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[human5892]

My parents wanted a new PC (upgrading from their unbelievably shitty Windows ME Compaq box from years ago), but didn't want to spend more than $400 on it (monitor excluded, Windows XP included). I went a tiny bit over ($417), but I think overall I did okay.

I went with a barebones AMD rig to start to save money on the motherboard/case/power supply combo but get a decent kick to the thing at the same time, and I'm leaving the onboard video and audio for budget reasons. Drives are also strictly ATA to save on money. How do these parts sound to the fellow PC-builders here?

Barebones: MSI MBOX K8MM-V AMD Socket 754 AMD Athlon 64/Sempron
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16856101238
84.99

Processor: AMD Sempron 64 3400
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819104231
66.50

Memory: Kingston ValueRAM 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820141423
99.99

Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 40GB 7200 RPM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822148013
40.99

DVD/CD Drive: ASUS 2M Cache E-IDE/ATAPI DVD Burner
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827135082
34.99

TOTAL:
$417 (w/Windows)

Building this was fun -- it was a challenge to find parts that would perform reasonably well and fit them into such a small budget.

 

[Fragamemnon]

Pricing computers is always entertaining.

Did you look and see if the RAM they already had in their computer was DDR-RAM? If so you might be able to use the existing RAM and upgrade the barebones kit to at least a socket 939 base, which would give one more CPU upgrade path before the whole thing would have to be replaced again.

 

[Bit-Bit]

Wow, well done. Thats pretty good for $400. Me thinks another $150 and it could play some pretty decent games.

 

[GSG Flash]

That is a pretty nice PC for that cost, it won't be playing Oblivion any time soon but it's great for surfing the web, listening to music etc.

 

[Karmacide]

I did something like this a few months ago. I like using slickdeals.net to find cheap computer parts and put them all together when I have everything to make a system.

XChroma Case = Free After Rebate.

Ultra V Servies 500 Watt power supply = Free After Rebate

Black Sony 18X DVD Burner = 31.99

Seagate 80GB SATAII HD = 29.99

Biostar Geforce6100-M9 nVidia Socket 939 Motherboard
Ultra 512 DDR400 RAM
AMD Sempron 3000+
Combo Price $70 After Rebate

No video card since the motherboard has on-board. (Sucks, but it's just a budget PC)

Price = 131.98 + about 20 shipping.

 

[Bit-Bit]

I forgot how much cheaper it is to build a pc compared to just buying a new one. If I had extra money right now I would build one for gaming. But sadly I still owe my parents and my girlfriend money. So Sometime in Feb. I'll be able to build a pretty decent rig to play me some Portal.

 

[human5892]

Did you look and see if the RAM they already had in their computer was DDR-RAM? If so you might be able to use the existing RAM and upgrade the barebones kit to at least a socket 939 base, which would give one more CPU upgrade path before the whole thing would have to be replaced again.

That's a good idea -- I hadn't thought of that. Unfortunately, I believe their current ram is SD. I did consider recycling their old hard drive and saving money there, but considering its age I'm not sure I trust it enough.

Karmacide, that's unbelievable! Nice work.

 

[chinch]

My parents wanted a new PC (upgrading from their unbelievably shitty Windows ME Compaq box from years ago), but didn't want to spend more than $400 on it (monitor excluded, Windows XP included). I went a tiny bit over ($417), but I think overall I did okay.

I went with a barebones AMD rig to start to save money on the motherboard/case/power supply combo but get a decent kick to the thing at the same time, and I'm leaving the onboard video and audio for budget reasons. Drives are also strictly ATA to save on money. How do these parts sound to the fellow PC-builders here?

Barebones: MSI MBOX K8MM-V AMD Socket 754 AMD Athlon 64/Sempron
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16856101238
84.99

Processor: AMD Sempron 64 3400
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819104231
66.50

Memory: Kingston ValueRAM 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820141423
99.99

Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 40GB 7200 RPM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822148013
40.99

DVD/CD Drive: ASUS 2M Cache E-IDE/ATAPI DVD Burner
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827135082
34.99

TOTAL:
$417 (w/Windows)

Building this was fun -- it was a challenge to find parts that would perform reasonably well and fit them into such a small budget.

don't bother.

you built barely the equivalent of a $299 emachines without warranty.

find a Dell e521 X2 new around $400 (i got one last month w/ vista upgrade for $389 - check bargain sites) or a Dell refurb (full warranty) you can have your pick of core-duo or X2 for that with 250GB SATA drive, etc. when they're available.

 

[human5892]

don't bother.

you built barely the equivalent of a $299 emachines without warranty.

Are we thinking of two different eMachines? A quick look at their website makes it look like their cheapest available desktop is $399.99 (AFTER a rebate) with half the RAM and an inferior processor, not to mention a boatload of shitware shipped pre-installed like all pre-built systems come with.

 

[Mason]

40GB HDD? The least I've seen any computer with lately is 80GB.

 

[human5892]

40GB HDD? The least I've seen any computer with lately is 80GB.

It's not a lot, but my parents don't need much space, so I decided to go with a cheaper small drive and apply the budget to more performance-orietned parts.

 

[Christoff Yurievich]

don't bother.

you built barely the equivalent of a $299 emachines without warranty.

find a Dell e521 X2 new around $400 (i got one last month w/ vista upgrade for $389 - check bargain sites) or a Dell refurb (full warranty) you can have your pick of core-duo or X2 for that with 250GB SATA drive, etc. when they're available.

he's almost right. I built this computer and it's been nothing but a headache for me. I'm on my second motherboard (the first melted the connector to the power supply), my third power supply, my second video card, and my second sound card. The Firewire card I installed conflicted with the cd burner I had (I don't know how, I just know the drive started working correctly after I took the card out) though the drive failed on its own a few weeks later (it would start burning a disc upon startup if there was a blank disc in the drive). Basically, I've bought this computer almost twice over and I could have bought a much nicer Dell or Gateway for what I've paid in total so far on this one.

but hey, if you know what you're doing with computers by all means make your own. It's certainly cheaper, and if you know what you need to keep it running it's definitely worth it.

 

[human5892]

he's almost right. I built this computer and it's been nothing but a headache for me. I'm on my second motherboard (the first melted the connector to the power supply), my third power supply, my second video card, and my second sound card. The Firewire card I installed conflicted with the cd burner I had (I don't know how, I just know the drive started working correctly after I took the card out) though the drive failed on its own a few weeks later (it would start burning a disc upon startup if there was a blank disc in the drive). Basically, I've bought this computer almost twice over and I could have bought a much nicer Dell or Gateway for what I've paid in total so far on this one.

Damn, that's a rotten run of luck.

Once I had a picture of the general specs of the parts in my mind that I wanted, I tried to stick to stuff on NewEgg that had a good deal of positive reviews to it to nip any reliability issues in the bud, but of course there's always that chance...

 

[scorcho]

http://www.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/hot_offers_dt?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd

Dell's prices have gone down markedly for their lower-end computers, to the point where it doesn't make much sense to price out each component. True, you have a gig of RAM, but Dell throws in a generous warranty, a legitimate copy of XP (with a free or low-cost upgrade to VISTA), and a flat panel.

If you're looking to spend under $6-700, there's no value to be had building your own computer anymore.

 

[chinch]

Are we thinking of two different eMachines? A quick look at their website makes it look like their cheapest available desktop is $399.99 (AFTER a rebate) with half the RAM and an inferior processor, not to mention a boatload of shitware shipped pre-installed like all pre-built systems come with.

gotta watch the bargain sites for clearouts, refurbs, etc. $199 was a recent price for similar system and better mobo/video card and larger SATA drive.

 

[chinch]

dell deals (official site) to bookmark:

http://www.dell.com/content/products/compare.aspx/dimen?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd&redirect=1

often you can remove a monitor or extras and get even better prices (ie. $389 X2 dual-core e421 a recent example).

 

[Hitokage]

http://www.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/hot_offers_dt?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd

Dell's prices have gone down markedly for their lower-end computers, to the point where it doesn't make much sense to price out each component. True, you have a gig of RAM, but Dell throws in a generous warranty, a legitimate copy of XP (with a free or low-cost upgrade to VISTA), and a flat panel.

If you're looking to spend under $6-700, there's no value to be had building your own computer anymore.

Dell also has a nasty habit of cutting corners, so watch out for that.

 

[element]

I got a steal on a dell about 6 months ago for my mom. typical 1 GB, P4 3.0 GHz, 80 GB HDD, DVD/CD, with 19" LCD for $450.

Really for parents there isn't any reason not to get a Dell.

 

[Kabuki Quantum Lover]

Hmm... this thread inspires me, though I still want a Core 2 Duo in my rig. Need to upgrade but not looking forward to actually paying for it.

 

[Vandiger]

http://www.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/hot_offers_dt?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd

Dell's prices have gone down markedly for their lower-end computers, to the point where it doesn't make much sense to price out each component. True, you have a gig of RAM, but Dell throws in a generous warranty, a legitimate copy of XP (with a free or low-cost upgrade to VISTA), and a flat panel.

If you're looking to spend under $6-700, there's no value to be had building your own computer anymore.

Pretty much agree here unless you are building a gaming or media pc machine there is really no point in building a low budget PC. The very fact that any problem the computer has it will be your responsibility to fix it is a headache unless you have that passion in fixing computers. I've bought a macbook for my mom since she is basically computer illiterate. No problems yet, thank god.

 

[RobotChant]

Good job.

However I do agree with the sentiment of sticking with Dell and others. You might lose out on performance, but you'll get a more stable system with a warranty. Troubleshooting can be such a b*tch. It can be fun to build it yourself, but you also can run into problems for the most obscure reason. Good luck with it all.

 

[chinch]

for the OP...

$419 Dell e521
AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual-Core 3800+ [Included in Price]
1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz- 2DIMMs [Included in Price]
160GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™ [Included in Price]
NVIDIA GeForce 6150 LE Integrated Graphics GPU [Included in Price]

see link i posted above, click e521 configure then remove the 19" monitor.