budget pc under $350-400

[wallrunnerm15]

my parent's comp is pretty much dead, it is about 6 years old and ran windows 98. I am in charge of getting them a replacement computer, or building one myself. i thought that i would ry to build them one since i am currently working on my own socket 939 already. I would like to know some recommendations for cpus and mobo's for them for a combined price of around 200 maybe 250 tops. thanks

 

[Peter]

In that price range you better buy off the shelf. Don't overdo it either - if they did well with a six-year-old W98 box, then a simple Sempron machine, with an integrated-everything mainboard, will be more than adequate.

 

[o1die]

Check pricewatch's combo deals. Fry's or outpost.com also has some good prices. Ecs and pcchips boards have the worst warranties. Msi and abit the best.

 

[wallrunnerm15]

i was thinking about getting an msi board and maybe a celeron d around 2.33gHz. also do you have any other suggestions for other parts. i am going to put in my old agp card a GeForce4 MX440 and prob get a SB Live! or something cause my brother listen to alot of music

 

[bookman]

Why not try an Nforce 2 board with Soundstorm, a cheap Socket A CPU, and u can drop in the MX440. Like that you save on having to get an SB live.

 

[imported_bartmy]

for power, get a CHAINTECH nForce3 250 Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket 754 Athlon 64 CPU, Model "VNF3-250" -RETAIL for $76 with built in 6 channel sound along with a Sempron 3100+ for $119 from newegg. For 200$ you get amazing performance. Don't get a celly!!!
This thing would keep up with a Pentim 4 540 (3.2) if o.c'ed. http://www6.tomshardware.com/cpu/20050202/index.html
for CHEAP and adequate, there are quite a few KT600 boards for under $50 w/ built in sound, and Nforce2 ultra 400's for less than $65...add nice mobile 2500+ for around $85, or a "Barton" 2500+ for $75. You could also spring for a 512MB (or a 2x256 for the Nforce2)mem module and stay under $200 with the socket A combo. GL.
Codegen case $40
Thermaltake PSU $40
Lite-On DVD 16x dual drive 59$
Samsung 80 gig HDD $55
are all good deals too.

 

[imported_bartmy]

 

[Peter]

You are all drastically overdoing it. Socket-A all-in-one like ECS KM400-M2 ($40), a Sempron 2400+ ($60), "arctic" low-noise fan ($10), 256 MBytes of DDR333 RAM ($40), sorted. That leaves headroom for all the other stuff you'll need - a low noise Samsung HDD ($40), DVD drive ($30), case w/ PSU ($30). Blowing those $250 on board and CPU alone, and reusing the old storage drives, will make the new system seem as slow as the old one - Windows application performance largely doesn't depend on CPU at all, it's the storage. Use the remaining money for a decent monitor.

And never, ever overclock a machine that isn't for yourself. People like to get stuff done USING their computers, not toy around WITH their computers.

 

[Haipyng]

I'd agree with Peter. Anything over 1500Mhz is great for doing browsing, office duties and the game of solitare. Spend the money you save on video and HD. Reusing the old drives for the OS drive? Bad idea, it will be a big performance hit compared to a newer 133 or SATA drive.

You really aren't going to beat an out of the box machine on price, especially given all the software you get, unless *cough* your doing something illegal. :shocked:

 

[dhoytw]

I would try to buy a PC already built for that price not too much savings if any in building yourself especially by the time you add an OS (especially Windows).

Here is a nice PC for $349 just an idea to go on don't have to follow this one particularly it's tigerdirect but no rebates, try to look for something like this you can find even cheaper really

Text

 

[imported_Gelfling]

Go to fatwallet.com in the hot deals section. You caon find lots of Dell PC's in this price range, some WITH 17" LCD if you hurry.

 

[hans007]

well if you plan on ever upgrading... for them get this computer. i figure you might as well let it last another 6 years

athlon 64 2800 socket 754 $110
some via km800 based 754 board with video sound lan, $70
some 80gb rebated hard drive from random store , lets say $50
512mb mb pc3200 $70ish
a cdrw after a rebate $30

a half decent case $40

$360.