Cheapest usable computer ?

[PhysX]

Someone I know is looking for all new hardware, mobo, cpu, ram hdd, dvdr/w, case kb & mouse.

Cheapest I could come up with is

Gigabyte GA-VM900M
Celeron 420 1.6Ghz "Faster than previous celerons"
1Gb DDR2 533
80gb sataII
16x dvdr/w
enlight case with 300watt psu
logitech ex110

total: 244.72, with os it would be 338.75 "xp home edition"

whats the cheapest you can make with current hw ?

the celeron is conroe-L based

usage = msn, email, web browsing, word processing, maybe a few videos, but nothing hardcore game = solitare

 

[Th3 F4ll3n P1mp]

Used celeron 800 mhz that I am selling for 5 dollars.

 

[JamesXP]

Haha, celeron 420 is way overkill

Anything from an athlon XP up will do well.

 

[ratbuddy]

Steer them towards Dell. SD regularly posts stuff for them. I think right now they could get a Q6600, 24" monitor, 250GB HD, etc etc for something like $600. Such a system would last much longer, just tell the person 'you can spend a little more now and skip your next upgrade entirely' or something..

 

[ScottinIndy]

Does it have to be built? Or does prebuilt (HP) qualify?

http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/s...2655&cpncode=18-2058770-2&srccode=cii_5784816

 

[burningcpu]

lol scottin that computer you recommended has vista installed. 512 MB RAM + outdated vid card + vista = no more friend. Might as well poop into his computer case.

 

[burningcpu]

LOL from the 'overview' page, "Effectively multitask with the 512MB of memory and 2 DIMM."

 

[PhysX]

Haha, celeron 420 is way overkill

Anything from an athlon XP up will do well.

so like i said, anything recent "current" non obsolete hw.

 

[JamesXP]

Athlon64 4200 X2
Biostar 7050 Board
2GB Generic Ram
Same Hardrive/CDROM
Case/good PSU
PCLinuxOS 2008

 

[freakdiablo]

I say skip the copy of windows and just install one of the easier linux distros and setup with WINE or some other windows like emulator. I use Ubuntu sometimes and its easy to use even though I know nothing about linux. And Im sure you can save a few extra cents by just getting a normal dvd drive.

 

[OC101]

Buy my PIII

 

[curtis1552]

I've now got my old AMD in my sig running MythDora 4 now and acting as a HTPC in my living room.
It also ran Ubuntu 7.04 ok - low graphics mode.

anything with 1Ghz+ and 512+ ram should do you fine with a linux distro.
XP needs ~2 ghz, and 1 Gb Ram
Vista needs 2Ghz Dual core and 2 gb ram.
Otherwise you'll get annoying lag when working with the OS.

 

[Mr. Roboto]

I've now got my old AMD in my sig running MythDora 4 now and acting as a HTPC in my living room.
It also ran Ubuntu 7.04 ok - low graphics mode.

anything with 1Ghz+ and 512+ ram should do you fine with a linux distro.
XP needs ~2 ghz, and 1 Gb Ram
Vista needs 2Ghz Dual core and 2 gb ram.
Otherwise you'll get annoying lag when working with the OS.

xp doesn't need anything near that high. I have an 800mhz PIII with 512mb of ram kicking around that runs xp just fine.

 

[LilBuddy]

Go with an emachine from BB or CC when they have them on sale for like $349. They come with a monitor and printer too.

 

[curtis1552]

xp doesn't need anything near that high. I have an 800mhz PIII with 512mb of ram kicking around that runs xp just fine.

I should rephrase that;
In my experiance:
blah, blah.

I have a Amd 4200+; 2gb of ram; Nvidia 6600 and XP still bogs down and locks up.
I'll admit i haven't treated it very nice (trying out lots of free programs to find the one that works well)
When on it maintains a steady use of 700megs of my ram and 5% of my CPU.
I run IE, and it locks up; at 52% (one entire core for IE) and it pulls another 100meg RAM.

I guess it's really how you set it up, treat it, and use it.

 

[EchoTheDolphin]

I should rephrase that;
In my experiance:
blah, blah.

I have a Amd 4200+; 2gb of ram; Nvidia 6600 and XP still bogs down and locks up.
I'll admit i haven't treated it very nice (trying out lots of free programs to find the one that works well)
When on it maintains a steady use of 700megs of my ram and 5% of my CPU.
I run IE, and it locks up; at 52% (one entire core for IE) and it pulls another 100meg RAM.

I guess it's really how you set it up, treat it, and use it.

Antispyware would do some good

 

[Firestrider]

I recently built a 690g, amd64 x2, 160gb hd, 2gb ddr2-800 ram, 420w psu/case, 20x dvd/rw computer for $250, but I didn't include the peripherals and got my OS/software from MSDN

 

[freakdiablo]

xp doesn't need anything near that high. I have an 800mhz PIII with 512mb of ram kicking around that runs xp just fine.

900mhz duron, 128mb ram, onboard graphics, ran xp, actually played games on it. Can I has win?

For simple stuff with XP, I say maybe 1-1.5ghz cpu and 512mb ram is all you need. Maybe toss in a sub $100 graphics card if the user is watching HD movies.

 

[int1221233]

i have a pentium III 933mHz with 384MB ram, on board SIS 630.ATA66 20G harddisk, running linux, openoffice, firefox, utorrent, smb, xsane, simple graphic editing with GIMP, watching dvd, avi, mp4.. etc. without any problem. [i am regretting throwing my PII 266 and 350 away..\]

 

[Knacko]

Dell Inspiron 530 without monitor:

e2180 (2.0 GHz)
1GB DDR2-667
160GB HD
16x DVD-RW
Vista Home
Basic case, keyboard, mouse
1 year on site tech support
A few crappy preloaded programs

$309+shipping.

http://configure.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=ca&CS=cadhs1&l=en&OC=D530DV_F_1E