Cheap college rig

My sister is going off to college next year and wants to buy a computer to take with her. She doesn't play games and the most demanding things she does is run AOL (not AIM but the whole client...) and Word at the same time. She has a lot of guy friends who overclock and such and now has the idea she needs a mid to high end system... but she doesn't want to pay more than 500-600.

So I'm looking for suggestions on what kind of rig I could build her. I haven't kept up on new parts and such since the A64s started coming out, but I assume an XP and 512mb of memory should be fine. SO if anyone has any specific part recommendations I'd love to hear em. Thanks for any input.

link

that is another thread with the same basic question i had posed a few months back. hope that it helps!

good luck on the build!

Convince her to spend her money on something else. She could buy a machine more than capable of doing those tasks for under $100 through http://www.retrobox.com

Here's a nice Dell GX150
+ Pentium III 800mhz
+ 256mb RAM
+ 20GB hard drive
+ Slim Black desktop case
+ Black CD-ROM drive

For only $97
http://www.retrobox.com/rbwww/home/unit_view.asp?id=1134851&bin_id=world

Then you can order peripherals and a nice LCD monitor from newegg. And she could spend the rest of the money on something more interesting or practical.

You could definitely build her a great AXP system for less than $500. I'd suggest the following:

Antec SLK3000B case - $46 at amazon
Abit NF7-s v2 - ~$50 used
Mobile XP 2400+ - $60 used
NEC DVD+-RW - $50 at newegg
Seagate 80 GB sata hard drive - $65 at newegg
1 GB PC3200 OCZ value ram - $80 at newegg
Fortron 300W PSU - $35 at newegg
Nvidia FX5200 - ~$30 used

Moderately OC the XP and set it to 200 fsb to utilize the PC3200 and she's got a great system for her needs.

You might look into a mini-itx system. They have enough power for all of that stuff, they are cheap, and they are very small. She could even make a cool little custom case to show it off. I plan on building one soon for my sister, she is also heading to college next year.

Another Alternative

I like the direction JasonE4 recommended.That would give her a good unit a little overclocking.If you want just a plain jane unit something like this would work:

Qty. Product Description Unit Price Savings Total Price

Update ASUS A7N8X-VM/400 Socket A (Socket 462) NVIDIA nForce2 IGP Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
Model #: A7N8X-VM/400
**This item is warranted through the product manufacturer only. what's this?
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$81.00 $81.00
ATX Computer Cases
Qty. Product Description Unit Price Savings Total Price

Update ASPIRE X-Pider ATXB5KLW-YL/350 Yellow Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 350W Power Supply - Retail
Model #: ATXB5KLW-YL/350
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$43.00 $43.00
CD/DVD Burners (RW Drives)
Qty. Product Description Unit Price Savings Total Price

Update LITE-ON SOHW-1673S Beige IDE DVD Burner - Retail
Model #: SOHW-1673S
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$53.99 $53.99
Floppy Drives
Qty. Product Description Unit Price Savings Total Price

Update SONY MPF920 Beige 1.44MB 3.5" Internal Floppy Drive - OEM
Model #: MPF920 Beige
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$9.00 $9.00
Internal Hard Drives
Qty. Product Description Unit Price Savings Total Price

Update Western Digital Caviar SE WD2000JB 200GB 7200 RPM IDE Ultra ATA100 Hard Drive - OEM
Model #: WD2000JB
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$99.50 $99.50
Memory - System
Qty. Product Description Unit Price Savings Total Price

Update CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model VS1GBKIT400 - Retail
Model #: VS1GBKIT400
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$79.99 $79.99
Processors
Qty. Product Description Unit Price Savings Total Price

Update AMD Athlon XP 2800+ Barton 333MHz FSB Socket A Processor Model AXDA2800BOX - Retail
Model #: AXDA2800BOX
**This item is warranted through the product manufacturer only. what's this?
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$104.99 $104.99
Subtotal: $471.47
This is a plain unit but you can always add a faster vid card( anytime she wants to upgrade from the on-board geforce 4 ).Its got a lot of ram, a lot of storage space,a good burnner.It should do for a great computer to use (you don't have to get the yellow color).

Now I know its time to upgrade that system you listed off is about the same as my system and I paid twice as much 2 years ago...

But I had no idea prices had come down that much. Thanks alot for all the responses.