Profile for new Desktop

[inquiring]

Hello..am ready to build a desktop box for a 74 year old man familiar with computers (he has old 350Mhz P2 HP Pavilion now). STABILITY and RELIABILITY are paramount not necessarily speed. He has 700 dollars to spend and we are going to a local computer swap meet to shop the name brand components with lowest prices.
Want to stay with Intel P3 CPU and Win 98 SE. Needs CD-ROM and DVD-ROM drives as well as FDD and good graphics card. uses 56K dialup. Has OWN MONITOR, KB, MOUSE, SCANNER, and CAM now. System must be compatible with these periperals.
Can anyone come up with a parts list that meets the above criteria?
Thank you kindly.

Inquiring

 

[Stick_e_Mouse]

Intel PIII 1.13ghz Tulatin Retail with stock HSF ~$180
Asus TUSL2 with audio and video ~$135
Crucial 256mb PC133 SD-RAM ~$60.29
IBM 60GXP 40gig HDD ~$90
Pioneer 16x DVD 106s (slot loading) ~$70
Mitsumi, Teac, or Sony FDD ~$12
any 3com HARDWARE modem would be good ~$50
Antec Case with 350 watt power supply ~$100
---------------------------------------------
Total: ~$697.29


You can get the asus motherboard with and without onboard video and audio...but I figured a 74 year young man wouldn't really be playing 3D games....would he?

See a real naked pic of Britney Spears <A HREF="http://www.geocities.com/stick_e_mouse" target="_new">here</A>!!!

 

[inquiring]

Naw his grandkids sometimes play a few 2- wanna be 3-D games...did I miss the CD-ROM drive there or is it bundled within the DVD drive? Assume the sound and vid chips are on board this mobo config?
TY.

 

[Stick_e_Mouse]

You could add a seperate cd-rom drive for $25, but since the DVD-Rom drive doubles as a cd-rom drive, you wouldn't need to.....unless he actually plans on using both drives at the same time.
Yes, the Asus motherboard WITH audio and video is the one I listed above. YOu can get one WITHOUT audio and video for around $100. Make sure you double check the TUSL2 packaging to see if it's the model with onboard sound and vid...assuming that is what he wants.

See a real naked pic of Britney Spears <A HREF="http://www.geocities.com/stick_e_mouse" target="_new">here</A>!!!

 

[Crashman]

Prefer LT SOFTWARE modems over 3Com HARDWARE modems, because for some strange reason they seem to use fewer resources and have better compatability! Also I like the ~$15 price!

What's the frequency, Kenneth?

 

[Stick_e_Mouse]

Yes, I like them Lucent modems too....if I were using Windoze!
I can get it to work in my Linux box...but the stability and performance isn't that great when compared to Windoze...
For now, I'll stick with my 3com as my backup modem for my Linux box.

See a real naked pic of Britney Spears <A HREF="http://www.geocities.com/stick_e_mouse" target="_new">here</A>!!!

 

[Crashman]

What is this Linux you speek of? I use Solaris at the lab and HATE it.

What's the frequency, Kenneth?

 

[Crashman]

Depending on his motherboard, you might be able to upgrade his current system to a PIII 850 or a Tualatin Celeron (the first full PIII Celeron) on the iP3/T adapter from Powerleap.

The best chipset ever made is the BX chipset (best stability, compatability, performance). Since he want more speed but not ultimate speed, a BX platform that supports a 133MHz Front Side Bus may be a good solution. I found an Epox BX3 rev. 5 at Compgeeks for only $35 and ordered one myself, after verifying in the manual that it does support the 133MHz FSB setting. That means it will support a PIII 1000EB, or for a little less money, a PIII 933 or 866 (all EB series).

I recommend the Lite-On LTD-163 DVD-Rom because it supports faster Digital Audio Extraction, should he decide he also wants to use it for disk to disk coppies on a CD-RW.

Since he's probably not a serious gamer, the GeForce MX400 should be a good value for him.

You'll also have to replace his RAM with PC133, I recommend Cas2 from Crucial.

What's the frequency, Kenneth?

 

[Stick_e_Mouse]

LOL! Yeah, we have Solaris workstations at our Labs too...and I'm not too fond of it either.
One thing with Lucent, they make GREAT wireless network cards that actully works with my Linux laptop!

See a real naked pic of Britney Spears <A HREF="http://www.geocities.com/stick_e_mouse" target="_new">here</A>!!!