Building new computer!! is it worth this?

[Craig56]

I have this list of items from tigerdirect.com so its all from there. Is this stuff going to last a while and is it worth the money?

Barebone = Gigabyte K8U Socket 754/AMD Athlon 2.4ghx/512mb DDR Ram PC3200/CPU Fan/ ATX Mid Tower with 450 watt power pack = $265

Hard Drive = Maxtor 80gb (got it given to me and works, has XP on it) = $0

CD-RW/DVD-RW = Lite On = $30

Net Card = SMC (from friends PC) = $0

Mouse/Keyboard = Microsoft set = $30

Video card = Diamond S12 Radeon 9550 256mb = $40

Monitor = NEC FE991SB 19" CRT $70

 

[SarverSystems]

The first problem I see is the hard drive. I know it was given to you, but you will need to reinstall XP on it no matter what. If you don't have the original CD and the activation code, its gonna be a no-go.

Remember, too, that you need a LEGAL copy of XP, not one from some guy's hard drive. That's not gonna cut it. If the code starts with FCKGW-RHQQ2, then don't even bother.

The 2nd problem I see, is it is all come from Tiger Direct. Surely you can find better prices elsewhere, and even if you can't find better prices, it would be well worth a few extra $$$ to shop elsewhere. ZZF, Newegg, Directron, MWave, etc... Do a search on here for Tiger Direct and you will see more horror stories than happy stories about that place.

Do you homework when buying a motherboard. Price isn't everything. I've had about 25 or 30 system shere in the past year that were from Tiger Direct, and all of them had proprietary motherboards and/ or soldered on processors, and/or extra crap (card readers, etc...) that only work with that specific motherboard.

 

[454Casull]

What's your budget?

 

[Craig56]

budget is like 400-600 only because my son is driving in a few months (hes gonna be 17, needs a car )