debian.org) or Kubuntu (www.kubuntu.org) (i like KDE as opposed to Gnome). Also worth noting are PC-BSD (www.pcbsd.org) and Desktop BSD (desktopbsd.net). I won't go in to details on any of these now, but if you want more info, i'd be glad to discuss any and all alternatives to Windows with you.
 
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