Roll your own

I'm considering purchasing a desktop/or tower for under $300, most of the choices are P3's, with < 1ghz clock, 128-250 MB RAM and 10-20 gigs hard. Some come with 15" monitor for about $260. These specs are fine for now, but I'm wondering if - I should buy a box and boards and build one myself. Cost is the main issue, not specs, my usage is limited to word processing, the net, spreadsheets and photoshop.

If you'd think building a home grown PC makes sense, please indicate the component brands and whether it can be done for less than $400. Thank-you.

I just built a system for my brother. It came with a Fry's combo xp1800 and ecs board for only $59.95. Hitachi 80 gig hardrive $65. Generic case $25 shipped. 2 256 meg pc3200 memory at $86 for both (newegg). Gigabyte ati 7000 video card $39 shipped (newegg). pci modem $10. Floppy $9 and refurbished sony 52x24x52 cd burner $29 shipped (newegg). Generic keyboard $3.99 and usb mouse $1 (both Fry's specials). Total cost without monitor or software came to about $335 with tax and handling. Add windows xp home (about $85 online for the oem full version) and it comes to $420. Not a bad system. It runs pretty close to my p4 in most applications. This system will be 2-3 times faster than any p3 setup.

only when its a low spec computer. The second you start customizing it the cost just bumps up plus it never performs as fast as a same priced DIY computer. Did you see the Dell XPS, that "gaming" computer, its $2999(USD) with a FX 5200 and a 2.8 P4, I don't even think its an Ultra. When you buy one you also buy tech support, software. I should've finished reading your post, you mention that crap, oh well.

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