$500 budget build, what do you think?

[turboflame]

A family member of mine thinks its about time to upgrade her 4-5 year old computer.

This is not a gaming machine of any kind, mostly just to be used for everyday apps

Here is what i'm thinking:

case: Cooler Master Centurion 5 - $49.99

psu: Rosewill Value RV450S ATX1.3 450W - $35.99

mb: EPoX EP-9NDA3I Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce3 250 ATX - $59.99

cpu: AMD Athlon 64 3800+ Venice - $107.00

ram: Kingston HyperX 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM - $103.99

hdd: Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 ST3808110AS 80GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s - $48.99

dvd drive: LITE-ON Black 16X DVD-ROM 52X CD-R 32X CD-RW 52X CD-ROM - $26.25

fdd: SAMSUNG Black 1.44MB 3.5" Internal Floppy Drive - $4.99

altogether that is $437.19 + shipping = $468.94

For the video card i'm just going to put in an older agp 128 mb radeon 9600se that i have (to save some $). This build is probably going to have to last awhile so I want it to be capable of running vista decently (if or when that os is used).

So if you have any suggestions or comments, they would be much appreciated.

 

[Mondoman]

In general, when shopping around, don't forget to include shipping costs. On heavier items like cases, this can really up the total when you're bargain shopping.
Another case suggestion:
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=371295
(Thermaltake Mambo, free shipping $25 AR) It's a decent bargain case - I've got one. Even includes one 120mm fan. Needs to be purchased by Monday 8/14 for $20 rebate.

 

[Mondoman]

This Thermaltake TR2 430w is $40, free shipping (or $38 AR from newegg) better reviews than your choice:
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=370565

 

[Mondoman]

hdd: 80GB is pretty wimpy these days. There are lots of short-term deals around if you look. For example, here are a couple from outpost.com:
http://shop4.outpost.com/product/3983238?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG (Hitachi 250GB IDE, retail kit, $60 AR, free shipping)
http://shop4.outpost.com/product/3683765?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG
(Maxtor 200GB SATA, retail kit, $60, free shipping)

 

[Mondoman]

ram: best price/performace upgrade in the future will be more ram, so start with a single 1GB stick to allow purchase of a 2nd for easy future expansion. Plus, this is cheaper:
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=80097-50
(great Corsair XMS3200/DDR400 $86 AR, free shipping)

If you really want 2x 512MB, get this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145450 (Corsair XMS3200/DDR400 $101 AR, free shipping)

 

[Mondoman]

cpu: spend the extra $40 for an x2 CPU. It will help out on general use.

 

[Mondoman]

fdd: skip the floppy. If you really need one, get a USB floppy for $20 (periodic sales/specials) that you can share among many computers.

 

[Mondoman]

My total: $467 including shipping. I'd do some more searching to see if you can get a better MB, as it doesn't have the best reviews.

 

[techtre2003]

Vista will want a lot of memory so be sure you can up that to at least 2 gigs in the future. For another $10 you can get a DVD burner rather than the DVD-ROM/CD burner. Also, don't forget to include the OS in the price if you need one. Also, you may want to upgrade the MB (the NF3 chipset is getting a little dated) if this computer is going to be used for a while.

 

[turboflame]

Thanks for both of your guys help!

I'm going to change the case to the thermaltake mambo and the psu you suggested (i dont know if i'll be able to order it by today though)

for the hdd, 80 gigs is plenty, this build is for my mom and she hasn't reached the halfway point on her 40 gig drive

for the memory, the comp probably won't be upgraded until its time for a new computer, so 512x2 in dual channel would give better performance. I can always put in another 1GB kit later (4 ddr slots on mb, but slight performance hit). I'll look into the corsair ram (i'm wary of mail in rebates) but it is a good deal

x2 is probably overkill, plus I would have to buy a more expensive mb that supports x2. (there is currently a beta bios for the epox mobo that supports x2, but i wouldn't risk it, would it even be possible to update the bios while using a cpu it doesn't support?)

for the mb, I've had good experiences with epox, I had a via km400 epox mobo for my athlon xp build.

I agree with the fdd, unfortunately my mom relies on it for backing up her data (sounds like an oxymoron or something), ive gotta teach her how to use flash drives!

I doubt she would ever use a dvd burner, and yea we have a copy of windows xp.

just wondering, are there any utilities to copy the contents of one hard drive to the other? that would save alot of time