What do you think?

[tee2]

One computer in the house is not going to cut it much longer, with finely getting cable internet and the kids getting their own email, and wanting to IM we need something. I was going to build a new one for me and they get the old computer, but I don’t have the money to build what I want so I’m thinking of a cheap one for them. It will be used for Internet, school work (jr high), printing photos (low end), and some games like Sims, Rollercoaster Tycoon, no high-end stuff.

I was going through some old components I have been saving for just a project and came up with a 3.5 floppy drive. The keyboards (9 pin), mice, cd rom drive, it all went in the garbage. So I’m going to need everything except a monitor. The kids want a LCD and are going to buy that themselves.

What do you recommend? Mostly need CPU, motherboard, and ram suggestions, everything else will be on price. I’m sure I can get away with on board sound how about video? How low do you think I can build for? I know I can go out a buy cheap from some where, but I won’t learn that way. And how would it compare to my p4 1.4.

Thanks

 

[Crashman]

If you're really on a budget you can get an XP2800+ complete system (minus monitor) from Tigerdirect for around $400.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[scottkli]

When building cheap systems you got to ask yourself..
Do you want the cheapest system or the one that will cost less and last awhile.

I would suggest:
Antec Solution Series case
MSI Neo Platinum 754socket
AMD 64 3000+
Corsair Value Select Ram 512mb
WD 80Gb JB
Samsung Floppy and DVD-Rom
ATI Radeon 9600 Pro
Microsoft Keyboard/Mouse Optical
Around $600+

Cheapest:
Asus A7N8X-VM 400 - 80
AMD Athlon 2500+ - 80
Corsair Value Select - 75
Antec Solution Series - 65
Microsoft K/M Optical - 30
WD 80Gb JB - 65
Floppy - 10
CDRom - 20
Total = $425

 

[TheRod]

I agree that an Athlon XP based system will be fine for you and cheap!

Athlon XP rating is comparable to your actual P4 clock speed, so buying an Athlon 2500+ would gives you the performance of a P4 2.4GHz. Avoid Celeron and Duron. Celeron 2.8GHz is not faster than an Athlon XP 2500+ or a Sempron 2800+.

And Athlon XP are powerful enough for most gaming. So, in a near future, you will be able to upgrade the video card of this system to get good performance in games. Of course, it's not an high-end solution, but Athlon XP are still interesting for "light computing".

But, if you really want to keep this system for a while, you should consider buying an Athlon 64 2800+ or a Sempron 3100+ based system. This will ensure you a longer life, so a better return on your investment.

--
A7N8X / <font color=green><b>AMD Sempron 2800+</b></font color=green>
Kingston DDR333 2x256Megs
<font color=red>Radeon 8500 128Megs</font color=red> @ C:275/M:290