Big bang for the buck rig!

[@crilicM@n]

Hy People... I´ll have to soon setup a rig for my sister... She doesn´t need anything special but word processing 56k connection and mybe i´ll give he a bonus of a cdrw/dvd drive... I´m planning asomething cheapo, like an AMD system (Maybe ECS mobo or the cheappest asus), DDRAM, offboard videocard, the sound may be onboard... a cheap 7200 HD of arround 40 GB.... But, off course I will overclock it a litle bit... that´s what I´ve been doing since my pentium 166... As you all know... a second/last forum talk is always good to collect some opinions in what about the bang for the buc is... I wonder if you could suggest some cheap setups for the big bang for the buck, like Stefans front page articleHere ... Remember... she´s a woman! and SHe doesn´t understand much about computers... So I don´t plan to make something that won´t be fully enjoyed... Simple case... simple keyboard... 15" monitor.... a good appearance mouse (woman look at it...) Ok! Welll, tell me some mobo´s names, and the best processor batchs to OC arround duron XP 1600-2000 cpu´s, just want to be shure it will be a good overclocker wth aircooling.... (An alpha laying arround...)

 

[shiyan]

I'd say head over to the AMD forums for more detailed info.

Definitely best bang for the buck is the 1700+ or 1800+ Thoroughbred CPUs which are like $50 a piece and overclock to around 2.2~2.3Ghz, which is like a 3200+ rating.

but why a 15" monitor? 17" are pretty cheap nowadays arent' they?

the ultimate mouse is the Logitech MX700, wireless and optical. But much cheaper and still very nice is the basic Logitech Optical scrollmouse. Not sure about the name, but should be around $15 I guess.

edit:

hmmm.... looks like I haven't been of much help. Stephan's CPU does cost even less than that...

 

[@crilicM@n]

I'd say head over to the AMD forums for more detailed info.

Definitely best bang for the buck is the 1700+ or 1800+ Thoroughbred CPUs which are like $50 a piece and overclock to around 2.2~2.3Ghz, which is like a 3200+ rating.

but why a 15" monitor? 17" are pretty cheap nowadays arent' they?

the ultimate mouse is the Logitech MX700, wireless and optical. But much cheaper and still very nice is the basic Logitech Optical scrollmouse. Not sure about the name, but should be around $15 I guess.

edit:

hmmm.... looks like I haven't been of much help. Stephan's CPU does cost even less than that...

Yeah... I´ll talk with the amd guys in the amd cpu´s forum to certify what cpu I´ll get... that´s my bigger doubt... The 17' monitor price here is a bit more than the 15'... if I find a really good one fo almost the same price I´ll buy the 17', but my sister is an egg, and she doesn´t know anyting about computers.. so I´ll make a very basic machine with some overclock inside to be up to date in raw power for some time to use with basic office and IE software...
Well the MX700 look´s like more for me than for her he he.... I´m planning in an Bluetooth mouse and Keyboard soon to put togheter with my "PIN" stuff... (Tungsten T2 Palm...) the basic Logitech Optical scrollmouse will be perfect... Simple and good brand... I personlly use an a4tech optical mouse 6 butto for years and he looks very very used, but does the job so nice until today that im keeping it until I upgrade to bluetooth wireless stuff an those... I don´t know how to say... "Image projectors, or datashow" stuff in my room for the pc...
Thanks shiyan... I think a 1700 Thoroughbred will be coming soon...

 

[Fallen Phoenix]

I'd grab something besides an ECS board, all my experience with them has been bad Since you're building this for a lady that doesn't know much about computers, I wouldn't curse her with an ECS mobo, she may need to fix something that's wrong with it and can't.

I can heartily reccomend an Asus A7"V"8X mobo. I've got the -X version but I bet you can get a cheaper model minus a couple features. It may be a bit out of the price range but I think it's about $60-$70. Bad thing, it's a VIA chipset so no PCI lock but it'll hit 1.7Ghz easily with a 1700+ Tbred A.

Good luck

 

[Krusty]

Last cheap system I built was for my older sister. I generally go for an asus a7n266-vm, an origional nforce board with a built in geforce2 mx. It sells for $67 on newegg. You wouldn't want to overclock it too much though because anything over a 266Mhz bus overclocks all of the components (no locked or 1/5 divisor). If your sister really doesn't need much, you can throw in 512MB pc2100 and have a system that can play all the old games and surf the net no problem.

That's the way I would go for a sub $400 system.

 

[@crilicM@n]

Last cheap system I built was for my older sister. I generally go for an asus a7n266-vm, an origional nforce board with a built in geforce2 mx. It sells for $67 on newegg. You wouldn't want to overclock it too much though because anything over a 266Mhz bus overclocks all of the components (no locked or 1/5 divisor). If your sister really doesn't need much, you can throw in 512MB pc2100 and have a system that can play all the old games and surf the net no problem.

That's the way I would go for a sub $400 system.

Hmmm yeah... A Nforce would be a decent onboard system for a Lady... and could even play dvd´s.... Maybe a Nforce with a 1,7xp an a dvdrom with a cheappo 17" monitor... lets see how much... A slight overclock at least i want.... not shure she will need 512mb of ram.... I was thinking about 256.. but if 512 will make it live longer.... thats a cheappo computer made to live long.... that´s what i need....


Yeah, i think a cheapo asus will be better than an ECS... An asus NForce sems good.... lets see how it compares to a mobo plus videocard alone...

 

[sandman001]

definatly go for some cheap 512mb pc 2100 ram. It'll help out if she wants to multitask at all.

 

[dropadrop]

ASROCK K7S8X-E could be a good choice for the motherboard. Still did'nt hear anything bad about them, and quite a few people on the local finnish forums have gotten one for their second rigs.

http://www.ocworkbench.com/2003/asrock/k7s8xe/k7s8xe-1.htm

I'd definatly get it over the nforce1