Help me build a budget rig for my GF

W

Wich0

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 5, 2004
Messages
228
I'm building a budget rig for my gf..her old p3 750mhz is not cutting it. The budget is $300-$320 this is a MUST. She doesn't need a monitor nor a keyboard or mouse nor speakers, just gonna use the ones she has now. She's gonna use it mostly for office apps mostly microsoft office 2003 and online surfing.She tells me her main priority is processor speed + ram, she hates it that in her current system it takes her forever to open up multiple apps, etc. I guess going with integrated video/sound would be the way to go to save some cash. I'm just wondering if it would be more economical to just buy her some cheap $300 dell system that they have once in a while? Anyways here's what I came up with, please tell me if there is a better bang for the buck setup for this price.


Rosewill R114A-BLK 2-Tone Computer Case With Side Panel Window - Retail
PC CHIPS M871G V1.5C AMD Athlon XP Mobile 2800+ Micro ATX Motherboard/CPU Set - Retail
Rosewill 512MB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM System Memory - Retai
Western Digital Caviar SE 80GB 3.5" IDE Ultra ATA100 Hard Drive - OEM
Toshiba dvd burner

Total comes out to ~$305 with shipping. I guess she would settle without the dvd burner and get just a cd burner if I can get a faster cpu or more ram. The motherboard there has integrated video/sound.
 
Yeah definately get the better ram, crucial or corsail value to select. Both are the same price and better than that for almost no more money.
 
I wouldn't get PC Chips, but that's just me. I'd get this with a Sempron 64, but since you're limited on budget I can't recommend anything. Maybe you want to throw in some $$ to help your GF out?
 
I've had one experience with PC Chips. Let's just say I'll never buy one of thier boards again.
 
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=3356850
+ a stick of pc3200.. i would probably take out the 128 that comes with it since it will make the good stick run slower..

otherwise i would reuse the old case then get that vnf-3 s754 board for about $60.. the cheapest sempron64 which is about $60.. memory, hdd, optical..

even better. http://shop2.outpost.com/product/4568777?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG that one is $150.. so that + memory = $200.. you might want to put a faster 8mb cache hdd in there.. i have no idea if that or the one at walmart would have agp slots.. she might want a dvd burner.. that's $40..

also, going back to that motherboard and cpu you posted.. what is it? s754 athlon xp mobile?? that makes no sense... ok... i am reading.. i guess its some chip that amd made for pc chips.. its a little bit of everything or something.. i would probably get a vnf-3 and sempron64 for $10ish though...
 
I will help her pay the difference..what's the best 754 motherboard that will support an Sempron 3100+ ????? It doesn't have to have integrated video, I'll just buy her a cheap video card somewhere.
 
z-lite said:
I wouldn't get PC Chips, but that's just me. I'd get this with a Sempron 64, but since you're limited on budget I can't recommend anything. Maybe you want to throw in some $$ to help your GF out?
Click to expand...
Best is an opinionated word.
 
If you plan on using a 20-pin power supply (but hopefully from a reputable company), the ASRock GeForce 6100 board for Socket 754 is interesting for its features. All the other GeForce 6100's out at the moment seem to have 24-pin connectors.

$65 shipped at Newegg

Out of stock at the moment though, and one bad review for ASRock's tech support. But if you are able to troubleshoot on your own, or cross your fingers that everything works, you get decent onboard video as well as PCI-E for future upgrades and SATA2.
 
I know that price is an issue but please, PLEASE reconsider the PC Chips mobo. I had one on my first build and it caused nothing but problems. Everything else looks good.
 
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