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(---Build a Cheap Computer here---)

C

coffee33

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jun 25, 2004
Messages
1,088
Thank you very much for stopping in to help.
I'm building a system for a 68Y.O. lady that plays simple online games and surfs the net "insert white leg joke here". I need to keep the price way down but I don't want a POS either. I just need the tower, she already has monitor, keyboard, ETC. I'm think intergrated video also.
Ok, I'm ready for all your opinions and thoughts!
Thank you all! :)
 
go to newegg. com look at the reviews urself, check it out.... its hard to ask for somthing cheap, and not tell us how cheap u want it....
 
Sun_tzu617 said:
go to newegg. com look at the reviews urself, check it out.... its hard to ask for somthing cheap, and not tell us how cheap u want it....
Click to expand...
Sorry.
I want to stay below $400.00 with OS.
Thank you all and have a great day....off to work I go! :)
 
OS is about $95.00
My advice is to stay away from any ECS boards. They may be inexpensive, but they are junk. I have seen them randomly loose all bios settings many times (K7S5A Pro).
 
Antec SLK1600 $49
Biostar M7NCG (vid, sound, ethernet integrated) $61
Retail XP 2000+ $57
Mushkin 256 PC2700 $39
WD 40gig 7200rpm drive $49.50
Rosewill CD-RW/DVD Combo drive with 50 free CD-Rs $38.99
Windows XP SP1 OEM $90

$384.99 + $15 shipping (only for the case) = $399.49


Sure you can get an 80 gig HD for less than $20 more, but is she going to use all of that space.
 
You can eaither build one yourself, or go with a company like www.cyberpowerinc.com. Other OEM companies such as dell, hp, and the such, might be able to offer a computer for 500$, but you'd be getting so much "generic" stuff.... its laughable (but it is an option). :D

You said she wants to play "online games". Im not sure what games your talking about. They could range from online poker, to Final Fantisy XI. ^_^

With an included os? depends on what OS, i will "assume" windows XP home, correct me if im wrong.

So that leaves about 300$ for an el-chepo computer. Ok, here goes: (This will be a hard one, its hard to make a new computer for 300$, without it being a POS, heck, its hard to make a new comp for 500$, you might be looking at ~500$US).

AMD athlon XP 2500+ (80$US) -retail
Motherboard for ~50-70$US, many companies, such as DFI, MSI, Asus, Gigabyte, Albatron. Im not sure which made the best Mobo for the Athlon XP, but im sure there's lots of reviews on places such as [H]ard|OCP.
512mb DDR400 Ram, (eaither 1x512 or 2x256), for ~80$US. Companies include Corsair, Kingston, giel, and crucial. Most "value" ram come with a life time warranty.
Then you can get a cheap video card for about 40$US (a good choice for the price might be a radeon 9200SE, from any of the big names.)
As for the case, http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=11-144-072&depa=1 something like that is fine! My dad has this case, very nice for just 30$US, and it comes with a 350watt power supply ^_^.
Floopy drive is ~10$US
hard drive can be ~60$US (Western Digital and Seagate are what i recommend (80gb is a good value right now))
Sony 52x CD-ROM drive for 19$US.


That's about 370$US - 400$US (depending on what you get) without shipping. This is a DARN good computer for the price! nothing "el-chepo" about it. Add to that a 90$US Windows XP home OEM operating system, and there you have it! 460-490$US.

yea yea, i know, its not 400$, but its as close as you'll ever get, without getting cheap parts. If your on a budget, this is a system i highly recommend.

Note: i stayed away from the Intel Celeron or the AMD duron, because for the little price diffrence, its night and day.

Nuc_E also made one, for ~400$. Now the question is this. Is a better system worth 60$? That's your choice, eaither Nuc_E or the one i laid out are fine for someone who just wants to go onto yahoo to research the "yellow finch", and what bird seed to buy.

~Hope this helps, and if you have any questions... feel free to ask :cool:
 
I think simple online games means just poker and backgammon. Sure you can spend a little bit more and get something better. You can always spend a little bit more and get something better. 50 more dollars to your config and you can get a 160gig HD and a CDRW/DVD combo drive.

My config included a superior case and a CDRW/DVD combo drive. Sure it had less memory, but 256mb is plenty for her needs.

Heck, for what this lady wants to do use this computer for, you could probably get by with something a lot less powerful. My PIII 550e media server is more than enough to handle websurfing, email, light online gaming (by light, I mean Q3 and CS). My dad and I threw together a machine with a bunch of spare parts we had (PII450, 256, 10gig) for my grandmother that could handle all of that.

I'd say to keep within your budget, you don't want to get her way more computer than she needs.
 
Yup, your right, that's why coffee should sit down with the lady and make sure she knows what she wants. then just decide what her needs are. The only thing that ive noticed though, is that with Windows XP, 256 sometimes does'nt cut it. That's why i say 512mb of ram is the Minimum for windows XP.

I know what you mean, the computer in my sig (the PIII, not the server LOL) is awsome for homework, graphic design, and internet applications. And its good with games like Unreal Tournament, and Diablo 2 X-pack. ^_^
And if i "manage" my hard drive, i can get quite a bit out of this 28gb ^_^, although im at the point where i finally DO need more space, but that will be another computer.

Oh, on a side note, when buying parts from a place like newegg, you get the warranty that comes with the products, and no real "tech support". This is where a company like cyberpowerinc or Dell might come in handy for the 68 year old lady, unless coffee33 wan'ts to be on call 24-7 :D

~Hope this helps
 
How much RAM you need for XP truly varies from user to user. 256 would probably be sufficient for the lady you are referring to, but it is important that you know and understand her computer habits.

For example, I know of someone who greatly dislikes closing anything (I wish I knew why.) I once walked in and observed this person with 21 different word documents open, and 19 different webpages, and was sitting there wondering why on earth their computer had been slow lately. This type of person needs more memory!

The other thing to watch out for, in my experience, is the level of paranoia involved. Somone who thinks that many of the "Gator Company" products are just great, will doubtlessly find a way to slow their computer down within a few months.

However your average computer user can get by with surprisingly little. I often surprise people with the info that my main machine runs Windows XP like a dream with 192 MB of SDRAM (PC100 if I recall) and a humble Duron 700. I am very proud of this machine, and it probably is a fantastic example of the MINIMUM you can run XP on.


All that done with, I think Nuc_E's specs are pretty good.
 
~_~

At school i work with computers, and we have brand new P4 with 256mb Ram and XP home. When they boot up into windows, with a few processes running, such as mcafee anti virus, and Novell Netware client, plus all the other system processes that are required, and it brings that 256mb of Ram down to 70mb of free Ram, just booting into windows! yikes. wowzer.

Now, just going to a page like the [H]ard|Forum 2004 post your workstation pictures, can take up 80mb of RAM, just 1 webpage! ^_^ http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=716194&page=19&pp=30

You might be right though, maybe she won't even know that her computer plops things in the page file area often....... ^_^.

Like i said, just booting into windows with a few processes, and a few applications can easily drop the RAM 200mb.

Best thing i can say, is go try a computer at the local computer store, and see how 256mb of ram feels. Use the task manager to see what's being used, and then go over to a computer with 1gb of ram (or 512mb) and see what's being used, and how it feels.
 
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