Planning a Budget System would like input

[Kofy]

Hey peoples.. a friend of mine is wanting a "newer" system for home use. She's not into UT or any other games of that nature.. All I want to do is set up something simple so she can go online.. download music, rip CD's, also she enjoys playing at the Java gaming sites... any Ideas? doesnt need to be fancy.. or high tech...

 

[franklin97355]

Dell, Gateway, Compaq, HP, or make your own. Depends on your resourses and expertise.

 

[Kofy]

I can build my own.. she hasnt the funds to purchase new system.. I've some older parts... and some very good stuff to put in.. basically need info as to Mobo, CPU, Mem, and case... and possibly budget vid card if not on Mobo. Thanks in advance for any advice...

 

[TyMeissner]

For "cheap" but up to date computer, I reccomend Tiger Direct's barebones computer kits. I bought a fully assembled AMD Duron based system from them 3 years ago for $800. Last week I bought a barebones clone of this system for $ 160 from tiger. with floppy drive and cables and CD rewriter 128 Mb PC133 memory it totalled $ 220. You should e able to pickup an 80 Gb harddrive for less than $ 75.
The barebones kit includes onboard AC97 sound and AGP video. Memory is cheap. I bought 512 Mb PC133 from Tiger for $ 30. Keyboard and mouse come to another $ 15 or if you prefer the wiresless versions, $ 20.

Ty Meissner

 

[nlm9802]

try dell's refurbished site.. you can get a p4 2+ ghz for as little as 350 with free shipping for a fully built warrantied system.

or you could try ebay.. i've seen tons of sub $200 systems.
after a little searching..

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2750340807&category=31504

a gateway p3 450 Mhz 64 mb ram (128 more is like 15$) 4.3 GB hard drive, cd rom, floppy, kb, mouse, etc. no OS.
buy it now price is 73$ plus $20 shipping.

cdrw can be had for 20-50$, you can find a decent video card, geforce fx5200 is 99$, ati radeon 7500 is around 50 now.

 

[Treeking]

Need maximum amount of investment to be put into system.

For starters(all components used are rated on reliability/stability/compatibility):

Asus mobo
AMD Athlon XP cpu
DDR memory
Enlight mid-tower case/power supply
WD or Maxtor hdd
LiteOn cdrw
LiteOn dvd or cdrom
video card
Mitsumi floppy
Operating System


Model numbers can be determined after you let us know the price ceiling. As much as we hate to suggest it, if you do not want to invest more than $500-$600, you may as well go to Best Buy (or one of those places) and buy a COMPLETE NEW SYSTEM with WARRANTY/Tech Support.

 

[Kofy]

Ok guys... here's a breakdown of what I already have...
PS.. Enlight HPC-250-101 250watt
HD IBM deskstar DPTA-372050 20 gig
3 1/2 floppy Mitsumi D353M3
DVD Pioneer DVD-115GA (Gateway)
CD-RW LITE-ON LTR-52246S 52x24x52x
MODEM Sound Blaster Modem Blaster DI5631 v.92
Generic SC3000D Sound card (Aztec Labs?)
Generic Network card

I've got a couple video cards I can toss in also, but they arent the best quality.
As I stated above this system is to be used for light internet use.. online gaming at P*g* and the like, plus she wants to burn her own CD's... I just need a mobo, CPU, and Case I guess.. Also.. the system will be running Win98 SE