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need help/suggestions on cheap build

G

goodcooper

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Nov 4, 2005
Messages
9,771
ok, i'm helping my friend rebuild his machine... the reason i put this in this forum is becuase he has a miniATX case and is on a tight budget, so.... miniatx mobo it is...

this is what he has that is still good:

pretty decent emachines powersupply, 20 PIN!!!!
2.6ghz celeron, northwood, 400mhz bus
2x 256MB PC2700 (WEEEEEEEEEEE)
80 gig hard disk
dvdburner
cdrw/dvdrom
PCI geforce 4 mx440

so anyway, his board is dead, time for replacement,

here is the real kicker, he likes to play games but he is a cheap bastard

$140!!!! what to do with it? this is non negotiable... well it was 120, but i 'negotiated' for 140... so that card has been played

i was thinking a refurb 754 6100 (probably better video then pci mx440 wouldnda ya think?) motherboard and an overclocked sempron but i thought you guys may be able to come up with something better, it is kind of frustrating how little he wants to work with... "dammit jim, i'm a computer technician, not a magician"

maybe it is worth finding a nice old 9800pro somewhere and a cheap used 478 mini board... still... crappy memory, so many things to upgrade so little money to do it with...


have any suggestions?
 
Fry's often has some pretty good deals on CPU/MB combos--if you bide your time, you'll be able to pick up a S754 Sempron 3100 with a full ATX motherboard for $80. Sell the motherboard on ebay for $40--that gives you $100 left to buy a uATX motherboard to fit in his case.

If you can find it, a S754 MB with a 6150 GPU is better than a 6100 GPU--hardware MPEG-2 and WMV decoding and the like, but a 6100 is probably perfectly sufficient for his needs. This jetway board has DVI onboard, as well as component out via a separate bracket. Who knows--you might even have enough left over to get a separate video card....
 
yea, i think i've found a resonable card, but it is AGP...

and there is no such thing as a 754 mini agp board is there?


EDIT: always forget about the VIA chipset boards..... hmmmmmm no ocing capabilities though why did nobody make a mini nf3 board?


maybe i can get him to sell his memory and buy a am2 sempron and at least a gig of ddr2, i wish AMD would have made the s939 semprons readily available for enthusiasts

wow that just gave me an idea... should i sell him my s939 sempron and the HP radeon chipset board it came in for 140? i'd probably be selling myself short, but that board is just about worthless to me because it wont OC, and the sempron isn't worth keeping now that the AM2 ones are out
 
I have a 754 Matx board with an AGP port, its an ECS. If you are interested in it PM me :D
 
goodcooper said:
maybe i can get him to sell his memory and buy a am2 sempron and at least a gig of ddr2, i wish AMD would have made the s939 semprons readily available for enthusiasts

wow that just gave me an idea... should i sell him my s939 sempron and the HP radeon chipset board it came in for 140? i'd probably be selling myself short, but that board is just about worthless to me because it wont OC, and the sempron isn't worth keeping now that the AM2 ones are out
Click to expand...
There's pretty much zero reason to jump on the AM2 bandwagon at this point if you have a vaguely recent CPU/MB. There are no performance advantages yet.

Newegg has a selection of S754 uATx boards with AGP slots.
 
Mohonri said:
There's pretty much zero reason to jump on the AM2 bandwagon at this point if you have a vaguely recent CPU/MB. There are no performance advantages yet.

Newegg has a selection of S754 uATx boards with AGP slots.
Click to expand...

how about dual channel memory? you're forgetting that they never really released the s939 sempron to the public... man if they had 939 semprons out, this would be a done deal...

and vageuly recent CPU/MB a 845G mobo w/ no AGP slot and a celery 2.6 400bus chip?

now i'm just trying to decide whether i should just sell him mine, they aren't easy to get


as far as all of those VIA chipset boards, i've never had good success overclocking a VIA chipset board
 
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