Who's up for a challenge?

[desy]

So my boss is complaining his PC is a mess cause his son has been "workin" on it. I say bring it in I'll look at .. . . . .
So Frankenstein arrives.
It is
Packard Bell case with hacked power connector to get the BH6 in
AB BH6 PII 400
Voodoo 5500
1-256mb 2-128mb which he can't get the one 128 to work in the third slot
IBM 10 gig deskstar
Fujitsu 46 gig
basic sound
Sony DVD
LG burner

He wants two working computers with a budget of $400
So my plan is to buy two new cases new MB MSI K7T pro integrated snd and Athalon proc approx 1 gig put the 46 gig Fuji DVD and Burner in it and the Voodoo card add WinME
He wants soemthing reliable and he is an "Email user" so . .. .
Recycle his BH6 Bios version 1.0a? with PII 400 put in one of the 128 mb sticks IBM 10 gig drive, new case buy a TNT M64 and use the old snd card and add basic 52X cdrom add winME. I've added all the extra bits KB mouse etc and I should be able to do this in Budget.

Is the Voodoo card 5500 worth salvaging? They own it and the budget is tight but how much finnese is this going to take? Or is there a better MB I picked the MSI cause its in stock from my supplier with good reviews.
My other choices are Atrend, Biostar, FIC, or Asus but the Asus would put me outa budget.

Am I missing anything??

 

[Electric Amish]

The Voodoo 5500 should be a relatively nice card. Keep it.

amish

 

[majewski9]

Are you sure about getting the MSI board! you can get the ECS k75SA for 62$ and it has intergrated snd and network!

 

[desy]

So the Voodoo still should work OK?
I thought they were finicky? Is there a site for a bios flash for the Voodoo and more current drivers?

I'd buy ECS but my supplier doesn't carry that one just ones I mentioned
so a KT133a chipset was all I was looking for "the MSI wasn't the Pro board, its the K7T turbo" Of the ones I listed I figured the MSI was the best bet for the money considering all the pc133 memory he's got? Lan cards are free with high speed internet hookup here so no integrated lan really needed, it does have the integrated AC97 sound.
The M64 should work fine in the BH6 too right? should I be flashing the Bios? sounds like the first release of Bios?

The floppy drive isn't even mounted to the case but flopping about :Q
The IBM hard drive is mounted upside down :frown:

 

[Transistor]

I would keep the Voodoo 5 5500. I don't own one, but from what I hear, they still work fine. You won't be able to find a better vid card on a $200/pc budget anyway.

 

[LordOfAll]

Hmmm.
Just doing some guess work here. Sounds like he is buying.

2 cases. $70
MSI MB. $100
Processor $70
CPU fan $10
TNT $20
CDROM $30
KM&mouse $20

(all prices are guesses)

This comes out to $320

Assuming you are doing this with no labor charges at all how are you getting 2 win ME licences for $80?

 

[desy]

A duron is $70 I'm gonna spend $100 on a Athalon, can't get it cheaper than that here "Canada"
The TNT2 M64 32mb is $40 is that wack? Every thing else is about right cept I'm getting an MS optical mouse that bout $20 by itself.
One copy of ME he owns the other 'cough' I'll leave to his son's discresion.

 

[dowxp]

not to be bugging, but its athlon, not athalon.

 

[smp]

 

[ku]

why not get a cheap mobo that has integrated sound and video and save the money?