Low Budget Processor/Computer

[hackmole]

Has anyone ever figured out what the cheapest price for the best quality computer might be.

Is there anything wrong with the Celeron processor for a good cheap computer. I'd like to put together a system for under $200. Newegg sells a 1.7ghz Celeron for $45 and a 2.0ghz Celeron for $85. I could probably get a motherboard for them for around $60 and then just use my extra hard drives, cd rom and floppy though I'd still have to buy some ram and maybe a power supply box since mine is only 250 watts or maybe 300.

Newegg sells these below:

Intel Celeron (Pentium 4 based) 1.7GHz 128K 400MHz FSB mPGA 478 Pin Processor Retail Box Version
Specifications:
CPU:1.7 GHz
Type: Celeron
Cache: 128K
BUS: 400MHz
Socket: 478 (mPGA) Retail (Box with Heatsink and fan) Free FedEx Saver Shipping $45.



Intel Celeron 2.0 GHz 128K 400MHz FSB mPGA-478, Retail Box
Specifications:
CPU: 2.0GHz
Type: Celeron
Cache: 128K
BUS: 400MHz
Socket mPGA-478
Retail Box
Package Type FCPGA2
Retail Box (With Heatsink and Fan)Free FedEx Saver Shipping more info> $85

 

[KingofFah]

What are you buying? Just a mobo and CPU?
Buy an AMD XP and a cheap mobo. (Epox 8K3A is 66$, XP 1700 is 58$, HCC-002 HSF 22$)
If you get a something like that, you can overclock the setup a fair amount (easily to XP 2000+).

I am sure one of the pentium people could also give you a mobo, cpu, and hsf for under 200$.

Give the exact model of your PSU.

 

[hackmole]

PSU is a Dell
Model No. PS-5201-50
DC Output is 200w

 

[BigJ]

If i was you I'd go for the XP as well. Celerons = severely neutered.

 

[KingofFah]

ROFL, omg that is the perfect term for them. I always say stripped down p4's, but now I have a good term for them. Neutered, hehe.
Replace PSU with a sparkle 350w, 48$ w/s&h at newegg. If you are not going to overclock, get the 65$ 1700 Tbred from newegg, since it has a hsf. If you want to push it, get hcc-002 for 22$ (was in a top-ten for cooling at dansdata and was the cheapest of them all). It will take care of the cooler tbred core.

 

[o1die]

I recommend the 1.8a ( retail boxed about $143) with a refurbished board from newegg. They had my asus p4s533 down to $49, but are out of stock now. Only problem is lack of cd drivers or cables sometimes. You can download the drivers off the internet, and probably have some extra cables laying around somewhere. I found a good cheap power supply at dealsonic. It's an L&C 350 watt single fan for only $17.95 shipped. It's very quiet and the readings are excellent. Reviewed at Mikhailtech.

 

[WTT0001]

Watch it and double check that PSU, Later Dell ones have a different pin-out and will fry your Motherboard.

The Above may or may not apply to you, but a warning anyway.

WTT

 

[Soulkeeper]

yeah don't waste yur money on a P4 or celeron setup
AMD has the budget price/performance market covered right now
get an xp 1700+ or 1800+

cheaper than a comparable P4 and will stomp on a P4 celeron all day

 

[Blain]

Budget = Soyo 815EP MB & Celeron 950
Total = $73 + shipping

Oh, you want a review on the $31 MB?

 

[Jhhnn]

Nice deal, Blain. Tough to beat for a basic internet/office app box... And if the pinouts on hackmole's psu are right, it'll work just fine, too....

 

[Jeff7181]

Normally I'd say "why would you want a Celeron for $45 when you can get an Athlon XP1700 for $57? But the answer is in the motherboard... there's not many cheap AMD motherboards. There are some, you can find em from Tiger Direct, they're the crappy ones that use Pc133 SDRAM rather than DDR SDRAM. But you're still gonna end up paying over $100 for it. So if you're looking for a purely budget computer, and don't care about how fast Windows boots, or don't care if you can play games... look for stuff such as this...

1.3 Ghz Celeron Complete System minus monitor This comes with Windows XP Home... a $100 value

1.3 Ghz Duron Complete System with Lindows included This comes with Lindows, a Linux OS that looks and feels like Windows... since Lindows is cheaper than Windows, they give you a much better CPU here.

If you have your own Operating System, you could forget about Lindows and just install your OS on it... and for $230, you can't beat this computer. That Celeron system wouldn't be able to touch that Duron system of equal Mhz. The Duron one has a smaller hard drive, but hey... if you really need more storage than that, get a CDRW drive to put stuff on, or check out a 40 gig hard drive or somethin. Around here, Best Buy has a Western Digital 60 GB drive for $60 after rebates, and Circuit City has one of the best Western Digital 80 GB drives for only $80... it's the Caviar Special Edition drive with 8 MB cache! That's a steal!!!

 

[Snoop]

Normally I'd say "why would you want a Celeron for $45 when you can get an Athlon XP1700 for $57? But the answer is in the motherboard... there's not many cheap AMD motherboards. There are some, you can find em from Tiger Direct, they're the crappy ones that use Pc133 SDRAM rather than DDR SDRAM. But you're still gonna end up paying over $100 for it. So if you're looking for a purely budget computer, and don't care about how fast Windows boots, or don't care if you can play games... look for stuff such as this...

????
Heres a link to newegg, all DDR boards, starting at $45.

You could pick up a nice K7s5a, which supports both DDR and SDRAM, for 57 dollars free shipping.
Cheap AMD boards

Further, you would have to have bricks for brains to order anything from the scumbags at Tiger Direct.

 

[kmmatney]

I've built several systems using the BIOSTAR M7VKQ motherboard for $53 from NewEgg. Its got decent built-in LAN and Video. and takes cheap SDRAM. They've been very stable, controlling lab equipment 24/7, using 250 watt PSUs. Couple that with a $57 Athlon XP and you'll have a nice system.