Cheapass Computer

[Hunter55]

hey guys

im gonna be gettin a pc soon an im on a budget Somethin say 500 or less. Whats the best deal??

[Ivanhoe]

can u build it yourself?

i would say look for bare bones systems on ebay or pricewatch.com
usually coms with case,motherboard and cpu already assembled.
the rest you buy on pricewatch/re use from your current pc.




i dont know anyone who actually goes and buys puters at retail stores etc unles its there first computer thus not having a clue about them and/or not having internet access to be able to get much better deals online.

[jaykrue]

If you build it, they will come... sorry, couldn't resist the Kevin Costner 'Field of Dreams' reference

[ajh2298]

hey guys

im gonna be gettin a pc soon an im on a budget Somethin say 500 or less. Whats the best deal??

Here's one its pretty good but theres a rebate.

[EggViper]

hey guys

im gonna be gettin a pc soon an im on a budget Somethin say 500 or less. Whats the best deal??

Here's one its pretty good but theres a rebate.

where? i dont c it

[alongx]

also check www.newegg.com, www.zipzoomfly.com or www.tigerdirect.com for some decent prices on CPU/RAM/drives, etc.
i have been searching for cheap(er) mini-itx cases or boards, but can't find anything anywhere. if only i wasn't so mechanically disenclined, i'd just go out and buy some plastic and metal and build my own case - mini-itx and nano-itx machines can be so sweet. check www.mini-itx.com.

[mcwilliams132]

check out http://www.z-buy.com/ too

[scuba]

can u build it yourself?

i would say look for bare bones systems on ebay or pricewatch.com
usually coms with case,motherboard and cpu already assembled.
the rest you buy on pricewatch/re use from your current pc.




i dont know anyone who actually goes and buys puters at retail stores etc unles its there first computer thus not having a clue about them and/or not having internet access to be able to get much better deals online.

I bought my computer from dell 8)

Cheap too it was like 450 including 256 ram, 17 inch monitor, 40 hard drive, 2.4ghz, dvd burner, cd burner, floppy etc.

It wasn't that bad of a deal.

[ajh2298]

hey guys

im gonna be gettin a pc soon an im on a budget Somethin say 500 or less. Whats the best deal??

Here's one its pretty good but theres a rebate.

where? i dont c it

OOPS, forgot to hit paste, http://www.slickdeals.net/#p4455

[Troopa]

Get a cheap Dell. Complete system for less than $500. And it's the best brand, a Dell!

[Medium_Pimpin]

Dell is a good way to go, most non 'l337' people i know that use them are plenty satisfied.

Building a system by component is similar to building an audio system by component.

[danh920]

just watch out, if you plan on playing any games you're going to want something with an agp slot for a better video card, I've seen some good deals on the dell 4600 in their small business section which has an agp slot. The 2400 will not have an agp.

[Ivanhoe]

"Building a system by component is similar to building an audio system by component. "

How do you figure?

[sameer]

i'd build it myself

[Hunter55]

well, i saw some deals on emachines and compaqs.....wny ideads on the 2 brands...how do they compare?

[WeaponX2099]

emachines are like a 75 pinto. It just barely get the job done. Compaqs are ok.

[ilovemyapplesduh]

I will build it for parts +10% for my time.

[Minger]

I'd tell you to just look at Dell's comps in the small business dept...theres a 2.6 ghz P4 one for $400...

[jaykrue]

Cheap but decent quality ATX case ~ $50 (maybe even cheaper (got a chieftec dragon server case for that much @ newegg.com)

Athlon 2500+ Barton core: $80 (w/ the asus board, it can be easily overclocked to a 3200+ simply by changing the bus to 400 *mine ACTUALLY came this way already so all I had to do was install the cpu - bam! instant 3200+ * )

Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe mobo: $112 ($109 RIGHT NOW - 1 day sale newegg.com)

Crucial 256mb ddr ram pc3200: $60 per stick (I'd personally get the Corsair XMS series but you're on a budget)

Chaintech GeForce4 TI4200 8x agp video card, 128MB DDR, 128-bit, DVI/VIVO: $138 (decent video card but there might be better...dunno since I always go top o' da line for this)

Turtle Beach Santa Cruz sound card: $40 (I'd go w/ the Audigy 2 Z gamer one being offered on front of the CAG website if you have some $$$ to spare or sb live 5.1 for $20 if you wanna go ultra cheap)

Total price:

$ 50
$ 80
$112
$ 60
$138
$ 40
------
$480 (w/o monitor of course)

I think this is a decent setup for the price you want and I think it's fairly comparable to anything you can get from Dell. There might be better Dell deals but I get more satisfaction out of building them myself

[msdmoney]

Cheap but decent quality ATX case ~ $50 (maybe even cheaper (got a chieftec dragon server case for that much @ newegg.com)

Athlon 2500+ Barton core: $80 (w/ the asus board, it can be easily overclocked to a 3200+ simply by changing the bus to 400 *mine ACTUALLY came this way already so all I had to do was install the cpu - bam! instant 3200+ * )

Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe mobo: $112 ($109 RIGHT NOW - 1 day sale newegg.com)

Crucial 256mb ddr ram pc3200: $60 per stick (I'd personally get the Corsair XMS series but you're on a budget)

Chaintech GeForce4 TI4200 8x agp video card, 128MB DDR, 128-bit, DVI/VIVO: $138 (decent video card but there might be better...dunno since I always go top o' da line for this)

Turtle Beach Santa Cruz sound card: $40 (I'd go w/ the Audigy 2 Z gamer one being offered on front of the CAG website if you have some $$$ to spare or sb live 5.1 for $20 if you wanna go ultra cheap)

Total price:

$ 50
$ 80
$112
$ 60
$138
$ 40
------
$480 (w/o monitor of course)

I think this is a decent setup for the price you want and I think it's fairly comparable to anything you can get from Dell. There might be better Dell deals but I get more satisfaction out of building them myself

I agree with most of your choices... one change is a hard drive... you forgot to include one. I would get around 80 gigs, would cost you about 80 bucks

I would also ditch the sound card and just use the onboard sound for your budget. The Asus motherboard uses the nforce chipset (soundstorm sound) which is considered the best onboard sound generally.

Also the video card is old and overpiced because it isnt manufactured anymore. It is a last generation dx8 card. I would go with a 9600 pro on your budget, not only does it perform much better but its cheaper. This is a good choice from newegg:

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-102-291&depa=0

Dont know if you need a cdrw/dvd.

[jaykrue]

msdmoney: thanx for catching that... I had a nagging feeling I was missing something =P and that video card you mentioned looks pretty good, I might pick one up for my mom's computer (I built one for her using an old gf2 mx200)

and for budget CD burner:

Liteon 52x32x52 for $31 (beige) or $32 (black)

and/or DVD ROM:

Liteon 16x for $30.50 (beige) or $31.50 (black)

and/or combo CD burner/DVDROM:

Liteon 52x32x52x16 for $50 (beige) or $50.50 (black)

but if you've got some extra $$$ you can go all plextor but Liteon IMO works well enough

so if you include the 80g hard drive for $80 plus whatever disk media reader minus the sound card you choose you're now looking at:

$440 $440
$ 80 $ 80
$ 30 $ 50
------ -------
$550 min to $570 max

[Gibraltor]

If you have a Fry's nearby, wait for a sale and buy a motherboard cpu combo for ~120 . Fry's deals ends up giving you the motherboard for free. And most of the time they have some overclocking ability too!

[jaykrue]

Man, I wish there were some Fry's around here... I don't think there are any in chicago =(

[Cactuar]

http://www.techtv.com/screensavers/products/story/0,24330,3598882,00.html

[Mr. Anderson]

Heh. My moms friend (owns a PC store) is building me a 700 dollar computer for 300. Wheee!