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My friends PC is crapping out on her and is a P.O.S. It only has a 500mhz processor and 128MB RAM...so she wants a cheap alternative to a new computer and I told her she could build her own computer for less or relativly the same price as a DELL or Gateway...She would use the case from her old computer,but everything else would be new...If you could give me some suggestions on compatibility and what would be the best options it would be greatly appreciated! If any other info is needed please tell me...

P.S. Her price range is around 500 but could prolly go to 600...shes not the richest person

Does she already have a moniter? If so I'd say build a machine around a Athlon XP 2500+, they're cheap and you can overclock the crap out of em.
If she doesn't have a moniter she'd probably just be better off getting something from dell or gateway.

Yes she does have a moniter...
Does everything have to be compatible?...I.E. the motherboard,RAM,powersuply,processor,graphics card,harddrive? I know I seem like an idiot but Ive never built a computer...only bought macs so I know nothing about this

pricewatch.com is the best place to get quality componets for cheap
for a athlon xp 2600 with motherboard 512 ram,12x dvd burner,160 gig hard drive , and 9600 graphics card is 361.99 shipped
and there are ways of getting the price down even lower probably sub 200
hope this helps

that cool....but is she going to call you each time something goes wrong with the pc. if that the case she should go with a dell. however if she knows how to handle both hardware and software problems then go with an athlon 2500 and an nvidea an78x deluxe Motherboard

yeah you have to make sure that the ram is right for the motherboard and a cpu has a specific socket to fit into but hard drives are universal for the most part and graphic cards need to be agp if the motherboard has that slot

Just buy a poweredge 400SC server from Dell small business.

pricewatch.com
newegg.com
zipzzoomfly.com

thealternakid....could you provide links to what you mentioned? That would be awesome if you could...Her comp. is so old I dont think she can call anyone about the problems so i dont think shed call me all the time when it had a problem...and she was also thinking of putting linux on it instead of windows

bump

Pm Sent

alternakid is right, there are certain components that need to match up, especially with the mobo. If the HD is SATA then the mobo needs to support SATA. The ram speed needs to be supported by the motherboard's ram slots. The socket on the motherboard has to fit the processor. Almost all motherboards have agp slots now so the video card needs to be agp.

If your friend doesn't do a lot of gaming then you may want to look at an nforce3 based motherboardso that it has the integrated nvidia graphics. I don't know too much about integrated stuff so if anyone else has thoughts on that...

I'm thinking of building a computer myself right now so if you have any specific questions you need answered feel free to instant message me or pm me.

Hello, I currently build PC's and sell them locally through the newspaper. Im looking to get into the online business, and hoping to try to broaden my horizons. Id be willing to build any CAG a PC based on specs or a general overview of what you would be using the PC for. My worksmanship is professional and I only use the best and reputable components. Karma, if you or any other CAGer is interested please PM or IM me. Id be mre than willing to do business with you.