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what should i toss into her $700 workstation?

T

Type-R

Senior member
i'm building a computer for a friend of mine (she needs a new computer hers sucks! 233mhz compaq laptop!) she doesnt use it but for normal browsing, typing, email, typical workstation stuff. do you guys have any idea of what I should put into it? the budget for the computer itself is $700 without the monitor and speakers because i want to get a flat panel display.

she's not a big girl so i want it to be relatively lightweight, too, and i seriously doubt she will be buying another computer for another 3-4 years. freakflag thought this might be a good combo:

$65 - ECS K7S5A MB - I've built 4 systems with this mb. It has integrated sound and 10/100 LAN.
$58 - AMD Duron 1.2ghz - If she's not doing anything graphics intensive, why spend extra $ on an XP?
$85-$100 -256mb of good PC2100 DDR RAM - I recommend Corsair
$83 -Seagate Baracuda IV 40gb ata100 7200RPM HD- Fast, Reliable and Quiet.
$64 -Enlight 7237 Case with 300 watt power supply
$43 -ATI Expert 2000 Pro video card- Good 2D quality with high refresh rates...easier on the eyes.
$79 -Lite-On 32x12x40 CDRW- Same internals as a Plextor...basically the best on the market
$12 - Generic floppy
-------------------------


It's going to be used as her primary computer for between 3 and 5 years, so I kind of need something fast. If there's a really pretty case that's a little heavier i'd be interested in that. Should I overclock? Should I get an XP? I know some processors are geared for gaming and some for utilities, but I don't know what is what. Help would be appreciated. 🙂
 
all looks great, does that duron have a 100mhz FSB (i thought they all did), i suppose you could get away with PC1800 DDR, not sure if thats a big price difference or what.
 


<< Most Duron mobos let you run the RAM at 133MHz regardless of the FSB; stick with the PC2100. >>


ok cool, wasnt sure about that.


<< Everything looks good, but I would consider the Radeon 32 MB DDR for $39 instead of that Expert 2000 Pro. It's cheaper and better in every way. >>


cool, looks like you found your video card Type-R 😉
 
the problem i have with that duron is it's so damn slow. i dunno what processor to use, though, but it needs to last a good 3-4 years, you know?

another thing i was thinking about would be to go with a pentium (lower temp) and get a motherboard where she could put a p4 2.2 or something into it in a couple years with no problem. anyone have any ideas? i am going to ask her if she would rather have this setup with a 17" lcd instead

zaki
 
Why not get a lower clocked Athlon XP for like $40 more or so. The cheapest pentium IVs are 1.6a ($130ish) with a decent overclocking good ($110, Asus p4s533) which is a bit more than an Athlon XP combo, but would probably yield a bit more performance. One good thing about a P4 solution is that the fan is considerably quieter (you might even want to consider replacing the stock XP fan if noise is an issue... some people I know are really anal about it) and it can overclock easily with stock items.

$43 -ATI Expert 2000 Pro video card- Good 2D quality with high refresh rates...easier on the eyes.
I think that could use a replacement... ATI Radeons are only slightly more expensive and outperform it in every imaginable way. If she does no gfx and has a good monitor, then you might want to consider a Matrox G400 or G450, which is less than that.
 


<< the problem i have with that duron is it's so damn slow. i dunno what processor to use, though, but it needs to last a good 3-4 years, you know?

another thing i was thinking about would be to go with a pentium (lower temp) and get a motherboard where she could put a p4 2.2 or something into it in a couple years with no problem. anyone have any ideas? i am going to ask her if she would rather have this setup with a 17" lcd instead

zaki >>


what? a 1.2Ghz duron is SLOW?
 
yeah i'm leaning a little more towards a pentium chip, but the more i look into it the more it looks like i wouldn't be overclocking. the 1.2ghz is alright now, but in a couple years it'll be really slow. i was hoping to be able to get a really nice workstation for $700 but maybe i'll need to settle for a bit less.

if overclocking isn't an option, should i stick with an athlon?
 
If you are not going to overclock, I would go with an AMD cpu. You get more performance for the money. I would suggest a larger hard drive.

Amazing! An 1.2 gHz cpu is not fast enough!
 
How about this for a workstation?

MSI MS-6533-GL (MS-6533 6533-010) SiS 650 DDR 400MHz FSB Socket 478 Micro-ATX RETAIL 90$ (Onboard LAN and sound, just like K7S5A) ~95$....
OR P4S333-VM (same price) (From atacom)

P4 1.6A 130$

Onboard video and audio

You are seriously getting gouged for that RAM!!!
256MB Samung DDR 2700~70$.

$64 -Enlight 7237 Case with 300 watt power supply double check to make sure it's P4 compatible

$79 -Lite-On 32x12x40 CDRW- Same internals as a Plextor...basically the best on the market

$83 -Seagate Baracuda IV 40gb ata100 7200RPM HD- Fast, Reliable and Quiet. ahh.. the silence...

12$ generic floppy..

Add on 50$ shipping.. since most of this is comming from new egg.

Oh look.. the price only really went up 20$ or 30$..

Well, what are you waiting for? Praise me! 😉


You've got your Pentium4 workstation running at 1.6GHZ upgradable to 2.4 in the future for 600$..
note:Has AGP slot, so video is upgradable. Pretty decent 2D speed.




 
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