Possible to build a decent computer for under $400

[777php]

My GF's coworker wants me to build her a computer for $400 or under. She wants at least a 1Ghz, 256MB Ram, DVD-Rom, CD-RW, 20GB hard drive, 56k modem, and a decent video card, at least a GeForce2 w/ 32 MB.

Have any of you done this before? I said that I would try but, I couldn't guarantee anything. I want to go with an AMD cpu and a KT266A mobo but with the price of DDR RAM and the fact that she wants a CD-RW I think it's going to be pretty difficult.

What do you guys think? Any suggestions?

 

[datalink7]

Might be possible. Keep on eye open on the Hot Deals forums.

 

[Kelvrick]

So... You like her? She look good and knows she does? Thats a big list to give to someone.

case = 50
cpu = 40
motherboard = 50
256ram = 65
dvd = 50
cd-rw = 70
20gb = 70
56k = 15
vid card = 50?

Quick of newegg:

Maxtop CSX-917K with 350 PS ~~39
Lite-On 16x DVD ~~ 49 * you can probably get like an 8x in the forsale forum for cheaper
ThermalTake Vocalno 5 ~~ 8
Panasonic 1.44 floppy ~~ 8
Maxtor 20gb 5400 ~~59
Corsair 256 pc133 ~~59
Diamond SupraMax 56k ~~17
ECS K7S5A SiS 735 ~~52
AMD Duron 1ghz ~~52
Visiontek Xtasy 5632 geforce 2 gts ~~49

Total of 394. You can get some cheaper parts in the hot deals and forsale/trade forums. No burner yet, but if she's that hot....

EDIT: Yep, it'll be illegal all right. Can't get no OS with the leftoever 6 bucks.

EDIT2: I read it as a girl gave you this list. Tell him to fvck off. Unless its your GF's boss or something. If I were you, I'd tell her to get him to ask himself. Have some balls at least. Stupid punks who think guys like us do this for fun. God damn this foo just aim'ed me. Always talking computers when he doesn't know crap. So annoying. I tell him to go read but he's too lazy. God damn, not a good day. Talking to my best friend and what she's telling me isn't exactly getting me into a good mood.

EDIT3: Agree with Baffled2. NEVER EVER BUILD A COMP FOR ANYONE. Unless you like em. Doesn't matter if they're your friend or whatever. They'll call you up constantly. *remembering instances gets me into a worse mood*.

 

[djheater]

Monitor?

It can be done but you may have to wait 6mo to accumulate the right deals...

I built my sis-in-law a $500:
Duron 950
ECS K7S5A
380 Mb DDR
30 gig
32Mb DDR GForce2 GTS
with
Scanner & Color Printer & Trinitron 17" ......

I was personally amazed I was able to accrue those deals... then she freaking moves to Scotland and won't bring it because she says it costs to much to import.... whatever...

 

[djheater]

BTW I'd bet it'd be impossible to do legally... can't license all the software for that price....

 

[audiophan]

just built a system for that price, using the hot deals forum though

kt133mb/400watt psu/case w/free 56k modem upgrade
$80
512mb pc133 ram from fs/ft forum
$80
16x cd-rw
$50
40gb quality hdd
$70

include shipping and thats $300 already, i had a 800mHz chip and a vid card, plus i used win98se as the os

g/l with what your trying to do, if you can get a ddr system with everything you wanted for $400 throw me a pm, i can always find $ for great deals

 

[aphex]

I built a 950mhz Duron w/ 12x CDRW and Windows XP for $380

Lemme go grab some info where i got it all from and ill post it here... Granted some of the parts were specials, but if ya wait a month, you can usually get some dirt cheap stuff...

 

[CocaCola5]

The floppy, modem, case+300w is $100. The drives, hdd, cdrw, dvd is another $200. $100 for a Morgan Duron/Celeron 3, 256mb, and mobo, good luck.

 

[Red Dawn]

I'd tell him no.. no make that "Hell No!" Those kind of deals should be reserved for yourself, family anf close friends not some Coworker with a tight Spichnter

 

[RossMAN]

It's definitely possible assuming she has already has a monitor and OS.

If she doesn't have a monitor there's a Philips 17" for $89 after rebate.

 

[Geekbabe]

<< My GF's coworker wants me to build her a computer for $400 or under. She wants at least a 1Ghz, 256MB Ram, DVD-Rom, CD-RW, 20GB hard drive, 56k modem, and a decent video card, at least a GeForce2 w/ 32 MB.

Have any of you done this before? I said that I would try but, I couldn't guarantee anything. I want to go with an AMD cpu and a KT266A mobo but with the price of DDR RAM and the fact that she wants a CD-RW I think it's going to be pretty difficult.

What do you guys think? Any suggestions? >>



Remember, if you build it and accept money for it, then you MUST support it,including end user created issues. That isn't anywhere near enough money for the kinds of potential headaches you'll be having to say nothing of the possible ill feelings it could generate at the primary job.

 

[GasX]

I agree with Red Dawn. Your GF's coworker (do you even know her?) wants you to spend hours surfing the net for good deals and build her a computer for $400? You better get some a large number of blow jobs as compensation for your efforts.

 

[stev0]

Well... i can be done, just have to shop around quite a bit. She might not need all that stuff though anyway. Does she really need that dvd player? I put one in just about all of the systems that I build for myself, and I've only actually used it as a dvd player once or twice and in only one computer. Does she really need a 1ghz system? What exactly is she going to be doing? If it is just for typing, making cd's downloading music, surfing the web then she really dosen't need a 1ghz system, same thing goes for the ram, 128 would be plenty if that is all she is going to do with it. And is she going to be playing games? If not you could save some money on a video card as well.

here is what I would do:
1ghz duron
some motherboard (i'm really not up to speed with them)
a liteon 24x cdrw that could double as a cdrom when needed
56k modem, usually can be had from bestbuy, they have sales where they are free with a MIR
128 or 192 megs or ram (maybe 256megs depending on what she is doing)
GF2 mx200
20gig hd
sound? probably a basic turtle beach card
case, enlight all the way

What about the montier? keyboard/mouse? djheater has a point, windows os isn't cheap

 

[777php]

Thanks guys, she has an OS already and an old monitor she will be using. I forgot to mention that she wants at least a t-bird so durons are not an option.

I was thinking of a shuttle AK31-A mobo and
1 GHZ T-bird
256 some generic DDR Ram/ I could also go PC133 SDRAM

Plus gateway is having a $50 off of $200 promotion thingy going on I could pick up some things there. I know that getting a t-bird and a kt266-a mobo changes things but she wants a PIII equivalent.

 

[777php]

I agree with Red Dawn. Your GF's coworker (do you even know her?) wants you to spend hours surfing the net for good deals and build her a computer for $400?

Yeah, I doubt they understand how much work is going to go into this, I'm getting a little annoyed but, she's a nice girl and I want to be nice to her.

You better get some a large number of blow jobs as compensation for your efforts.

Bwahaha...thats funny.

 

[LordThing]

Jeesh, awful picky. Must have this, must have that. Cripse! If you want a budget PC then you will have to do budget parts. You can't do friggin magic and build a $800 PC for less than half.

I built a duron ghz machine just a month ago for less than 290. Pretty much everything you said, but re-used a burner, dvd drive, and video card that I already had. You are going to be very hard pressed to pull something like that out of your @ss and use non-used parts.


I would go with the ECS K75SA (the sis 735 board) because its the cheapest. Your real problem is that with a decent harddrive, cdrw(at least 20speed), dvd drive, and ram, you are pushing towards 200 bucks. Heck, ram is going to run you around 80 now for DDR isn't it?

And I fully agree with not building it. I had this happen last month right after i built my lil' sisters machine. My GF blabbed about it at work and I had 4 requests to build them machine's for the same price. One friggin guy even asked if I could throw in a Flat pannel monitor for about the same price!

I know we are nerds and kinda like doing this, but its going to be a pain to build and get it running. And I don't care how much they say they wont, they will be asking you for help or whatever when something goes wrong. If they knew enough to do their own tech support, then they could build it themselves. If you still want to please your GF and keep yourself out of the loop of building it, just do a little research and send them an e-mail pointing them to the hot deals. Let them do the footwork and build it if they want it.


Edit : Double Negative

 

[Geekbabe]

<< I agree with Red Dawn. Your GF's coworker (do you even know her?) wants you to spend hours surfing the net for good deals and build her a computer for $400?

Yeah, I doubt they understand how much work is going to go into this, I'm getting a little annoyed but, she's a nice girl and I want to be nice to her.

You better get some a large number of blow jobs as compensation for your efforts.

Bwahaha...thats funny. >>



the pangs of annoyance you are feeling now are merely warning you of what is yet to come !! sigh.. why must everybody learn the hard way that people value and respect your time only in direct proportion to how much they've got to pay you for it ?

 

[Aceman]

Hmmmm, I just spent the following to build a co-worker a computer:

Case w/300W $39 (Newegg Refurb)
ECS K7S5A $45 (FS/FT Forum)
1.2ghz T-bird $70 (FS/FT Forum)
HS/Fan $8 (Cyber Cooler Buy 1 get one free)
40Gig 7200RPM $69 (Newegg Refurb)
256mb DDR 2100 $50 (FS/FT Forum)
Geforce2 MX200 32mb $35 (Newegg Refurb)
16X DVD Drive $35 (Newegg Refurb)
12X8X32 CDRW $40 (After $15 MIR Outpost.com)
56K Modem $15 (FS/FT Forum)
Floppy $10 (local comp. shop)
Total: $416

Total time to get all of these deals: Past 2-3 weeks

 

[Red Dawn]

<< , I'm getting a little annoyed but, she's a nice girl and I want to be nice to her >>

Not half as annoyed as you are going to be. Trust me, I've been there done that bought the Tshirt. She has no concept of how big a favor you are doing for her. Because of that she will not be as grateful for the favor you did as she should and when she complains about a problem (which probably will be user caused) her ignorance and seemingly ungrateful attitude will change her from a nice girl into an "Ungrateful Bitch"

 

[illusion88]

yeah i think it would. It would be hard if you wanted to get a nice case or good cooling. And hopefully she has a monitor all ready.

 

[Jimbo]

Building this computer is a BIG mistake.
First, you make no money.
Second, the support calls from this girl are going to kill you if she is annoying now. Just wait until after she hands you money and watch her get really friendly if even the dumbest thing goes wrong, even if she causes it.
Send her to Gateway. Make her their headache.
Prediction: You WILL BE the warrenty for all of her parts if ANYTHING goes wrong with the, EVER!
If you don't listen to me, listen to REDAWN. Do not do this job.

 

[djheater]

<< the pangs of annoyance you are feeling now are merely warning you of what is yet to come !! sigh.. why must everybody learn the hard way that people value and respect your time only in direct proportion to how much they've got to pay you for it ? >>



Granted it may be true, but I'm having trouble supporting that assertion. Sounds like someone is harboring a little resentment from negative past experience

Baffled does have a point though... consider yourself warned.....

 

[kt]

unless you are taking this as a challenge, i would say go with everyone else's recommendation.. stay away!

 

[neovan]

<< Building this computer is a BIG mistake.
First, you make no money.
Second, the support calls from this girl are going to kill you if she is annoying now. Just wait until after she hands you money and watch her get really friendly if even the dumbest thing goes wrong, even if she causes it.
Send her to Gateway. Make her their headache.
Prediction: You WILL BE the warrenty for all of her parts if ANYTHING goes wrong with the, EVER!
If you don't listen to me, listen to REDAWN. Do not do this job. >>


Agreed! The tech support will drive you crazy!

 

[Red Dawn]

<< Granted it may be true, but I'm having trouble supporting that assertion. Sounds like someone is harboring a little resentment from negative past experience >>

If it's true then why are you having a problem supporting that assertation? You have a problem supporting the truth?