cheap rig suggestions

[excalibur3]

I would really like to build a two computers total for like $500 each. (Including monitor). I've had a lot of problems with dells so that is why I am going the diy path but do you think that I could get a decent one for such a cheap price of similar or better specs than a dell? (I know that dell doesn't make much money on their lower ends because they sell volume). I have built computers before but they have been about 50% more expensive so I'm not sure where to start. They will be mostly all purpose computers in a chemistry lab so they might have to run some intense program occasionally but I really just want something that is reliable and not dell.
Here is kind of what I'm thinking:
Should I get amd or intel for that price range? Is a core duo asking too much?
Having a raid option built in would be nice if it didn't cost much extra.
512mb min but 1gb would be amazing
The video card could be minimal...definitely no game playing (A faster processor is way more important because an intensive program would be something like mathematica)
The tricky part for me is that I don't want to sacrifice speed for quality so getting crap that sounds fast probably isn't an option.

So what do you guys think?

 

[Duvie]

I would find RAID likely prohibitive in keeping tyhe 500 price point....especially if it means sacrificing cpu speed...RAID wont make that big of a difference for you...

A dual core option would be nice but could be hard to keep in price point...500 including monitor is tough...

Look at some of the semprons perhaps....get mobos with perhaps onboard solutions....160gb HDD at newegg for like 58 bucks....

If you have a local Fryes you coudl look for good mobo/cpu combo deals....

 

[Nocturnal]

What kind of problems did you have with Dell? For something within that budget with a monitor, I would highly recommend Dell. You get support and a warranty for probably your asking price. If it's for school I would highly highly recommend just going with Dell. Care to tell us what is so bad about Dell that you don't wish to use them?

 

[Duvie]

Hate to say it but doing math cals will want 2 things.....cpu speed/ number of cores and large cache.....

I would look at perhaps Pentium D 915's (based on the 65nm chips) or even 805Ds/mobo combos which can be had for 145-150...

fact is that even A64's single cores, and semprons are running high in price and would not be able to beat the fact INtel chip would have 2 cores running...

512mb should be fine and you can get some 400mhz DDr2 stuff for around 50...


805d/mobo = 150
512mb ddr2 (2 sticks) = 50
160gb SATA HDD = 58
case/PSU = 50-60 (will need decent power supply as the Intel dual cores are power hogs)
pci-e = 35-40
DVD-rom drive (burner casue the price points are soo close)= 28

Leaves you a tad over 100 dollars for a monitor/keyboqrd and mouse....probably can find some 15" LCDs for under 100....


See if you can up the price budget to 500 w/o monitor and that may open up the real possibility of dual core setup which would be worlds better then a single core solution in mathematic stuff...

 

[Duvie]

Originally posted by: Nocturnal
What kind of problems did you have with Dell? For something within that budget with a monitor, I would highly recommend Dell. You get support and a warranty for probably your asking price. If it's for school I would highly highly recommend just going with Dell. Care to tell us what is so bad about Dell that you don't wish to use them?

Not too mention it will be very tough to get 500 dollar price point when you figure a licensed copy of the OS will run you 90 bucks at least...for an OEM version of winxp or win2k

 

[excalibur3]

We bought this one for the lab where it occasionally shuts down and boots back up with a blue screen of death. I guess I also sort of have a long history with bad dells in the past for personal computers. You guys are right though...maybe I am being too hard on it.

EDIT: the reason why I was wondering about raid is that there is another computer in the lab that takes big amounds of data (50gb a year maybe) and it would be more than a shame to lose it all so I'm trying to figure out a good way to automate redundant backups.