$700.. build or buy

[T2urtle]

Here is the story, I'm needing to buy/build another computer with a budget of $700 with a LCD moniter for the request of my parents and little brother. I would most likely be using the computer every now and then also and trouble shooting problems with it, is really not a problem with me.

Ideally computer is daily usage and brother will be using it for goofy games and school work, by goofy games i mean something that a geforce4 mx440 64mb will be plenty to power up, giving that i'm sure onboard would be good enough as well.

I've been looking at my local papers and dell mainly. From what i understand $700 can get you a dual core, with a decent setup. But also i'm sure with the recent price drops of a64 cpus and etc i can build something possibly better with the money then to buy. But at the point with all the stuff coming out in the near future and all the old stuff having massive price drops i dont know how old is too old. I figured maybe the socket 754 is rather old now. But if some of you guys and setup me up a general $700 rig with maybe a 17/19 LCD as well it would be perfect. Or a good pre-built computer rig that i can pick up

 

[DaveSimmons]

The new Dell AMD's have onbaord nvidia 6150 graphics which are a bit better than gf4mx, or they offer an upgrade to an x1300 or 7300 fairly cheap.

With Dell it's all built and tested, and Dell has to deal with any problems. Be sure to pay the extra $10 for a recovery CD and a complete windows meltdown is covered then too.

... some of the HP A64 and Sempron boxes have nv 6100/6150 onboard too, plus a PCI-E slot too. The Sunday paper should have some decent deals after $xxx in mail-in rebates.

 

[myocardia]

Newegg also has some nice stuff in the $500-750 price range: link.

 

[T2urtle]

They just droped the E510 in upgrades for an AMD system and a Duo

those new AMD systems are they going to be running AM2 chips? if so then i'll just pick up the sempron equipped on now and upgrade to a x2 later..

 

[myocardia]

Yep, they're all gonna be AM2: the E521, the C521. Socket 939 is EOL.

And they all come with Media Center.:roll: <<that would be a puke icon, if there were one

 

[hurtstotalktoyou]

I'd say DIY at NewEgg.

Windows XP Home OEM N09-01991
Acer ET.1706B.008 17" LCD display
Athlon X2 3800+ ADA3800CUBOX
1GB DDR2-533 (2x Ampo 3AXD2533-512M1S-R)
ECS C51GM-M integrated board
Samsung HD160JJ 160GB hard disk
Lite-on SHW160P6S05 DVD burner
ePower EP-ZU-400W12 power supply
Powmax CAG101-KKN black case w/front USB & audio ports
$701.17 shipped

 

[88NovaTwincam]

Would it be possible to upgrade a few of your components and use the old ones to build a new system around?

 

[T2urtle]

not really. old system is AGP/ IDE hard-drives. Sdram and the system is hanging during booting, not 100% which part is failing so i rather not build around it.

that newegg build looks tempting and the dell too since its AM2 and i can just throw a dual core in there later down the road.