Help building new/cheapish system...please

[Go3iverson]

Hey all,

If this sort of question isn't allowed here, please excuse me.....I usually just hang around hot deals!

Anyway, my girlfriend's horrifyingly bad laptop bit the dust and she needs a new system, so I figured I'd get her one for her birthday. She owns a PC, but fell in love with OS X on the iMac she's been borrowing from me for a few months......she tried to get my G4, but that wasn't happening!

Anyway, I figure I can't afford an Apple for her, so I'd build her a PC. Even between me and the guys from the IT dept. here, its rough keeping this stuff straight. I know if I was building one, I'd be going crazy with high end everything, but I'm on a $400ish budget. Any suggestions for parts? I found a nice looking AMD 1.3GHz barebones system for $229 the other day. Has onboard LAN, Video, and Audio. She's not a real power user, so I figured those would be acceptable to her taste. I could find a link to it, if you'd like to see it. It makes no mention of AGP slots, which is a drawback. Here are the specs:

AMD Athlon 1.3GHz Boxed CPU @ 266MHz FSB
* Via KLE Chipset with Socket A Interface
* 2 Dimms slots for up to 1GB of PC-133 Memory
* Built in 2D/3D Video
* 2 PCI; 1 ISA; 1 AMR Slots
* 4 x 5.25" External Bays & 2 X3.5" Internal Bays
* 1.44MB Floppy Drive
* 56k V.90 Fax Modem
* 3D Sound with Wavetable
* 10-100 Mbps Fast Ethernet Card
* UDMA/100 Hard Drive Controller

Doesn't look like tons of expansion, but I don't think she really needs that much expansion either. Just maybe a FireWire card.

Any suggestions?


Thanks a ton!!

Mike D

 

[Duvie]

Make sure that "1.3ghz" is the 266fsb one, since it should be listed at 1.33ghz...you may typed it wrong, but I wanted to be sure...

I think the duron would also be a great option and getting a 1.1ghz duron based on the morgan core gives you a lot of the advancements seen in the mobile duron and xp chips...ie sse codes, reduced power consumption and heat concerns...

A duron seems to fit better in the scheme of that integrated mobo..

 

[boomerang]

I'd like to see the link if you could. I need to build a system for my folks and that looks like a good way to start. Just add a Hard Drive and Memory if I read it correctly.

And an OS too I guess.

 

[jcmkk]

I would suggest just building one from scratch. I think that you should go with a DDR based motherboard. The motherboard that they are using is already atleast a year outdated. You could try the shuttle KT266A based board. They retail for about $80, and pick up a 256MB stick of crucial DDR from Best Buy for $34. You should atleast give yourself a little bit of future proof by going this route.

 

[dsstalmolech]

Hey, im building my first from scratch too, and was wondering if the shuttle ak31 rev.3.1 would be a better board? It also supports DDR. And i think it's about the same price!?! A board for my system is the only hard part to pick, the rest is pretty easy for me! any info would be great....thanks!!!

 

[Go3iverson]

Hey

Thanks for the replies and Emails all, they're appreciated!

Building a system from scratch is tempting, but this board has so much on it. I'm on an even more limited budget, so considering it has onboard video, lan, sound, etc.......saves some decent cash. Although I can't fight my no AGP fears. Also, I kinda like the fact that the board and CPU are all ready to go out of the box.

Mike D