Having trouble building an $800 pc :(

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BigJavy

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My cousin's been asking me to find him an $800 (absolute max - he actually told me $700) pc. He doesn't care if it's built by someone or bought from somewhere (dell, monarch, wherever). I've been looking for a couple weeks and can't find anything I like. Everytime I try to pick out parts... I run into the problem of having to spend $150 on an O/S (so i'm leaning towards buying from dell or somewhere to save some money on that... but many places don't really give that much of a discount on the o/s).

He might game a little (I know he played CoD after watching me play it for a while) so I was TRYING to squeeze in a 6800 of some sort. For the most part though, it's gonna be used for web browsing, chatting, etc. Neither of us has an AMD/Intel preference, but I want it to be somewhat futureproof (so like... no s754 - i don't know what intel's latest and greatest is).

Any ideas? Thanks!!!

Oh... and he's got a mouse, kb, and monitor so don't worry about that stuff. Just the PC.
 
You can find a copy of XP Home OEM for around 90 bucks or so. Unless he really needs Pro. There is no difference between OEM and Retail except for the box and maybe some MS support. Also you can trim some cash if you buy OEM drives (hard drives, optical and floppy drives). You will need the necessary cables and hardware from the motherboard.

Your not going to "future proof" Just find a decent processor that may overclock a little if need be. For the video card look at the requirements for the games he wants to play and work off that. You can get a combo DVD CD burner for 39 bucks that's pretty decent. I just ordered a Lite-On from zipzoomfly.
 
CbtEngr said:
You can find a copy of XP Home OEM for around 90 bucks or so. Unless he really needs Pro. There is no difference between OEM and Retail except for the box and maybe some MS support. Also you can trim some cash if you buy OEM drives (hard drives, optical and floppy drives). You will need the necessary cables and hardware from the motherboard.

Your not going to "future proof" Just find a decent processor that may overclock a little if need be. For the video card look at the requirements for the games he wants to play and work off that. You can get a combo DVD CD burner for 39 bucks that's pretty decent. I just ordered a Lite-On from zipzoomfly.
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By future proof - I mean something he can upgrade in a year when he's got some more money saved up. Like, going w/ s939... M2 will be out soon which means in a year, he could probably get a pretty high end 939 for a good price.

Right now, this is the best I've got going for $740ish and I think all I have left is the motherboard and o/s. Maybe if I gave zipzoomfly or monarch a try, I could get the price down a little? -


COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UW Black Aluminum Bezel, SECC Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case -

SAMSUNG Black 1.44MB 3.5" Internal Floppy Drive Windows 98SE/ ME/ 2000/ XP - OEM

HITACHI Deskstar T7K250 HDT722516DLA380 (0A31637) 160GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

eVGA 256-P2-N386 Geforce 6800GS 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card -
Model #: 256-P2-N386

Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound - OEM

CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200)

AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Processor Model ADA3700BNBOX - Retail

Antec TRUEPOWERII TPII-480 BLUE ATX12V 480W Power Supply - Retail -$10 Combo
 
I'd get the athlon64 3200. Cheaper and can OC to 3700+ speeds easy.
 
altec said:
I'd get the athlon64 3200. Cheaper and can OC to 3700+ speeds easy.
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I doubt he'd overclock it. I went w/ processor I did cuz it was the cheapest I could find w/ 1mb of L2 cache (accept an opteron 148 maybe?). I thought it might help w/ multitasking or something. I dunno... Anyone know a good budget s939 mobo? Maybe I can talk him into putting up a little more $$$.
 
if your buying a retail processor you won't need AS5 unless your going to scrape off the thermal pad that comes on the HSF. Also does he need a SATA2 drive? You may run into some issues if the motherboard you select doesn't support it. IDE or SATA might be a better choice.

That's the whole fun in trying to build out a system for a certain price you have to give and take until you find your sweet spot.
 
This is thinking outside the box...

For example, Dell is having one of those $1199 combo specials for the Dell 9150 (dual core 2.8) with Dell 2405 LCD Monitor (Extra $24 handling fee).

So if you want that 24" monitor, perhaps you and your cousin could split the cost and buy that combo special together... Your cousin would get a new dual core PC that would last several years and pay much less than $700 and you would get a new 24" LCD monitor and pay much less than $800...
 
I wasn't even looking at the SATA2 thing. I've been basically editing a cart I had from another pc I put together for someone a couple days ago(whose mobo supported SATA2). Thanks for the $740 suggestion. I can definitely work from that easier than trying to take stuff out of an $1100 pc. After a while of digging around newegg, zzf, monarch, etc etc... everything starts to look the same :(


jason
 
hodiscuss said:
This is thinking outside the box...

For example, Dell is having one of those $1199 combo specials for the Dell 9150 (dual core 2.8) with Dell 2405 LCD Monitor (Extra $24 handling fee).

So if you want that 24" monitor, perhaps you and your cousin could split the cost and buy that combo special together... Your cousin would get a new dual core PC that would last several years and pay much less than $700 and you would get a new 24" LCD monitor and pay much less than $800...
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Ahhhhhhhhhhhh don't go putting ideas like that in my head hehe. Do you have a link to that combo? I was just looking at dell but didn't see it (maybe cuz I wasn't looking at stuff for $1200). My birthday's the 16th (thank you MLK for all the days off you've given me)... maybe I could talk someone into paying for my part of that combo. hrmmmmmm damn you! :p :p
 
BigJavy said:
Ahhhhhhhhhhhh don't go putting ideas like that in my head hehe. Do you have a link to that combo? I was just looking at dell but didn't see it (maybe cuz I wasn't looking at stuff for $1200). My birthday's the 16th (thank you MLK for all the days off you've given me)... maybe I could talk someone into paying for my part of that combo. hrmmmmmm damn you! :p :p
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http://dealnews.com/deals/Dell-Dimension-9150-Pentium-Dual-Core-PC-w-24-LCD-for-1-199/106482.html

COUPON expires Jan 11th 7AM EST!!!! (Less than 7 hours left)

Don't worry, there's always PC combo specials from Dell, HP, etc... (That Dealnews website always lists plenty of sales so just bookmark that website -- not the dell combo sale)

Either get in touch with your cousin TONITE or wait for another combo special. You get the idea, right -- Simply find a combo special that your cousin and someone (doesn't have to be you) can both buy together and each person gets something and both save over the price that each would paid if bought individually!
 
Hey, if your cousin is chipping in $700 for that combo special, you could get the 24" LCD monitor for about $500 FOR YOUR UPCOMING BIRTHDAY!!!!
 
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