The $350 Computer

[Pghpooh]

Hi
It's been 8 months since I built my last pc. I haven't been reading the forums much and have fallen way behind on the hardware that is out there.
Now, here is my problem. My daughter and son in law have a Gateway pc. It is a Pll 350 mhz. I've upgraded it to include a cd burner and added additional ram. Other then that, it's a stock unit. And, SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!!!! It's not worth the money to upgrade the Gateway anymore.
Here is what I want to do. I want to build a pc for as close to $350 as I can get. The pc will be the mobo, cpu and fan and heat sink. Hard drive, SEPERATE VIDEO AND AUDIO CARD. Having built units in the past, I will get a better case such as a Chenbro Junior or Antec sx840. I'll reuse the cd burner and keyboard and monitor from the Gateway for now.
My goal is to build a unit that is completely upgrdeable now and in the future. I realize that $350 is a rather low price. The price is a starting point, and one to stay as close to as I can. If need be,,, I'll bump that up to $400! LOLOL
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS???? AND,,, I NEED ALL THE SUGGESTIONS IN REGARDS TO WHAT PARTS, MANUFACTURERS, PRICES, ETC. THAT i CAN GET.
Thanks
Pghpooh

 

[fatbaby]

do you live near a frys?

 

[MasterHoss]

Athlon "C" 1.33GHz --> $78
Shuttle AK31A (KT266A) --> $72
Thermalright SK-6 (with Delta) --> $28
Antec SX830 --> $79

EDIT: you'll need some DDR SDRAM .... Crucial PC2100 DDR SDRAM (CAS 2.5) --> $85.49 from Crucial.com
All from Newegg.com

 

[Jonny]

Well, if your planning on going with AMD make sure you get a motherboard that supports the athlon XP. Look for the KT266A chipset. You don't have to spend that much on a cpu yet, but then when it comes time to upgrading you will have options. For example, you could just put a duron in it for now.

 

[fatbaby]

and a $109 60 gb harddrive from newegg, a $48 geforce2 gts-v, and a $32 sblive from newegg

 

[MasterHoss]

Oh... I didn't realize you need a HD and video card too. If they're using a PII 350, I'm assuming they aren't hardcore gamers or anything like that... I'm also assuming that they don't do anything too intensive.

Look at getting some cheap ATI video card (AGP or PCI since it shouldn't matter too much)... HD --> a 20GB Maxtor or WD should work. Now the problem is that you're over your $400 budget.

EDIT: the reason why I recommend the ATI over nVidia GeForce2 series is because the ATI will tend to give you better 2D quality which is probably more important to them than playing games, right?

 

[Zukatah]

If you live near Montreal, I can sell you a P3 500 with a good motherboard and some RAM for REALLY cheap =)
Need to get rid of these before I get my P4...

 

[AA0]

my opinion, get the MSI nforce 420 board. It has video, audio and NIC already there. You can upgrade the video if you want later. The audio on this board is very good, and the video is better than anyother else onboard.

1Ghz Tbird

256 DDR

HSF whatever, go quiet $30

HDs are cheap, especially the last generation 7200 rpms

I know you are asking for separate cards, but you are asking something ridiculous. You'll save a lot of money.

 

[Wolfsraider]

<< mobo, cpu and fan and heat sink. Hard drive, SEPERATE VIDEO AND AUDIO CARD. >>


Bare-Bone System Special AMD-14:
AMD XP-1500 w/ Socket A MB, UDMA 100, AGP VIDEO 8~64MB shared (also AGP Slot), Sound, 56K AMR Modem, 10/100 Network in MidTower case w/Powersupply $225.00 1 $225.00
Memory: DDR 128MB $45.00 1 $45.00
Hard-drive:20.0 GB IDE, 7200 RPM $79.00 1 $79.00
Your total: $349.00

add your case of choice to this barebones computer found thru pricewatch at this website

hope this helps

https://www.mofiditech.com/system/system.cfm linky no work sorry

 

[Pghpooh]

HI
Thanks for the ideas on how to build that pc for my daughter.
Sadly, there is not a Frys or other comparable stores in the Pittsburgh area. I have to depend om Best Buy, Comp USA, Circuit City and the monthly computer show. I have bought from Newegg and will probably go there for some parts and buy others when they are on sale at the local stores. The killer in a situation like this tends to be the cost of shipping when you buy online and so on.
Right now, I'll probably go with the idea of a better case and p/s. In getting the motherboard/cpu combination, I will look for motherboards that support the P4/Celeron or, the AMD XP/Duron combinations. My daughter and her hubby are not hard core gamers. It's mostly Internet and e-mail and there are a few games they do have but don't need much power to run.
The key for them is machine stability and the ability to upgrade as needed. I realize seperate video and audio cards will add to the price. Not being familiar with what needs to be done to a motherboard with onboard audio and video to disable them and also they use onboard ram and could slow things down some are other reasons I prefer to fo to seperate cards.
Once again, Thanks to all who replied!

Pghpooh

 

[FishTankX]

PGHpooh, there is one onboard sollution that has onboard video, audio, and doesn't slow the system down a bit. You could use a 1GHZ Duron, NForce 420D (The MSI version costs a decent amount, 130$) 2X128 DDRSDRAM and a 20GB 7200RPM harddisk for a grand total of 300$ or so, and it'll blow the crap outa most integrated setups. Anyone agree with me? This setup will likley be a real screamer in most apps. Has video power equivlelent to Geforce2MX200 and the audio is crystal clear, and best of all, it's almost 100% problem free.

 

[FishTankX]

By the way, onboard sound and video are easy to disable and it has an external AGP slot. The real kicker is that suposedly this thing will be faster than most videocards in alot of 2D tasks because it has adaquate memory bandwidth ( in our situation, 2.1GB/s dedicated) and a super fast aproximatley AGP6X setup. This is *the* ideal platform for you. If you don't want to, disable the video down the road and pop in a Voodooforce 2 or something. (Anyone get the joke on the Voodooforce?)

 

[LoTecha]

Duron 900 - $32
Volcano II - $5.50
Shuttle AK31 - $72
SB Live OEM - $32
7200rpm 40gig hd (your choice which) - $80
Ati Radeon 7000 - $39

That leaves you about $90 to get RAM and a case. You probably get cheap ram used online. The case is up to you, but when you're on a budget, I dunno if I would spend that much on it. Later on, you can keep all your components and upgrade just the processor. If your son/daughter start getting into gaming, you can also upgrade the vid card if need be, but from what it looks like, they aren't too big into gaming.

edit: found mistake

 

[ahsia]

<< I want to build a pc for as close to $350 as I can get. The pc will be the mobo, cpu and fan and heat sink. Hard drive, SEPERATE VIDEO AND AUDIO CARD. >>



Motherboard: MSI K7N415 PRO nForce 415 200/266MHz FSB Socket A Motherboard - $89
Processor: AMD Duron 1.0 GHZ Socket A, 200FSBPGA Processor Retail - $51
Memory: KINGSTON 128MB DDR PC2100 (2) - $74
Hard Drive: MAXTOR Quiet Drive 20GB 7200RPM Model # 6L020L1 - $69
Video Card: ATI Radeon 32MB DDR 4X AGP Video Card OEM - $39
Sound Card: Onboard - $0

Total: $322 (not including shipping and tax)

All this stuff is from Newegg. You can go with the ECS K7S5A, but the MSI K7N415 Pro at only $37 more gives you a better motherboard, a great onboard sound (6 channel), and less possible headaches. The MSI will support Athlon XP Processors if you decide to upgrade in the future. You want to get two sticks of memory because the nForce based motherboards like the MSI K7N415 Pro allows for dual channel DDR capabilities, so you will get better memory performance. A 20gb hard drive is more than you need, especially if all they plan to do is internet and e-mail. The Maxtor drive is excellent. As for the ATI Radeon 32mb DDR, that is an excellent budget video card, much better than any of the GeForce2 MX cards, and will do everything you need it to do, even if you want to play some games.

This system is very upgradeable, motherboard will support Athlon XP processor, and I think either 1GB or 1.5GB of memory (which is more than you need). Let me know what you think, and if you have any questions.

 

[RSMemphis]

I agree, go for an integrated NForce solution - you can always upgrade later on, but especially the sound won't be necessary.

Or, get a K7S5A from ECS with a Duron processor - you could either reuse SDRAM for now (if yours is PC100, which it is probably not) or get DDR.
Especially the graphics card I would get online, you'll save a lot of money!!!!

 

[jpprod]

Not being familiar with what needs to be done to a motherboard with onboard audio and video to disable them and also they use onboard ram and could slow things down some are other reasons I prefer to fo to seperate cards.

Actually when comparing audio solutions, properly implemented integrated onboard audio has an adge on the bandwidth/performance side. An external sound card generates quite a bit of latency-critical PCI traffic; especially if multiple hardware stream mixing is used (in games utilizing 3D audio, for example). Meanwhile an integrated solution has the potentially faster motherboard south-to-north bridge interconnect at it's disposal.

Integrated audio is often percieved to have high CPU utilization simply because for quite some time the chips used to be simple AC-97 AD/DA-codecs driven entirely by driver software. In case of many of today's motherboards, the codec is driven by an hardware audio DSP, such as the top-notch nVidia nForce MPC-D or the very common inexpensive C-media 6-channel chip.

In terms of CPU utilization and DSP features, the nForce MPC-D actually far exceeds even the best consumer class external audio solutions such as SB Live Audigy and TB Santa Cruz. For instance, no other sound chip offers the same level of compliance with DX8 DirectSound spec. However, like 2D image quality of video cards, sound quality is a separate issue from the feature set. External sound cards often have superior codecs compared to integrated audio, so if one desires top-notch analog output more than the performance/features, they are definitely the way to go.

 

[AA0]

nforce is the only good on board audio solution that doesn't sacrifice cpu time, cmedia, and abits newer solution are horrible on the cpu utilization.

 

[DARRIN]

You thought about getting some refurbed parts from newegg? There are several people on anandtech that got the refurbed Epox 8kha+ motherboard from newegg for $55.

linkified

 

[Pghpooh]

HI
One factor in buying pc parts from different stores on line has always been the shipping charges. Some charge a fixed rate PER ITEM. That's a killer.
I have been looking at TCWO for a while and thier shipping is $6.00 up to 150 pounds. I haven't looked for any fine print yet! LOL
Any thoughts on TCWO? TCWO
Thanks
Pghpooh

 

[Superwormy]

If all they use it for is Internet and e-mail... 350 P2 should be MORE than enough if its tweaked and setup properly.

I would try formatting before I tried anything else, and use Windows NT or Win98 SE, preferable NT cause it'll be very stable and can be tweaked quite a bit with TweakUI and stuff, it'll make it fast enough for internet and email easy.

Otherwise... I'd say make them wait another 6 months for a new computer and save up some more money, 350 just ain't worth it

 

[Pghpooh]

HI
Superwormy----- I formated the hd on the Gateway and loaded Win89se. Also, went to the Gateway site and found the latest drivers for the onboard video and audio and so on. Also,I updated the bios to the latest that was on the Gateway site. I had some ram from a older pc that wworks on the Gateway and installed that. Now, they have 192 mb of ram. I am going to find a old copy of Notron Utilities and install it as the defrag and other tools are much better then the standard Win98se defrag, etc.
Keeping the hd clean and running with defrag and maybe regclean and other freebies will help them get through the next few months. When I got the machine from them 2 weeks ago, It took almost 10 minutes to boot up. After formatting, even removed the sectors and started from scratch, I got it to boot up in about a minute. The had is a IBM Destar 10 gig @5400 rpm.
That will make a good "Backup" or second drive on a new system.
Now, I am hoping that every store starts up the sales and free shipping on new parts! LOL
The $350 price was a starting point for their next pc. I never thought that price could be met. BUT!!! the people who replied showed me it could be done. By asking a few questions, I learned more could be done with a few bucks then I thought possible..
Thanks
Pghpooh