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Any suggestions for a poor student?? =(

B

bigpimpatl

Senior member
I have a POS laptop that is just about to blow up in my face (literally) one of these nights. A lot of the pixels are dead and there are a whole bunch of "spots" on the LCD. And anytime i do something mildly intensive the cpu shuts off and boom i lose all my work. I've tried cleaning it, buying a laptop cooler, but nothing. Also, from the title you'll know that I'm a broke college student. My budget is about $600 (or less if possible) excluding monitor (my b-day is up soon, so hopefully i can get my parents to grab me an lcd =)

I really want a computer that will be future proof, that is why i'm going with the am2 x2. I want to be able to multitask, and i think an x2 3800+ is perfect for me. This is what I have so far. I need some suggestions for hard drive, memory, and power supply. Please keep in mind this is pretty much a budget setup (except for the CPU) so reliability and stability are first for me right now. Whatever I have left, I will spend on the graphics card. I'm not really a gamer (casual at best) so this aspect is really not important to me. Thanks for the help in advance.

MSI K9NU Neo-V Socket AM2 ULi M1697 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+(65W) Windsor 2.0GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2 Processor - Retail

ENERMAX ECA3052BS Black SECC ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail

NEC 16X ND-3550A, or BenQ 16X DW1655??? They are pretty much the same price. which is the better buy?

 
No such thing as future proofing... this system will be outdated as soon as core 2 quadro is released.
Anywho... I'd go with:
x2 3800+ $160
DFI mII am2 infinity $90
Coolermaster centurion 531 $40
nec 3550a $31
Corsair VS 1gb $110
Seagate 7200.10 250gb $80
Fortron fsp400-gln $55
EVGA 7300gt $70
total: $636ish
 
I agree that there is no such thing as future proofing for those who go longer than 4 months before replacing major components.

However, given the fact that the OP is shy on funds, I would reccomend checking out used machines in your local area. While attending school does necessitate having a computer, attending school does not require the latest and greatest in computer hardware. Buy a used machine for about $400 and add some memory and or a larger hdd.
 
Corsair VS (valueselect) is RAM in my universe...
the DFI comes with fairly good realtek 830 sound.

EDIT: bigpimp... where's your other post? You say 2 posts, but I searched and couldn't find the other...
 
Case & PSU: InWin S523T2.J350BL Very solid case, better then the cheaper Antec and Coolermasters in my opinion. The PSU is also decent, it will power your hardware fine and won't explode. Something that can't be said for many PSUs bundled with cases. -- $55

Motherboard: Asus M2N-E Asus quality + reliable and silent passive heatpipe cooled chipset. -- $94

VGA: Gigabyte GV-NX76T256D-RH Dual DVI, decent peformance and an excellent passive heatsink. If you really don't think you'll be gaming at all you can opt for something like this Asus. -- $40-136

Optical drive: Samsung 18x burn speed, Lightscribe. Out of all the various drives out there I've had the best results with Samsung drives.

For the rest I think acegazda has some pretty good choices so I'll leave it at that.
 
Read the stick in the MoBo forum about the m2n-e. Seems like the general concesus is "don't get this board" True, most of the problems have been with overclocking, which OP will probably not be doing, but if asus lies about they're vdimm stepping on this board, who knows what else they lied on? I like the samsung though and I totally forgot about the inwin cases. The is surprisingly better than most case psus, even with it's 18amp single 12v rail, which will still be fine for this rig.
 
Originally posted by: MagnusTheBrewer
I agree that there is no such thing as future proofing for those who go longer than 4 months before replacing major components.

However, given the fact that the OP is shy on funds, I would reccomend checking out used machines in your local area. While attending school does necessitate having a computer, attending school does not require the latest and greatest in computer hardware. Buy a used machine for about $400 and add some memory and or a larger hdd.
Click to expand...

I've def looked around for a used PC locally on classifieds/craigslist for example but for the prices people are selling their pc's, it just makes more sense to build my own computer with brand new parts w/ warranty, then to go for a used pc thats been god knows where.

I guess what I meant when I said "future proof" is a PC that will be able to handle the computing tasks of today and tomorrow. Yes it will be outdated after 6 months, but it will still be able to handle everything except for the most cpu intensive tasks for at least the next 2-3 years. At least I hope it will =P

Anyways, thanks for your suggestions. Does anyone have any experience with the motherboard I listed? all I could find was this review in spanish about it, but otherwise Anandtech gave a thumbs up to the ULi chipset. For the price/features, it seems perfect for me. And regarding the ASUS M2N-E, i've heard a lot of stability problems around the net, and here on Anandtech, so i'm not sure if i want invest in it just yet.
 
OK bigpimpatl, fess up, you want to do some gaming don't you? 🙂 As a continuing Computer Engineering student myself, I've never seen the "computing tasks of today and tomorrow" in the form of homework or projects that require more than a P-II with the exclusion of those written specifically for a 'super-computer.'

However, given your limited funds, I would reccomend looking at Dell or some of the other mainstream builders. I believe in building your own but, I think you will get more for your money at the low end by buying pre-built. Anand's latest article on low-end builds pretty much says the same thing.
 
Originally posted by: MagnusTheBrewer
OK bigpimpatl, fess up, you want to do some gaming don't you? 🙂 As a continuing Computer Engineering student myself, I've never seen the "computing tasks of today and tomorrow" in the form of homework or projects that require more than a P-II with the exclusion of those written specifically for a 'super-computer.'

However, given your limited funds, I would reccomend looking at Dell or some of the other mainstream builders. I believe in building your own but, I think you will get more for your money at the low end by buying pre-built. Anand's latest article on low-end builds pretty much says the same thing.
Click to expand...

lol you got me =P There's nothing like playing san andreas before you have a test to "clear your mind" hehe. But yea, I tried to find that $185 emachine desktop at bestbuy but none in my area had em. That was an amazing deal, if i could have gotten one.

But if anyone has any experience w/ that mobo please do let me know. thanks.
 
Maybe you could pickup a good Intel Core2 Duo ready board and drop in a cheap Celeron CPU for the time being? Spend the money now to build a solid foundation that you can upgrade down the road when you have more expendable income. Just a thought.
 
I recently picked up a refurb e Machines with a semperon 1800, 512 meg ddr400, 100 gig HD, onboard sound and video for $200 after $100 rebate, from Tiger. Got the rebate in a timely manor and the computer has been working well for him. Something to consider.

off topic concerning poor college students. I was just reading about a guy who went to college in Texas back in the 1930s who took a cow with him to college for 3 years and sold the milk to pay room and board. Probably couldn't get away with that these days.

Good luck

Bill

 
If you aren't going to play games, then just pick up a motherboard with integrated graphics and a PCI-E slot. You can always add a video card later if needed. Make sure it supports C2D, but get a budget processor for now.
 
rofl............

good hell.

Replying to Topic: Any suggestions for a poor student?? =(

u have no idea what "poor" is. some of my friends are running on CRT's with Pentium 2's and 3's.

anyway, get a Dell system preloaded with XP and spend the rest of your money on office software if you don't already have it. you must mean, "broke." 'cuz poor is a totally different concept of how you describe yourself.

-I don't see too many poor families with X2 processors. mostly Celeron D's and Intel's older flagship, the Pentium 4.

 
Originally posted by: fire400
rofl............

good hell.

Replying to Topic: Any suggestions for a poor student?? =(

u have no idea what "poor" is. some of my friends are running on CRT's with Pentium 2's and 3's.

anyway, get a Dell system preloaded with XP and spend the rest of your money on office software if you don't already have it. you must mean, "broke." 'cuz poor is a totally different concept of how you describe yourself.

-I don't see too many poor families with X2 processors. mostly Celeron D's and Intel's older flagship, the Pentium 4.
Click to expand...

Yea I didn't really think of that, now that you put it that way. I'm more broke then anything; thank god i have a scholarship to pay for tuition, otherwise it would be game over lol. But i hate all the bs expenses you incur at college, especially books =P

 
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