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strredwolfOkay, another geekout moment here. Maximum PC has a PC Hardware guide out now. Hidden on page 50, we have a budget guide -- set below $2000. They reached $1255.
Of course, I don't need a gaming system. Lets try cheaper. Refrence prices from NewEgg, shipping in parenthesis, comments in italics.
CPU: Athlon 64 3000+, a Socket 939 processor, with fan, $149 (+ $0 shipping). Might as well go 64 bits
Mobo: MSI K8N Neo4 (no need for SLI). $55.58 (+$1) refurbished, $82.99 (+$2.50) new and on sale. A difference of about $28 combined.
Vid Card: ASUS EN6200TC128/TD/16M NVidia Geforce 6200TC. $50 (+$2.50) Do I really need SLI? I'm not using the rig to play games!
Case: Antec Solution SLK3800B. $105 (+$18.99) For $4 more I could of gotten the Performance TX640B
Optical Drive: Plextor IDE DVD Burner PX-740A/SW. $90 (+$4) Funny, it burns dual-layer DVD's at 8x, compared to the PX-716A's 6x.
OS: Gentoo Linux (FREE) No duh.
HD: Maxtor DiamondMax 10 Ultra ATA133, 160 Gig. $77 (+$2.99) Do I really need 300 Gigs of HD space? I just need to get FLCL off my HD, and I've reclaimed half the space!
RAM: 2 x Cosair ValueSelect 1 GB DDR 400 - $89.75 (+$3.83) each. About $20 cheaper than what MaxPC said they were, but then at the end, I get 4 half-gig sticks.
So, rounding up to the dollar, that's $697. I've now just saved almost half of what MaxPC did -- and by using NewEgg! Anyone can try for cheaper?
Of course, I don't need a gaming system. Lets try cheaper. Refrence prices from NewEgg, shipping in parenthesis, comments in italics.
CPU: Athlon 64 3000+, a Socket 939 processor, with fan, $149 (+ $0 shipping). Might as well go 64 bits
Mobo: MSI K8N Neo4 (no need for SLI). $55.58 (+$1) refurbished, $82.99 (+$2.50) new and on sale. A difference of about $28 combined.
Vid Card: ASUS EN6200TC128/TD/16M NVidia Geforce 6200TC. $50 (+$2.50) Do I really need SLI? I'm not using the rig to play games!
Case: Antec Solution SLK3800B. $105 (+$18.99) For $4 more I could of gotten the Performance TX640B
Optical Drive: Plextor IDE DVD Burner PX-740A/SW. $90 (+$4) Funny, it burns dual-layer DVD's at 8x, compared to the PX-716A's 6x.
OS: Gentoo Linux (FREE) No duh.
HD: Maxtor DiamondMax 10 Ultra ATA133, 160 Gig. $77 (+$2.99) Do I really need 300 Gigs of HD space? I just need to get FLCL off my HD, and I've reclaimed half the space!
RAM: 2 x Cosair ValueSelect 1 GB DDR 400 - $89.75 (+$3.83) each. About $20 cheaper than what MaxPC said they were, but then at the end, I get 4 half-gig sticks.
So, rounding up to the dollar, that's $697. I've now just saved almost half of what MaxPC did -- and by using NewEgg! Anyone can try for cheaper?
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Date: 2005-08-30 03:53 am (UTC)My new (and presently unworking) desktop cost about $2000. It was built for gaming though. But, yeah. For a budget machine, you've got a pretty nice setup there. I'd think about upgrading to a 3500+, and I'd go with a motherboard that supports DDR2 and PCI-E, if you intend to upgrade (I'm feeling lazy and don't really want to look up that board). Also... I'd go with at least 64 MB of VRAM, and more if you ever intend to do 3D rendering (which I doubt, but none the less :D). Of course, if you're not going to do anything that involves a GUI, it'd be pointless to drop in a big card. So, yeah, two cents.