Duron Computer...Any suggestions?

[jtshaw]

I am building a inexpensive, AMD Duron based, computer for somebody who won't be gaming, or doing much multimedia intensive stuff. What do you think of the following components. oh...no ocing on this thing either.

MSI K7T Pro ~ $111
Duron 700Mhz. ~ $70
nVidia TNT2 w/ 16MB ~ $54
128MB Crucial Ram (I hate buying cheap ram) ~ $92.00
3Com Modem ~ $60
Case w/ 300W PS ~ $100
Mouse/Keyboard ~ $95 (he wants wireless...)
IBM 15GB ~ $130

Total ~ $712

Big thing I am wondering about is the on-board sound with the VIA AC97 sound stuff, is that any good at all?

 

[Magic30]

For intensive multimedia work like Premiere or Photoshop a Thunderbird or P3 would be better, but a Duron 700 should be OK.
What OS are U planning to use? For a stable multimedia OS I would take win2k but then you should consider buying 256 or even 384 Mb RAM ...
For the crappy Win9x or ME possibly 128 MB RAM are enough ...

 

[jtshaw]

That might have been confusing, there won't be any intense multimedia stuff going on this system. It will probably run Win2k on it. I am a linux user at heart but the person who this computer is going to doesn't know a whole lot about computers. Because I am a linux user I won't even consider anything in the Win9x series...completely rediculous in the stability department with it's completely unprotected memory...but enough about that. It will mostly be used for Internet and some MS Office stuff... I have run Win2k on a PIII 450 w/ 128MB of RAM and it ran just fine for simple stuff so I think 128MB will be ok.

 

[Yerdy]

3com/USR winmodem-$28
Maxtor 15 gb 7200 rpm, 2mb cache HD-$99.50
Logitech iTouch cordless keyboard and mouse-$78.00
Enlight 7237 w/300 watt ps-$57

There, now use the money I just saved you to buy a sound card (SB Live!Value)and maybe some more RAM (you may need it some day and it is inexpensive now)

Prices are from mwave.com and allstarshop.com (resellerratings of 5.5 and 6.1, respectively)

 

[dew042]

i agree fully with the above comments....there isn't much excuse to not have atleast 256mb of SDRAM with the prices as low as they go....prepare for the future today....

 

[reitz]

I'd recommend a Maxtor DiamondMax 7200rpm ATA66 drive. Check the ads in the Sunday paper; you should be able to find a 20 - 30 gig drive on sale for the same as the IBM 15gig.

Also, the onboard sound on that board sucks, even for a simple non-gaming machine. A great cheap solution is a soundcard based on the Yamaha YMF 724 chipset. It's got great sound for a really low price, so long as you plan on running some version of Windows. I have an el-cheapo Aopen Awe 724 that I bought for $18 from Axion Technologies. For just a few bucks extra, it's well worth it for the improvement in sound quality.

 

[jtshaw]

Hmm, looking good so far, I have adjusted my prices to include the Maxtor drive, Enlight case, and a cheaper modem...though not the WinModem...no self respecting linux user like myself can buy a WinModem I am going to think about the extra ram..I myself love ram, I have 512MB in my system, but I don't know that this person would need it.

 

[Quiksel]

Yeah, you've already got yourself a pretty sweet system for someone who will hardly take advantage of all that technology. I agree that if it's in the budget, you should get a bunch of RAM...

But on the other hand, I've never felt that software-based sound support on the motherboard is so much worse than your tried-and-true SB Live!. If it's on your motherboard, I'd be trying it out first before I labeled it as a bad solution. I mean, this user might be just fine with onboard sound, and you just spent another $40 of their money on hardware based stuff that they can't even appreciate. For the user you describe, you're going overboard with the extravagant stuff. Keep it simple, save some money.

~niko ^_^

 

[jtshaw]

Ya, I agree...and look at it this way...I am paying for this, it is a gift to him

 

[buildingacomputer]

It's all a matter of personal preferance. Here are mine:

1) Overclocking: It takes so little effort to overclock Duron to boost performance. I bought a 600MHz Duron with L1 bridges intact, I mean an old one. But at the default voltage, I am running it at 800 MHz. You may want to reconsider this.
2) Expensive RAM: I am not overclockign FSB so I use generic RAM. I bought one from Memplus.com and another from Bunta.com. Both work fine at PC133 cas2. I know most of you prefer high quality RAMs but I have a totally different experience.

Just my personal preferences.

 

[fs5]

Most people don't use all the processing power in a duron 700 anyways. What you want to consider is the other bottlenecks in a system such as RAM and HD performance. If he's going for reliablity then don't o/c because there's always a chance, whatever small, that the chip might go bad. And if it's a gift, he'll look toward the gift giver (ie you)!

 

[Howard]

Duron 600 - $60
MSI K7T Pro2 - $130
256MB PC100 SDRAM - $150
TNT2 16MB - $60
Lucent LT Winmodem - $30
250W PS with case - $50
Wireless Mouse/Keyboard - $100
15GB IBM 75GXP - $140
48X CD-ROM - $50

Samsung 755DF - $250
Altec Lansing ACS33 - $40

Total - $1080