Building a new computer for a little girl

[jpeyton]

Don't worry about upgradability; it won't matter in about a year's time with Intel moving past the ATX standard.

For AIM and word processing, a low-end Duron is more than plenty. A Barton...get real.

 

[Siddhartha]

That is a good computer which should meet her needs and give room to grow. I always recommend that people get more computer than they need at the moment. People always end up doing more with computers as they learn more about them.

 

[jpeyton]

Originally posted by: Dr Smooth
That is a good computer which should meet her needs and give room to grow. I always recommend that people get more computer than they need at the moment. People always end up doing more with computers as they learn more about them.

Indeed, she might start playing Solitaire or using Kazaa.

 

[Pliablemoose]

Two words: Kitty Case

I still have a Doggie Case for my 11 year old😀

 

[virtuamike]

Don't skimp too far. You want a system that'll run XP at least. Here's what I'd get (priced @ Newegg):

$93 Epox 8RDA3+ mobo (use the built-in sound & NIC)
$90 AMD XP 2500 Barton retail
$107 Geil 512MB (256MBx2) Golden Dragon PC3200
$55 Chaintech GF4 MX440
$51 Lite-on combo drive
$75 WD 80GB
$65 Chenming X-Sonic w/ 350W PSU (from SVC)

And yeah it's over $500. Sure it's overkill sure but it'll last at least 3 years. Do you really want them calling you every 6 months to upgrade the thing?

If they have a problem with spending that much, they would've bought a Dell instead of asking you to build it.

 

[ddwbi0]

Originally posted by: virtuamike
Don't skimp too far. You want a system that'll run XP at least. Here's what I'd get (priced @ Newegg):

$93 Epox 8RDA3+ mobo (use the built-in sound & NIC)
$90 AMD XP 2500 Barton retail
$107 Geil 512MB (256MBx2) Golden Dragon PC3200
$55 Chaintech GF4 MX440
$51 Lite-on combo drive
$75 WD 80GB
$65 Chenming X-Sonic w/ 350W PSU (from SVC)

And yeah it's over $500. Sure it's overkill sure but it'll last at least 3 years. Do you really want them calling you every 6 months to upgrade the thing?

If they have a problem with spending that much, they would've bought a Dell instead of asking you to build it.

That's still overkill. Shes 13!!! Either get her a dell and save the money, or if you really want to build something that she can use. BUild a duron system with a ecs motherboard. I have one of mine still going 2 years strong without a problem. YOU dont need a GF4, a a GF2 would work fine even. This girl isn't going to be playing cs or anything. geez

 

[FuZoR]

my little sisters got my old pcs... Athlon 600 & a 850 one.... they play sims, use word and aim/surf happily.
256 pc100ram
20gigs each
old spare parts

oh they are running win2k

my father's employee's daughter's schoolmate

i thought it was a girl that was related/close to you...

get her a dell!!!! or you will be tech support for the rest of your life for that family. ;-)

 

[GtPrOjEcTX]

Originally posted by: EmperorIQ
my father's employee's daughter's schoolmate, and they were gonna pay me, but i guess dell would be the best deal for her anyways, thanks all.

:Q dude, get her a dell.

 

[virtuamike]

Originally posted by: ddwbi0

Originally posted by: virtuamike
Don't skimp too far. You want a system that'll run XP at least. Here's what I'd get (priced @ Newegg):

$93 Epox 8RDA3+ mobo (use the built-in sound & NIC)
$90 AMD XP 2500 Barton retail
$107 Geil 512MB (256MBx2) Golden Dragon PC3200
$55 Chaintech GF4 MX440
$51 Lite-on combo drive
$75 WD 80GB
$65 Chenming X-Sonic w/ 350W PSU (from SVC)

And yeah it's over $500. Sure it's overkill sure but it'll last at least 3 years. Do you really want them calling you every 6 months to upgrade the thing?

If they have a problem with spending that much, they would've bought a Dell instead of asking you to build it.

That's still overkill. Shes 13!!! Either get her a dell and save the money, or if you really want to build something that she can use. BUild a duron system with a ecs motherboard. I have one of mine still going 2 years strong without a problem. YOU dont need a GF4, a a GF2 would work fine even. This girl isn't going to be playing cs or anything. geez

I'm guessing her parents aren't PC enthusiasts. Me, I hate getting calls saying hey, I have 256MB of RAM, how come Money won't run? Hi, how come Office is running slow? I just installed Encarta and it loads slow, can you do anything to make it faster?

Look at the price difference between a GF2 MX and a GF4 MX, we're talking $15. Geez you're cheap, at least with the GF4 MX you're getting something with DVI output in case the parents ever decide to buy *gasp* an LCD.

Duron + ECS is only cheap if you have a Fry's nearby, otherwise it's kinda pointless skimping on CPU/mobo.

Personally, I've built plenty of systems over the years and I will NEVER use an ECS mobo (I haven't had a K7S5A last longer than 18 months) in a PC I'm selling off to someone, I'd rather convince them to buy something more reliable and save me from the pain of troubleshooting.

Like I said, if her parents have a problem with the price, tell them to get a Dell.

 

[slag]

Originally posted by: EmperorIQ
wow you serious? cheaper? i wanted to keep it at 333 fsb so she can upgrade, i originally felt that a amd 1700+ would be fine, should i stick with 266 fsb and a 1700+ then?

EDIT:
oh and thanks a lot for the replies, maybe i am going overboard, ha~!

Are you sure this computer is for a girl and not for yourself?

I just built my son a computer. Total cost was $10.00. This girl you are building a computer for isnt playing 1st person shooters and by the time she is old enough to play the latest games (most girls dont play games anyway), the architecture will have changed.

A p2 350-400 with 256 mb ram and a 4-8 gb hdd should work perfectly for what she is doing.

 

[thraxes]

Originally posted by: slag

Originally posted by: EmperorIQ
wow you serious? cheaper? i wanted to keep it at 333 fsb so she can upgrade, i originally felt that a amd 1700+ would be fine, should i stick with 266 fsb and a 1700+ then?

EDIT:
oh and thanks a lot for the replies, maybe i am going overboard, ha~!

Are you sure this computer is for a girl and not for yourself?

I just built my son a computer. Total cost was $10.00. This girl you are building a computer for isnt playing 1st person shooters and by the time she is old enough to play the latest games (most girls dont play games anyway), the architecture will have changed.

A p2 350-400 with 256 mb ram and a 4-8 gb hdd should work perfectly for what she is doing.

Finally someone talking sense:

A 1000 Duron on a ECS board is easier to find and will do plenty!! My Parents have a Duron 850 with 256MB RAM... It is plenty for what they do: Internet, Office, Sorting Pics from the Digital Camera and burning the odd CD - with the GF2MX it even runs UT2K3 smoothly, at 800x600 with low details. And guess what: WinXP runs on my fathers laptop which is only a 400 MHz P2 with 196MB RAM... turn off the candy bar optics and it flies! A Friend of mine uses her PC alot. She does translations for a regional bilingual newspaper. She loads up massive Adobe Pagemaker Files.. on a P2-350! The only thing that has ever been upgraded is the HDD for more space and RAM is now at 512MB. It is plenty fast... so much so that we are going to pass up a new CPU on the next upgrade and get a TFT monitor instead... perhaps with a used faster CPU if I can get one.

My Message: Do not get carried away! For most computer users 800-1300 MHz is the sweet spot. Only when Games or Video-Editing come into play is something with more muscle required.

Posted Off my P2-350 Linux box (main Rig is busy transcoding a AVi into MPEG2 😛 )

 

[lowtech1]

If you can't find a use computer in your town for $100.00 that will the job, then a $200.00 Licoris/Microtel Duron 1.4mhz box at Walmart sould be able to the job.

Or Celeron 1.7mhz with windows for $178.00 at Pricewatch .

[edit] This post is from my 550mhz box at work with 256 MB of ram, runing Windows 2000 & I use it for the occasional Office 2000 & photoshop 5.0 editing.

 

[randomlinh]

my sis is around 13... they use a duron 750 at home... it's slow now after i formatted for some strange reason. but yeah, aim, word processor, and playing w/ paintshop pro... granted, they have half a gig of memory (leftover sdram i didn't feel like selling) 🙂

you can find a great deal in the FS/T forums for mobo/cpu/ram... then buy a new HD, since its the fastest to go.

 

[rudder]

Originally posted by: slag


Are you sure this computer is for a girl and not for yourself?

I just built my son a computer. Total cost was $10.00. This girl you are building a computer for isnt playing 1st person shooters and by the time she is old enough to play the latest games (most girls dont play games anyway), the architecture will have changed.

A p2 350-400 with 256 mb ram and a 4-8 gb hdd should work perfectly for what she is doing.

I gave my daughters my p3 700 after I bought a new machine recently. I had to since the amd 450 I had for them would barely even run some of their games. Not 3d intensive stuff, but still ran poorly until I gave them the p3.