Budget Mobo Sought.

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

Hi all,
i've spent a while going through magazine ads, Copernic, Ebay etc.
But nothing beats knowledge from people "on the ground" as it were. And I
don't do this often enough to be sure of getting this right... the last
machine I built was with an MSI KT3 Ultra 2, it's still a good board but i
could have done better for the price at the time. This new machine is to be
a "budget" office pc for the donky work of word processing, record keeping,
printing and I want to try and make the best machine I can for the task and
the funds available.

I'm looking for an ATX motherboard, with onboard sound and video. I've got
£35 to spend on it. I'm not looking for blistering performance, but need
something rock solid and with an accessable website for drivers, bios etc. I
want to put a lower end but useable cpu in it and it will be accompanied
with 256Mb of ram. I'm thinking £35 each for mobo, ram, cpu. Plus perhaps
£20 for a decent, stable power supply ( With illuminated fans and gold
edging.. reason apparant later.. ).
I'm sure there's someone out there who builds lower end "office" user
machines daily... what do you use?

I looked at the micro atx boards but really don't want to lose those
slots.... plus, it's going in to an acrylic case so the bigger and brasher
the better! ( I know, acrylic cases are not very "budget" but I saw this
one http://www.uc-solutions.co.uk/asp/aroura.asp and couldn't resist it!
Futureproofing is a consideration, but at the moment it's to get up and
running with a useable machine for a reasonable cost. Thanks for all the
previous help chaps! This group helped no end when I built the first one....
)

Les

 

[TJ]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

Intel makes one for $60. Built in video, network, sound. www.newegg.com

"Les &/or Claire" <les.clairefrontal@lobesvirgin.net> wrote in message
news:2pfaoiFjmhfdU1@uni-berlin.de...
> Hi all,
> i've spent a while going through magazine ads, Copernic, Ebay etc.
> But nothing beats knowledge from people "on the ground" as it were. And I
> don't do this often enough to be sure of getting this right... the last
> machine I built was with an MSI KT3 Ultra 2, it's still a good board but i
> could have done better for the price at the time. This new machine is to
> be
> a "budget" office pc for the donky work of word processing, record
> keeping,
> printing and I want to try and make the best machine I can for the task
> and
> the funds available.
>
> I'm looking for an ATX motherboard, with onboard sound and video. I've
> got
> £35 to spend on it. I'm not looking for blistering performance, but need
> something rock solid and with an accessable website for drivers, bios etc.
> I
> want to put a lower end but useable cpu in it and it will be accompanied
> with 256Mb of ram. I'm thinking £35 each for mobo, ram, cpu. Plus perhaps
> £20 for a decent, stable power supply ( With illuminated fans and gold
> edging.. reason apparant later.. ).
> I'm sure there's someone out there who builds lower end "office" user
> machines daily... what do you use?
>
> I looked at the micro atx boards but really don't want to lose those
> slots.... plus, it's going in to an acrylic case so the bigger and brasher
> the better! ( I know, acrylic cases are not very "budget" but I saw this
> one http://www.uc-solutions.co.uk/asp/aroura.asp and couldn't resist it!
> Futureproofing is a consideration, but at the moment it's to get up and
> running with a useable machine for a reasonable cost. Thanks for all the
> previous help chaps! This group helped no end when I built the first
> one....
> )
>
> Les
>
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

Tj wrote:
> Intel makes one for $60. Built in video, network, sound. www.newegg.com
..... sorry, should've said, socket A only as I have an Athlon XP 2400+ to
pop in to it.
Thought i'd found the holy grail of mobo's just now ( the Epox EP-8KMM3i )
but it turned out to be mATX... ah heck..

Les

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

On Mon, 30 Aug 2004 01:30:08 +0100, "Les &/or Claire"
<les.clairefrontal@lobesvirgin.net> wrote:

>Hi all,
> i've spent a while going through magazine ads, Copernic, Ebay etc.
>But nothing beats knowledge from people "on the ground" as it were. And I
>don't do this often enough to be sure of getting this right... the last
>machine I built was with an MSI KT3 Ultra 2, it's still a good board but i
>could have done better for the price at the time. This new machine is to be
>a "budget" office pc for the donky work of word processing, record keeping,
>printing and I want to try and make the best machine I can for the task and
>the funds available.

Then sell the CPU and buy a used P3 system with remaining funds.
You don't need anywhere near high performance for those tasks but
to put together a modern build as you want, will cost more for it
to be very reliable.

>
> I'm looking for an ATX motherboard, with onboard sound and video. I've got
>£35 to spend on it. I'm not looking for blistering performance, but need
>something rock solid and with an accessable website for drivers, bios etc.

Then you want a board from a major manufacturer who charges more
for the higher level of support, like MSI, Asus, Abit, or
Gigabyte. Since the budget is small it would have a SIS chipset.


>I
>want to put a lower end but useable cpu in it and it will be accompanied
>with 256Mb of ram. I'm thinking £35 each for mobo, ram, cpu. Plus perhaps
>£20 for a decent, stable power supply ( With illuminated fans and gold
>edging.. reason apparant later.. ).
> I'm sure there's someone out there who builds lower end "office" user
>machines daily... what do you use?

You won't get a decent, stable PSU will all the eye candy for
that price. You could get a boring looking Sparkle/Fortron for
that, or perhaps given that this isn't a very demanding system,
perhaps a TTGI/Superflower, they do come in some pretty
variations, but I've no idea where to find 'em on your side of
the pond.


>
> I looked at the micro atx boards but really don't want to lose those
>slots....

Why care about lost slots when using the integrated features?
It sounds a bit like you want it all for pennies on the dollar,
which of course is what we'd all like, but spend more not because
we WANT to, but to end up with a decent system.


>plus, it's going in to an acrylic case so the bigger and brasher
>the better! ( I know, acrylic cases are not very "budget" but I saw this
>one http://www.uc-solutions.co.uk/asp/aroura.asp and couldn't resist it!
>Futureproofing is a consideration, but at the moment it's to get up and
>running with a useable machine for a reasonable cost. Thanks for all the
>previous help chaps! This group helped no end when I built the first one....

MSI typically has red products, Gigabyte blue, and if you want
something that looks like a lego set you might consider a
Biostar, though their boards aren't as good. Soltek makes some
interesting looking boards too but perhaps better suited to black
and chrome case instead of clear led/neon/etc.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

"Les &/or Claire" <les.clairefrontal@lobesvirgin.net> wrote in message
news:2pfaoiFjmhfdU1@uni-berlin.de...
> Hi all,
> i've spent a while going through magazine ads, Copernic, Ebay etc.
> But nothing beats knowledge from people "on the ground" as it were. And I
> don't do this often enough to be sure of getting this right... the last
> machine I built was with an MSI KT3 Ultra 2, it's still a good board but i
> could have done better for the price at the time. This new machine is to
> be
> a "budget" office pc for the donky work of word processing, record
> keeping,
> printing and I want to try and make the best machine I can for the task
> and
> the funds available.
>
> I'm looking for an ATX motherboard, with onboard sound and video. I've
> got
> £35 to spend on it. I'm not looking for blistering performance, but need
> something rock solid and with an accessable website for drivers, bios etc.
> I
> want to put a lower end but useable cpu in it and it will be accompanied
> with 256Mb of ram. I'm thinking £35 each for mobo, ram, cpu. Plus perhaps
> £20 for a decent, stable power supply ( With illuminated fans and gold
> edging.. reason apparant later.. ).
> I'm sure there's someone out there who builds lower end "office" user
> machines daily... what do you use?
>
> I looked at the micro atx boards but really don't want to lose those
> slots.... plus, it's going in to an acrylic case so the bigger and brasher
> the better! ( I know, acrylic cases are not very "budget" but I saw this
> one http://www.uc-solutions.co.uk/asp/aroura.asp and couldn't resist it!
> Futureproofing is a consideration, but at the moment it's to get up and
> running with a useable machine for a reasonable cost. Thanks for all the
> previous help chaps! This group helped no end when I built the first
> one....
> )
>
> Les
>
>
OcUK sell a sparkle one - www.overclockers.co.uk - you should be able to
find something similar with an nForce2 chipset.
Sling a cheapo AGP grapgics card into it, and you have future upgradability
there too.

hamman

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

Settled on this in the end...... ( barton for my pc, new one gets my old
2400+ )


MSI KT4AV-L SKT A 8X AGP DDR/Sound/lAN/USB2.0 Motherboard 045414
£27.99

AMD ATHLON XP2500+ 333MHZ FSB 512 L2 Cache Barton CPU - OEM 047843
£43.03

Amd Xp3000 8 X 8cm Heatsink + 8cm Fan With 4 Blue L.e.d 063314
£9.35

Ebuyer 600w Power Supply Blue With Tri Colour Dual Fans 061300
£19.99

Alps 1.44 Silver Floppy Drive 3.5 Inch Internal - OEM 055687
£3.89

Logitech Labtec PS2 Wheel Mouse 048070
£3.16

Sapphire ATI Radeon 7000 32MB DDR AGP TV-Out Retail Box 059320
£16.98

Crucial 512 DDR333 PC2700 DIMM 042149
£44.83