$300 PC?

G

gkcar

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Feb 5, 2003
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I've been gone away from the hobby for a long time and am completely ignorant about current processors/memory/video/etc. Now I need to build a replacement for my kids dinosaur - an Athlon 1GHz or so, in a Shuttle SFF case. I can reuse the optical drive; the hard drive is toast (one of the reasons I'm building a new system). I can reuse the copy of XP (NOT 64-bit) and I have an early copy of Win7 as well. That's it for reuse - I need everything else new (case, PSU, mobo, CPU, audio (hopefully on mobo), video (also hopefully on mobo), HD). This machine will first and foremost be for doing school work, but it'd be nice if it could to modern gaming, in low-res if it must (and have room for a video card upgrade if they want to get serious).

Any and all suggestions are welcome, as well as any attempts to educate me on modern PC's - what is the range of CPUs and performance? What types of RAM available? What kind of expansion slots? What GPU's? (I do know about SATA - I'm not a complete moron yet!).

Thanks,

Joe
 
Unless you really want to build it yourself, for those uses and since you're only going to re-use one thing, the much more inexpensive avenue would just be a prebuilt. I know it's not as fun but it is very inexpensive.

Newegg has some pretty good deals on bundles with motherboard/cpu/memory barebone kits. For my money the Phenom II's can't be beat. If you're not going to be overclocking or anything you could probably get fairly close to $300.
 
Nsk 4480 II - 74.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129059

X2 240/Gigabyte - 119.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.254104

Kingston 1gb ram-19.49
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134594

sony dvd burner-29.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827118030

320aajs- 49.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136098

I would probably get 2X1gb off the FS forums for 20.00

or if you will be reusing the optical drive, you could get more ram or add a little cash and get a new LCD.

~294.47
 
 
can somebody explain the various amd cpus or point me to someplace that does? there are so many options its frankly confusing. ah for the days of pentiums and athlons..
 
well in your price range really I would think you would only be looking at x2's
so here we go they have the athlon II x2, it has no l3 cache.
then you have the phenom II x2 with the 6mb l3 cache.
so if you are not gaming the athlon II is by far the best bet, I just finished building a system with the athlon II x2 240, and it's a really nice build for on the cheap.
 
why not the phenom? isn't the athlon getting long in the tooth? besides the l3 cache, are there any other differences between the two?
 
gkcar said:
why not the phenom? isn't the athlon getting long in the tooth? besides the l3 cache, are there any other differences between the two?
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Yeah you're definitely out of date: 0m3g4 and hossdaddy are talking about the Athlon II CPUs, not the Athlon 64 X2 CPUs that were released a few years back. The new Athlon II CPUs (i.e Athlon II X2 240) were released this year and are basically just cut down versions of the new Phenom II CPUs.

Simply put: Your budget does not allow for a Phenom II CPU. Thats why a Phenom II is not recommended for you. Your budget only allows for a Athlon II X2 240 CPU.
 
got it, thanks. if athlon ii is the poor stepchild of phenom then athlon ii is for me. what the hell, this rig is mostly gonna be for research papers, music downloads, and surfing the net. if the kids want a full-on gaming rig they can darn well pay for it themselves!

(actually, i was referring to the ORIGINAL athlon, pre athlon 64 days. yeah, i'm that out of date!)
 
hossdaddy's build is good if you want them to be able to play games. However, if not, even the onboard vid of the 785G would be good for low res gaming (obviously nowhere near as good as a 96GSO, but still capable). I'd go for the X2 240 + Gigabyte combo.
 
I agree with Danny the Gigabyte board is better than the Foxconn but his budget is tight and foxconn does make a solid board.
 
Thanks for getting me started. Turns out things aren't quite so different as I thought they would be. In the end I decided to go w/the Athlon/Gigabyte combo; I've had good luck w/Gigabyte in the past and I like the features it has over the Foxconn. Add to that 2x 1GB Mushkin DDR2 800 (I vaguely recall a pair of matched DIMMs being better than just one), a Seagate 250GB drive (I much prefer Seagate to WD), a Rosewill PSU, and the very visible Raidmax Tornado - the kids choice. Hopefully I won't regret letting them make this choice, and hopefully they'll enjoy it more for having been part of the process. Of course they will be helping me put the system together! (Just in case the case is a POS, I added the Rosewill case that is bundled with the PSU - with the bundle the case is free so why not? If the Raidmax case works I'll see if I can make a few bucks selling the Rosewill) Total cost - $315, not bad for the kind of upgrade this represents, and after selling one of the cases maybe I can get it down to $300!

So thanks again for the all the help - cool to know that [H] is still hard and the users are still knowledgeable and helpful. I'll be back in a bit when it's time to replace my rig, this time with some high-end components!
 
Which Rosewill PSU did you get? model # please. FYI, Rosewill is Newegg's house brand.
 
DTN107, saw that combo but opted out due to price as you say. Guys, that is the PSU I decided on - is it really that bad? I thought Rosewill was decent. Keep in mind I'm not gonna be oc'ing this or anything - so long as it isn't prone to catch fire it should be ok shouldn't it?
 
gkcar said:
DTN107, saw that combo but opted out due to price as you say. Guys, that is the PSU I decided on - is it really that bad? I thought Rosewill was decent. Keep in mind I'm not gonna be oc'ing this or anything - so long as it isn't prone to catch fire it should be ok shouldn't it?
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Not ok. Even if you have a relatively low power system, that still doesn't negate the very very low quality of most Rosewill PSUs, especially the ones that comes with their cases.

And yes that specific Rosewill PSU is crap. Rosewill is NOT decent.
 
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DTN107 said:
I'm not too thrill on the idea of these on these budget cases + budget PSUs. But if anything... maybe they are a step above a rosewill. Just throwing this idea on the table.
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About half a step depending on the specific combo :)

Anyway, if your kids really love that Raidmax case, then get a good PSU for the system like this:
$50 - Corsair 400CX 400W PSU
 
The only cases that come with decent PSUs are the Antecs that come with Earthwatts (no, the Basiq line isn't decent).

The only time I'd consider a Rosewill PSU decent is if it were 80 plus certified.

I agree, if they like that case, cancel the Rosewill PSU/Case combo and swap in the Corsair. Call or chat with a newegg rep -- they'll do it if your order has not yet been packaged/shipped.
 
well i was prepared to follow your advice and swap the rosewill for the corsair, but too late. i placed the order at 4:30pm last night and at 7:00am this morning it's already packed. either they're lying 'cause they don't wanna swap the psu for me, or they are insanely efficient. in either case i am stuck for now. i'll probably try the rosewill and see what happens. i have a feeling for this application the rosewill will be fine. what's so bad about it anyway? if it's truly awful i can rma it the moment i get it, but i'd like to know why!
 
Well the Rosewillwill work alright as a 300 watts PSU and all.

But bring it near the 500 watt level don't expect it to work as well as other 500 watts.

I had a friend who use a Rosewill 500watt since he got it from newegg. It work alright since he never stress the PSU with his low power rig.
 
gkcar said:
i have a feeling for this application the rosewill will be fine. what's so bad about it anyway? if it's truly awful i can rma it the moment i get it, but i'd like to know why!
Click to expand...

Things wrong with that particular Rosewill PSU:
- Only 35A on the +12V rail. Good ~600W tend to have 45A to 50A on the +12V rail. There are quality 450W PSUs with 33A on the +12V rail so 35A is pretty damn low for a 600W
- While ATNG made, it's based on their very very low end models
- NO mention of whether it was rated at continuous or peak and at what temperature
- It's a Rosewill :)
 
Rosewill isn't consistent with their OEMs for PSUs. Therefore, its hard to know which models are good and which are trash without a proper review (where they actually load test it with automated test equipment and do some analysis on the o-scope readings). Most people will tell you to avoid Rosewill simply because of that reason -- there are better choices out there for the money. As I mentioned earlier, one way to tell if its a decent unit is if the model has been certified for 80+ efficiency. That particular model is not, unfortunately. Many cheaper PSUs are either old designs with poor efficiency/PFC and/or use crappy components. A poor quality PSU has a higher chance of taking out other parts of your system.

As hossdaddy and danny mentioned, that unit should do fine for a while, just don't expect 600W from it. In fact, I wouldn't even expect 450W from it. Using that much would be nearing its limit, and when you do that to a PSU, it generates more heat, shortening its lifespan. Most modern systems draw most of their power from the +12V rail, which is why Danny pointed out the amperage available on that rail.
 
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