Budget PC build for friend

[YSJ]

I have a friend that wants me to build a PC for him has decided on a AMD CPU. He wants to use some of his old components from a HP PC he purchased in the year 2000, which will include a HP DVD and HP CDRW.

Will I have any problems with these components on a new system build? Also, we will be using the modem from the old HP since he is still on dial-up service. The PC will be mainly for email, Excel, Word, browsing the Internet. But he does play some graphic intensive games at times, such as Splinter Cell and MaxPayne with a PNY GF2MX420 video card at the moment.

I was thinking of buying a Fry's combo of the 2000+/ECS K7VTA, 2200+/ECS K7VTA, or a going with newegg and getting the AMD 2100+ and
Biostar M7NCD mobo. Here's the rest of the parts for the build, please comment.

AMD CPU 2000+, 2100+, or 2200+
Biostar M7NCD mobo
Kingston value RAM 2x256 PC2100
Coolmaster Aero 7 Lite HSF
Fortron PSU - FSP300-60PN 300W
Generic Case

Recycled from the HP PC
Keyboard, Logitech mouse
Hard Drive 40GB
GF2 MX420 Video Card
Modem
Monitor
Speakers
Floppy

 

[Teh]

You shouldn't have any problems with the optical media. I'd go for the newegg stuff over the ECS mobo from Fry's. You should stay away from ECS.

 

[YSJ]

Then it would be wise to stay away from the AMD/ECS combos at Fry's? Looks like I will be going the 2100+ Biostar route then with everything else remaining the same. I have looked at newgg's site and it seems they have Biostar mobo, the M7NCG 400, for like $12 more and it has dual channel and video built-in but with only 3 PCI slots.

Could get that mobo instead and two sticks of Geil 256MB PC3200 @ $39 ea., or some Buffalo 256MB PC3200 @ $38 ea. for a dual channel.
His budget is around $250 to $300 and would like to keep fairly inexpensive.

 

[Teh]

Some people have had good experiences with ECS. I personally have never tried them and from all their reputation and from what others tell me, I have it in my mind to stay away from the company. Biostar seems to be a decent low-budget mobo manufacturer. And where are you buying this RAM at?

 

[OKJEFF4]

Definately go for the 66 dollar PC3200 in Cyberdeals. Then get the Biostar and possibly even a newer video card.

 

[Nasdaq]

Some people have had good experiences with ECS. I personally have never tried them and from all their reputation and from what others tell me, I have it in my mind to stay away from the company. Biostar seems to be a decent low-budget mobo manufacturer. And where are you buying this RAM at?

Get the RAM at newegg I have seen the Buffalo brand there and it seems to rate well from thier customers. I have heard fairly good things about some of the newer ECS mobos on other forums, so it might be worth a try, just don't think you'll be getting a lot of O/C adjustments though.

 

[CPFitz14]

You might have a tough time finding drivers for the modem depending on what OS you're using. We installed Windows 2000 on an HP from probably the same era, and couldn't find compatible drivers for the modem/soundcard. It was also sort of odd that the modem, and sound, were on the same PCI card. Anyway, just something to look into. You might want to take the case off and find out what kind of modem it is. Then google it, and find out if there are available drivers for whatever OS you plan on using.


-CPFitz-

 

[UPCguy21]

Man, do not buy ecs. Anyone but them. I am telling you right now, Of 4 of their mainboards I've tried, all 4 boards ended up with problems. I had one in my home computer, for a long time, board just quit one day.

We built a multimedia system for our church, which has monitor for ppl on platform, projector hanging from celing, and a comp to run it all. We had 3 count em 3 ecs boards, the first 2 boards were messed up somehow or other, the 3rd just went dead. See, we were trying to use an 1800+, you guys know what the settings are there. Well the boards decided it would be a good idea to just keep resetting the fsb to 100 mhz from time to time. So there ya go. We actually bought the computer from a computer shop, and they would not give us any service. We built the pc actually, just bought the parts from them, there was supposed to be a year warranty. The place was like 2 hours away. We could not get good service, and we always got blamed for the problems. Nevermind the fact that my dad and I have 4 computers together, or the fact that I'm a sr. @ Ohio University studying communication systems management, which is comp networking, telephone system, etc, so this is what I do. And we also had a guy who's been a computer troubleshooter/administrater for say at least 10 years who comes to church and helped us.

Finally, we just said nevermind, ordered a soyo mobo from tigerdirect, have not had a single problem. It's been working for months. I had a soyo board for my old 450 mhz amd k6-2. I had the jumpers on the back on of my cd drives set wrong, I guess I wasn't paying attention, but I think like I was trying to run one drive as a master with the setting being set to slave on the back jumper, etc. The board actaully worked like that for a year before the IDE controller finally fried.

Anyway, I like soyo, But I hear asus and abit are good too. Get what you want, but I would steer well away from ecs. They will not be getting my business anytime soon, I can tell you that now.