$600 or less

[athalus]

got a quickie.
a friend of mine wants a computer but can't afford alot. another friend of hers told her about buying a kit. i took a look at it and it was not too bad. here's the set up:
amd 1200
30gb hd
256mb of pc133
64mb integrated video
intergrated sound
56k modem
10/100 nic card
300w case
floppy
dvd/cd player

total $599 w/no o.s.

it was from a place called desert computer systems.

suggestions or comments?

 

[pike]

Well lets see,

First, you won`nt find too many fans of integrated video in this forum, i can vouch for that, trust me.
The thing always is : WHAT IS THE PC GOING TO BE USED FOR ?
(sorry about the yelling getting tired)

No monitor, right. That's ok. If the box looks good you don't need a monitor. Opps ! sorry i'll let someone with a fresh head deal with this i'm KAPUT.

Good luck though :_)))

 

[jflongo]

The $600 dollars or less, really depends on whether you or someone you know can put a computer together. If you don't, heck hard to beat $600 bucks. Does that come with a Keyboard and Mouse? Also I think AMD has a Duron 1200 now, was that the Duron or T-Bird.

Here's a quick list I put together. It's a lot more rock solid as well. IWill Motherboard, with DDR. And a 7200 RPM 40G Harddrive. Heck I think I could beat these prices even further on www.pricewatch.com as well. These all come from www.compuplus.com. You can beat the memory price from crucial.com and they even have free 2 day shipping right now.

3Com/USR V.90 3595 PCI Internal WinModem OEM $24.00
Linksys LNE100TX EtherFast 10/100 PCI NIC with WOL $5.99
Iwill KA266 PLUS DDR Socket A Motherboard 266FSB - Retail Box $92.00
VisionTek TNT2 M64 32MB Graphics Accelerator $43.00
Sony 1.44 Floppy $12.00
Enlight Mid-Tower ATX Case with 300 Watt Power $47.00
Pioneer 16X DVD Tray Load White Box $75.00
Maxtor 40 GB 7200 RPM ATA100/133 $92.00
AMD Athlon Thunderbird 1.2 GHZ 266MHZ FSB RETAIL $126.00
Major Brand DDR 256MB PC2100 $58.00

$574.99

now the downfall is, compuplus is a little more pricy in shipping that's another $100, so about...

$675 total, for a much much more rock solid machine and faster. You could even upgrade the video to a Hercules 3D Prophet 4500 Card, which would be a massive upgrade for only $27 more. And you could upgrade the case to an Antec, which would give you more room and airflow for about $9 more. So now after shipping about $711.

I know if you were willing to buy from 2 or 3 sites from www.pricewatch.com instead of 1, you could get that to about $600 or a little over with shipping.

With all that said, the machine your friend would be getting i'm guessing is good enough for quite awhile. But if you really want a good, kick butt one for the same price...build

 

[athalus]

thanks for the advise. i'll be putting the machine together myself. i built the one i currently use and am planning on doing 2-3 machines next year including an XP powerhouse for myself, hopefully with a flat panel. that's if i can find the money after going back to school and getting my N+ and also buying a new car. we'll see.

 

[Guest]

Hey
Im almost at that same point myself. I want a new system (serious gamer!!!) and Im seriously thinking about building it myself. I've built my own system before, but that was years ago. Waaaay back when AMD had just come out with the K -2(3Dnow)(years???).. It had a VooDoo Banshee video card, Maxtor HD(10 GIG) and 128mb PC100 SDRam. That was long ago . I got away with building for about $1000 bucks when all was said and done...

Anyway, I live in a different state now and I no longer have that system or for that matter any of the old software or instructions I had back then.
The biggest question I have now is the "Operating System". Back then, It was easy to get my hands on a copy of Windows 95/98 FOR FREE!!! Now Im back to square one.

I noticed that the pricing thats mentioned in this thread does not include Operating system pricing. Or does it? Nor does it include Monitor prices. Im use to 17" monitors for gaming purposes and a pretty stout video card.
So anyway....How much might I be looking at if I decided to build from the ground up again. Monitor and operating software included. What are some good pricing sites?? And if possible are there any sites available with simple ideas and instructions. I use to have a buddy who was my personal Hardware GURU, but he's no longer around.

Thanks for any suggestions or WEB sites that might help...

 

[jflongo]

A couple of quick sites...

http://www.compuplus.com

This site allows for easy building of a complete system to get a good idea on pricing. On some of the components they are competetive. After I do it on their site, I will then go to...

http://www.pricewatch.com

This site allows for getting the lowest price on every component from multiple sites.

Now as far as memory goes, right now...

http://www.crucial.com

may have the lowest prices on the best memory, since they currently offer FREE 2 day FedEx shipping. Crucial is a very good memory chip.

Basically from going to pricewatch, you will see a million other sites you can check out if you want.

James

 

[lhgpoobaa]

you have yet to answer the most important question...which someone allready asked...

what will it be used for!!!

if your not playing games, integrated video may be ok. if you are, forget it.

as for sdram boards,
the Iwill KK266 series are pretty good
either the KK266plus or KK266plusR (onboard raid version)
very high quality boards, stable as anything, highly overclockable should u want to do that, and possibly most importantly for you, both variants have an excellent onboard sound capable of EAX and 5.1 surround, almost as good as sb live. vary rare quality for onboard sound!



Excuse me for a moment. I need to drive my ergonomic wheely chair over a sheet of bubble wrap!

 

[dhlucke]

Newegg.com has cheap shipping. See if you can save money through them.

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