building this computer for my moms work

D

doug_7506

2[H]4U
Joined
Oct 17, 2004
Messages
3,247
she has to run an program and wants it to be fast on and off the internet

these were her requirements:
19inch monitor
fast on the net
fast off the net
wirless keyboard
under 800 dollars
none of that dam glowing shit like my pc (i laughed hard at that)

ATX Computer Cases
Sky Hawk/Eagle Tech MSR4620 Silver 1.2mm Aluminum Alloy Server Mini Server case - Retail
$18.99
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16811117029

GENERIC 20-Pin Motherboard Cable to 24-Pin Power Supply ATX Converter Model 11W3-
$3.75

CD/DVD Burners (RW Drives) Qty. Product Description Unit Price Savings Total Price
SONY Black IDE Combo Drive Model CRX320E Black - OEM
$29.99
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16827106819

Floppy Drives
SONY Black 1.44MB 3.5" Internal Floppy Drive Windows 98SE/ ME/ 2000/ XP - OEM
$10.00

Intel-compatible Motherboards
ASRock P4V88 Socket 478 VIA PT880 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
$45.25
http://www.newegg.com/product/Product.asp?item=N82E16813157034

Internal Hard Drives
Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 ST380011A 80GB 7200 RPM IDE Ultra ATA100 Hard Drive - OEM
$56.00
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16822148015

Keyboards
Desktop Optical 967320-0403 Black PS/2 RF Wireless Standard Keyboard Mouse Included - OEM
$25.00

Monitors - LCD
Update Advueu ADV1901B Black 19" 25ms LCD Monitor - Retail
$259.99
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16824180024

Power Supplies
Antec TRUEPOWERII TPII-380 ATX12V 380W Power Supply - Retail
$56.00
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16817103927

Processors
intel Pentium 4 2.4A Prescott 533MHz FSB Socket 478 Processor Model BX80546PE2400E - Retail
$121.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16819116178

Video Cards
CHAINTECH SA5500T2 Geforce FX5500 256MB DDR AGP 4X/8X Video Card - Retail
$69.99
http://www.newegg.com/product/Product.asp?item=N82E16814145076

Memory
Rosewill 512MB (2 x 256MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM PC3200 Dual Channel Kit System Memory
$39.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820223028


797.37 with shipping

lmk what you guys think....
was clueless about the network card, just loooked like a good one....
 
Looks good, and it should be able to handle any office applications your mom throws at it.

I have a 512 stick of that Rosewill Memory in my comp and I'm probably going to buy another. I love it. Never had any problems, great price/performance ratio.
 
yeah she is going to run a program and she said she jsut wanted it to be fast so she was bout to go to best buy and i was like stop!!!!
 
I don't know if you caught it but that mobo has built in ethernet. Need 2 nics for any reason? It's also got integrated video, though admittedly discreet video is almost always better. If she's going to hang out at 1280x1024 or less with an analog connection I'd probably just use the integrated. Usually it's fine if you're not running high res. If she'll be using a DVI monitor or higher res I'd get that Radeon 9000.
Also, that mobo doesn't have dual channel memory. Might as well get 1 512MB module. That'll leave room for a later upgrade if needed.
 
I agree, you'd probably be better off buying a single 512MB stick of RAM to facilitate future upgrading. I'd almost recommend ditching the discreet graphics for the onboard graphics to save money because she's using it for work, but I'm not sure how good onboard video on the 845 series chipset handles higher resolutions required by LCD monitors. Also, like already posted, ditch that NIC.

Just out of curiosity, what kind of programs will your mom be using, I noticed that you didn't really specify. For all we know your mom may be using a lot of Photoshop or something, which could change our upgrade recommendations, to say the least. :)
 
That processor is antiquated, get an AMD 64 2800+, it would own it from here till next year and back.

~Adam
 
i dont knwo what the program is but it is nothing like photoshop, she will never need the good graphics of a mid oto high range vid card, but she will proablty watch movies and etc on it so i want it to have decent quality

didnt notice the mobo had the an ethernet connection....

gonna reconfigure the ram
 
im changing my mobo

should i got 2x256 for dual channel or 1x512 in single channel?
 
That's a good call on the video card. The quality of integrated is a crapshoot, and it's pretty safe to assume even a cheap ATI or Sapphire Radeon cards will have clean output.
Since she's not going to need powerful graphics, I don't see much of a reason to go for PCI-e. AGP's fine if it saves a few bucks.
As far as the CPU goes, I'd get either a P4 with hyperthreading or an AMD chip. HT is quite a nice feature, and since gaming speed isn't a concern it might do her more good than a faster AMD chip. $163 gets you a P4 520 (2.8 GHz). Of course it's socket 775. These days you have to pay extra for a socket 478. I'd go that route or get a cheap A64.

Which mobo are you looking at? 2x256 if it's got dual channel support and >2 slots, otherwise 1x512.
 
celerons are pentiums with all the L2 cache chopped off, celerons suck except for the celeron D's which I hear OC like mad men but my memory is sucking right now, I'm not sure if it's celeron D's or not.

Get an AMD64 it is cheaper and will be better than any intel chip you get.

~Adam
 
Yes. That 3GHz Celeron won't be nearly as fast as the P4 2.6. Note the difference in L2 cache size. Celeron Ds are much better than the previous versions- increasing the L2 cache from 128k to 256k helped a lot. But the P4 has a 1MB L2 cache, and 400MHz isn't enough to make up the difference on a cache-loving P4 architecture. Of course, they'll both get creamed by a $120 Athlon 64 2800+.
I have to admit I'm liking P4s at the moment for non-gaming machines, but that's because of hyperthreading and dual core. AMD's got dual core of course, but those chips are quite expensive- starting at $450, $500... somewhere around there. Intel offers Hyperthreading for $160 or so and dual core for about $250. If you want to keep CPU costs under $160 though and Athlon 64 will give you a better speed/$ ratio.
 
Scrap the video card. Integrated video will be fine for video, 2D graphics, photo editing etc... Unless she games there is no reason to have a video card off the board. At least not if your trying to save money. It's a waste. Spend it on a decent processor. She wants this thing to last a couple of years yes? That shitty processor will be obsolete in a year if she continues to puts apps on it and likes to multitask. Power supply is a bit overkill as well but marginally. I'd go with a gig of budget memory as well. Actually you should just buy her a Dell with a 19' monitor or other budget OEM machine. You and her are better off going that route. You'll spend less and have someone to send parts to when they fail, not if.
 
ktwebb said:
Scrap the video card. Integrated video will be fine for video, 2D graphics, photo editing etc... Unless she games there is no reason to have a video card off the board. At least not if your trying to save money. It's a waste. Spend it on a decent processor. She wants this thing to last a couple of years yes? ......snip snip....... Actually you should just buy her a Dell with a 19' monitor or other budget OEM machine. You and her are better off going that route. You'll spend less and have someone to send parts to when they fail, not if.
Click to expand...

I agree with the points quoted from the above post (snipped out the stuff I disagree with). Why push the budget when you don't have to? And if it is for work, and if by that you mean the computer will be in her place of business and not in your house, you might want to add an OS and a legit copy of Office or the like (if you're not planning on using an open source option) to that list of parts. I would just go with an OEM in this case, if it is a workplace computer.
 
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