Yep, not only has my dad finally decided to get off Mac after waiting so long to upgrade his OS 8, but I've convinced him to let me build him an AMD system!
He was originally interested in Intel (hype, timidness and lack of research on his part) but with a general budget of 1000 US dollars I was sure to let him know where the best performance for your dollar goes these days.
-He's got to have it sooner rather then later. I tried to tell him about nforce, that would be goood for him, but he just won't wait. He has work he needs to get done and wants it no later then the end of this month.
-He'll be primarily using Photoshop, Quark Express and messing with imaging in other ways. Lot's of scanning too. Not directly related to his job.
-The key here is bang for the buck, but also reliability. I can't have crap breaking down on him, I would like to avoid generic but I also do not need the speediest around. This is pretty much a value system.
-Nothing is going to be overclocked. One less thing I have to worry about when he starts playing with it.
Well now tell me what you think:
CPU- AMD 1 Ghz T-Bird. So cheap. Let's give him some decent power here. ~100
Mobo- Here is where I need the most help, I don't know jack about Athlon mobos. VIA's KT266 chipest mobo? AMD 760 chipset mobo? Gotta have 266 mhz FSB for my 2100 DDR SDRAM. I would like reliablity over blazningly fast speed here- need a good solid board. ~150
RAM- 2 X 256MB Crucial CL 2.5 PC2100 DDR. Giving him quality here. He could get away with 256 but just like the refusal to wait for nforce this is something he insists on. I'll be giving him Win2k so at least it well be used well if ever needed. Plus ram is so cheap. Why not. 2.5 CAS latency will be fine and ECC is not needed. Free shipping from crucial.com = ~83
Graphics Card- Never shoped for a value graphics card before, believe it or not. He won't be playing any games and 2D image quality is key. Still planning to use AGP slot. This is the other thing I'm really not sure about. I'd love to get some good matrox 2d quality in there but I'm not so sure I should pay that much. GeForce 2 MX 400 64MB has poor 2D quality? Do I really need good T&L? What about Radeon's solutions or the Kyro II? ~100
HD: Best not to skimp here in quality, especially since he really is not going to need anything larger then 20Gigs. Looking for something EIDE @ 7200 rpm but ATA/66 should do just fine, but it all actuality it might be easier to find him an ATA/100. For a drive this small I can probably get both good speed and reliability for a cheap price, any suggestions? ~100
Soundcard- I think I'm going to just slap in a Live! value. I was originally going to go with some onboard sound for free but after I told him decent sound would cost him no more than 50 clams he said put it in. He won't be playing music but he might watch an avi or mpeg from time to time I could probably go cheaper here but for now ~50
CD-RW- He's dumping his old 4X CD-R. This is also gonna be his CD-ROM drive so I'd like to treat him to something that can take care of business. It doesn't have to be the abolute latest and fastest, just something with proven reliable and good performance. Plextor comes to mind right now... ~150
NIC- Linksys EtherFast 10/100, let's move on. ~20
Case- Mid tower will be good. Need good Athlon-approved Power Supply and also one that will be good running his 1Ghz and of course everything else in the case. I would like a little extra wattage for this system just incase. Suggestions? I don't see the need to go over 150 here in price... ~150
OS- Win2k Pro. ~250
~1153
This is running a little high right now but I'm sure I can bring it down some more.
Everything else is covered. Please help me in those undecided areas, comment on parts I currently have in and of course shout out any conflicts. Hopefully I give him good first taste of IBM PC
He was originally interested in Intel (hype, timidness and lack of research on his part) but with a general budget of 1000 US dollars I was sure to let him know where the best performance for your dollar goes these days.
-He's got to have it sooner rather then later. I tried to tell him about nforce, that would be goood for him, but he just won't wait. He has work he needs to get done and wants it no later then the end of this month.
-He'll be primarily using Photoshop, Quark Express and messing with imaging in other ways. Lot's of scanning too. Not directly related to his job.
-The key here is bang for the buck, but also reliability. I can't have crap breaking down on him, I would like to avoid generic but I also do not need the speediest around. This is pretty much a value system.
-Nothing is going to be overclocked. One less thing I have to worry about when he starts playing with it.
Well now tell me what you think:
CPU- AMD 1 Ghz T-Bird. So cheap. Let's give him some decent power here. ~100
Mobo- Here is where I need the most help, I don't know jack about Athlon mobos. VIA's KT266 chipest mobo? AMD 760 chipset mobo? Gotta have 266 mhz FSB for my 2100 DDR SDRAM. I would like reliablity over blazningly fast speed here- need a good solid board. ~150
RAM- 2 X 256MB Crucial CL 2.5 PC2100 DDR. Giving him quality here. He could get away with 256 but just like the refusal to wait for nforce this is something he insists on. I'll be giving him Win2k so at least it well be used well if ever needed. Plus ram is so cheap. Why not. 2.5 CAS latency will be fine and ECC is not needed. Free shipping from crucial.com = ~83
Graphics Card- Never shoped for a value graphics card before, believe it or not. He won't be playing any games and 2D image quality is key. Still planning to use AGP slot. This is the other thing I'm really not sure about. I'd love to get some good matrox 2d quality in there but I'm not so sure I should pay that much. GeForce 2 MX 400 64MB has poor 2D quality? Do I really need good T&L? What about Radeon's solutions or the Kyro II? ~100
HD: Best not to skimp here in quality, especially since he really is not going to need anything larger then 20Gigs. Looking for something EIDE @ 7200 rpm but ATA/66 should do just fine, but it all actuality it might be easier to find him an ATA/100. For a drive this small I can probably get both good speed and reliability for a cheap price, any suggestions? ~100
Soundcard- I think I'm going to just slap in a Live! value. I was originally going to go with some onboard sound for free but after I told him decent sound would cost him no more than 50 clams he said put it in. He won't be playing music but he might watch an avi or mpeg from time to time I could probably go cheaper here but for now ~50
CD-RW- He's dumping his old 4X CD-R. This is also gonna be his CD-ROM drive so I'd like to treat him to something that can take care of business. It doesn't have to be the abolute latest and fastest, just something with proven reliable and good performance. Plextor comes to mind right now... ~150
NIC- Linksys EtherFast 10/100, let's move on. ~20
Case- Mid tower will be good. Need good Athlon-approved Power Supply and also one that will be good running his 1Ghz and of course everything else in the case. I would like a little extra wattage for this system just incase. Suggestions? I don't see the need to go over 150 here in price... ~150
OS- Win2k Pro. ~250
~1153
This is running a little high right now but I'm sure I can bring it down some more.
Everything else is covered. Please help me in those undecided areas, comment on parts I currently have in and of course shout out any conflicts. Hopefully I give him good first taste of IBM PC