Hi. I am building a machine for my father. He's not strapped for cash but he sees no reason to spend anything more than he has to, considering that it will just be used for surfing the web, playing mp3s.
As he doesn't currently have a PC, I don't know whether he will eventually use it for anything else, but at the moment think light use. Obviously the machine will run Windows XP.
I am in the UK, and am thinking a price of no more than £200 inclusive of tax and delivery (probably equivalent to about $315 in the US) for a box, excluding monitor, speakers, keyboard, etc.
Obviously the machine won't be overclocked or generally pushed, so I was thinking that in terms of bang for buck the Athlon XP 2500+ combined with cheap & nasty PC chips motherboard would be the way to go.
Anyway, the availability of Athlon XP chips is tapering off, and the new Sempron chips are being priced about the same as the Athlon XP chip with the same number, but obviously they are a lot slower. I am looking at www.ebuyer.com, which is the cheapest supplier here.
The chips they have available (all prices excluding sales tax) are
Athlon XP 2400+ Thoroughbred OEM for £42.41 + £5 fan = £47.41
Sempron 2500 Retail £44.24
Sempron 2600 Retail £49.49
Athlon XP 2600 Barton OEM £51.73 + £5 fan = £56.73
To go with a
PcChips M848ALU SKT A SIS 748 400 DDR AGPx8 ATA133 6CH Sound/lAN/USB 2.0 @ £18.70
(no onboard video - I am specifying a Radeon 7000 so that the machine has TV-OUT)
On the Celeron side:
Celeron 320 retail £40.98
Celeron 330 retail £50.69
Celeron 335 retail £63.11
+
PcChips SKT478 DDR400 FSB800 Hyper-Threading AGP8x ATA133 SATA USB2.0 LAN Retail Box @ £23.61
One last concern is that with a machine like this the main concern is reliability, and some friends have expressed compatibility concerns with Amd chips, as they are always copying and are not the original. But is this only a concern with last generation chips?
Anyway, a recommendation for the best buy would be good....
PS.
Can these chips use DDR 400 RAM?
As he doesn't currently have a PC, I don't know whether he will eventually use it for anything else, but at the moment think light use. Obviously the machine will run Windows XP.
I am in the UK, and am thinking a price of no more than £200 inclusive of tax and delivery (probably equivalent to about $315 in the US) for a box, excluding monitor, speakers, keyboard, etc.
Obviously the machine won't be overclocked or generally pushed, so I was thinking that in terms of bang for buck the Athlon XP 2500+ combined with cheap & nasty PC chips motherboard would be the way to go.
Anyway, the availability of Athlon XP chips is tapering off, and the new Sempron chips are being priced about the same as the Athlon XP chip with the same number, but obviously they are a lot slower. I am looking at www.ebuyer.com, which is the cheapest supplier here.
The chips they have available (all prices excluding sales tax) are
Athlon XP 2400+ Thoroughbred OEM for £42.41 + £5 fan = £47.41
Sempron 2500 Retail £44.24
Sempron 2600 Retail £49.49
Athlon XP 2600 Barton OEM £51.73 + £5 fan = £56.73
To go with a
PcChips M848ALU SKT A SIS 748 400 DDR AGPx8 ATA133 6CH Sound/lAN/USB 2.0 @ £18.70
(no onboard video - I am specifying a Radeon 7000 so that the machine has TV-OUT)
On the Celeron side:
Celeron 320 retail £40.98
Celeron 330 retail £50.69
Celeron 335 retail £63.11
+
PcChips SKT478 DDR400 FSB800 Hyper-Threading AGP8x ATA133 SATA USB2.0 LAN Retail Box @ £23.61
One last concern is that with a machine like this the main concern is reliability, and some friends have expressed compatibility concerns with Amd chips, as they are always copying and are not the original. But is this only a concern with last generation chips?
Anyway, a recommendation for the best buy would be good....
PS.
Can these chips use DDR 400 RAM?
