Socket A parts recomendation?

S

SirGrant

n00b
Joined
Jul 23, 2006
Messages
5
Hey my buddy just gave me an AMD Athlon XP 3200+ and a heatsink. My dad has a pretty old PC and would like a new PC so that he can watch TV (with a tuner card) and the like and do everything else. He won't be playing games on it and the most he does is run Ebay sniping programs or does a lot of browsing the internet for investment stuff.

So what I need is a
Socket A Motherboard Recomendation (onboard not required I have some extra PCI/AGP video cards)
Hard Drive Recomendation (large capacity is the main concern with this cause my dad wants to use the tuner card as a DVR)
Memory Recomendation (doesn't need to be ultra fast and probably won't be OC'd just enough for light-medium multitasking without slow down)
Reliable PSU:
TV Tuner Card (if possible compatible with linux and mythTV)

So anyways we are looking for fairly cheap parts not something ultra high end but something that will do the basics without a huge slow down. The parts that should be of good quality however I think are mainly the TV Tuner card cause my dad really wants to do this the HD and just a reliable PSU, doesn't have to be kilowatt but just be reliable. Also other parts such as NICs DVD burners and cases I either already own or will purchass a value version.
 
WinTV-GO is pretty cheap basic TV tuner. I think you might can pick them up for about $20 used. Memory you can pick up pretty cheap too. Wintec AMPO512MB DDR-400 runs between $35-45 on newegg. As far as the motherboard goes, I think you might need one that provides a 400FSB for that 3200+, skim the FS/FT foroum to see what people've got. And for the PSU, you shouldn't need anymore that 350watts for what you've described. Read the stickies in the Power Supply section for what brands are to avoided and which ones are good. I've heard many good things about Fortron psu's. And the hard drive, you also can look for someone getting rid one one in FS/FT forum. I'd get at least a 160GB, they can run between 55-70 new.
 
For the 3200 get a Abit NF7-S , ver 2. Use Corsair Value Select 2.5 CAS 2x 512. Use any SATA drive you like, and a fairly modern video card. Make sure you get an adequate cooler for the cpu, and variable speed fan would be nice to turn down to lower noise but still keep at 40 C or so.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top