Building a computer

[Scott B]

Hello:biggrin:
At the end of the year, I will probably be building a new computer with birthday money and stuff. I was hoping someone would help me compile a list of good parts. My budget is going to be ~$375-$400, and I will probably just move my old hard drive to my new computer.

I will give 50 credits to anyone who contributes to this thread:biggrin:

 

[Spartan Erik]

Hmmm.. well do you plan on gaming with it? Will it be a media center? Basically what do you plan on using the computer for?

 

[Scott B]

maybe both, I was just wondering the best possible combination of hardware with $400 =]

 

[cowctcat]

Well you could scrap your old compputer and use its parts if it has any good ones thats free!!!~!

 

[pasacom]

Well, I have built my own computer before and I love it and can give you some recommendations.

Get a Dual Core compatible motherboard. The one I have is the Kn8-sli motherboard.by Abit and it is compatible with AMD Anthlon Dual Core processors. Together it was about $130.

In either case, make sure you have a mobo that supports PCI x16 connections because you want a good, new video card.

I'm not sure what you're doing about the case but there's honestly nothing much that is different in cases. Just make sure you get one that allows good ventilation as heat is a computer's worst enemy. Fans are a must and you should have a wind current flowing through the front and out the back.

Power supplies: You should get one that has more than one 12 volt rail. The rails are basically different circuits so you don't overload on one rail. Mine is a 650 watt Power supply and it has modular cabling (which means you can select the cables you need and plug those in without having a bunch of clutter from other, unnecessary cables)

RAM is up to you... Just get a least 1GB

Video Cards:
Go on newegg.com and look at their video cards. Find the ones with good reviews. Those people who review them generally have good expert advice about video cards. Get at least 256mb of ram on the video card.

CD/DVD: These drives are up to you.

Goodluck!

I strongly urge you to use newegg.com as a priority source for buying things. They have the BEST prices and the reviews are really helpful in deciding what's best.
:drool:

 

[Ainokea]

$400 isn't much to work with I would recommend building a computer that can be easily upgraded as you get more money.

I would agree and get a dual core cpu, you could try and overclocking for a few faster mhz.

When you buy ram I doubt you'll be able to afford 1 gig or ram. So check how many slots you have on your motherboard plus if its dual channel ram. I would buy like 512 than later upgrade to 1 gig. Well then again I'm not too sure about building budget computers.

Dont forget OS unless using old, this adds up. If you really need to you dont need a case, yay better ventilation just make a makeshift one. But be sure not to smash your parts to bits... I would recommend buying OEM's as there are much cheaper but only come with limited manufacturers warrentys.

 

[Livewire]

$400 isn't much to work with I would recommend building a computer that can be easily upgraded as you get more money.

I would agree and get a dual core cpu, you could try and overclocking for a few faster mhz.

When you buy ram I doubt you'll be able to afford 1 gig or ram. So check how many slots you have on your motherboard plus if its dual channel ram. I would buy like 512 than later upgrade to 1 gig. Well then again I'm not too sure about building budget computers.

Dont forget OS unless using old, this adds up. If you really need to you dont need a case, yay better ventilation just make a makeshift one. But be sure not to smash your parts to bits... I would recommend buying OEM's as there are much cheaper but only come with limited manufacturers warrentys.

Yeah, $400's limited, but there is a shortcut: jack as many pieces as you can from the pc before it. The one I'm on cost me aorund $450, but it uses the hard drive, dvd-rw, fan, keyboard, mouse, stereo, and monitor as the pc before it.

And with some luck on newegg's sales week, lol - dual core 3.0ghz amd athlon x2, 2gb ram, 512mb video card, and a $20 psu to run it all.


It's possible to build a computer from scratch on $400 too - just don't plan on it doing much when it's done, cause frankly you put $20 into a case (plus $20 s&h), $20 into a dvd burner, $20 into a cheap keyboard/mouse combo, and $20 into a PSU and you've already sapped $100 of the $300 without actually buying any of the guts.

Jack what you can that works; you can always upgrade stuff like a drive later.



And one tip with the OEM suggestion - make sure you've got the cables to run the stuff (ex: have a sata cable for the sata drive or an IDE cable for any IDE drives - some motherboards come with some, others don't. OEM's don't come with anything other than the drive itself - no cables, no manual, no fancy box in many cases)




EDIT: And for gods sakes google for reviews. Otherwise you'll buy boards like the one in mine; after I searched it I found the onboard lan failure rate is about half and half. Seems I'm on the bad half - had to buy a $30 wifi adapter cause it's a royal pain in the backside to replace a bad motherboard.

 

[yoggy]

i can assure you that $400 isn't a budget for a fast computer even if it is custom built. I would use at least double that for a computer that will last longer before technology overtakes it again.

 

[Spartan Erik]

For $400 to build a decent gaming/daily use computer isn't much.. $600 would provide enough for a pretty good setup.

I suggest you check Newegg's Daily Deals section and its occassional Shell Shocker for big savings

 

[Rayburn]

I agree that $400 is cheap. But like everyone else says, get as much stuff from your old PC as possible. That will cut down the cost. I've been able to build a nice and fast budget AMD Sempron system for just under that that I use right now and really enjoy. So it is possible. I don't really recommend MSI boards, ASUS and Intel boards are really good, but they cost more than most motherboards. nVidia makes good video cards and Creative makes really good sound cards, even their budget Audigy SE is really nice for about $35.

You may even be able to find decent stuff for cheap on Ebay. I've been able to do some cheap upgrades by buying from Ebay. Just make sure the seller(s) have good feedback.

Have some fun building it!

 

[Scott B]

Thanks for the help everyone, I actually found this configuration which only totals up to ~$250 with shipping:
http://universe.sbcentral.net/community/tech-f8/my-future-computer-t123.html

 

[kennbona]

one tip.. whatever ur buying.. don't be cheap.. dont go for the cheaper less powerfull hardware. I have done this mistake before... it was way back when intel's Pentium D's were the top of the line. I baught one of them at 3.4Ghz thinking it would be one of the best but after a week , intel released the early Core 2 Duo's which owned my 1 week old Processor like a lion own's a piglet. was soo gutted that i wasnt patient and for about 20$ more i could have baught a much better CPU

Hope this helps

 

[Smith6612]

one tip.. whatever ur buying.. don't be cheap.. dont go for the cheaper less powerfull hardware. I have done this mistake before... it was way back when intel's Pentium D's were the top of the line. I baught one of them at 3.4Ghz thinking it would be one of the best but after a week , intel released the early Core 2 Duo's which owned my 1 week old Processor like a lion own's a piglet. was soo gutted that i wasnt patient and for about 20$ more i could have baught a much better CPU

Hope this helps

I can vouch for this as well. Often times when I build PCs for people, even though they may be on a budget, I always ask them to consider the faster processors, maybe the video card as well to show them some leg room. Since I have all sorts of PCs here, I usually compare them to my gaming machine (underclocked of course to match their system) and they can usually see a difference. In the long run, they've been happy and they still have a lot of power left over. Same goes for internet connections. I usually suggest the user to get a connection with a good download speed and some decent upload. Otherwise, getting the cheapest package would make you not have that much leg room for future expansion. Take me for example in both of these cases. My gaming computer is overkill and I'm always continuously upgrading it, but it sure does keep up with the times and gives me a lot of head room to work with and to expand/push it. Same goes for my internet connection. I have to admit, when I first got DSL, I started off at the slowest speed available to me. Yeah it's perfectly fine for everything I do, but as I started to get more PCs and I started to upload/download more and larger files and for longer times, I've upgraded my package. My next move from a 7.1Mbps/1.5Mbps DSL connection would be fiber optic.

EDIT: The future proof thing is also the same with my processor. I have a quad core right now, and while I may not be using all of that power 99% of the time, it's sure outperformed dual core CPUs while doing things like video editing (with CUDA off of course ).

 

[themcman1]

Well, as said $400 isn't much, even though I have no idea with $:£ anymore.

I brought a cheap Gigabyte motherboard based on P35, an Intel Pentum E2180, 2GB PC2-8500 RAM and a Samsumg F1 HDD (great drive) for just under £200, which, I think, is about $400 now. Now if you use the components from your old computer as well, such as case and DVD drive, you should be alright.

EDIT: Looking at the link which you posted, I wouldn't go AMD at the moment. Intel produces much better CPU's at the moment, and they are much better bang-for-buck.

 

[jhnrk]

If I had $400 and I just could wait and save some more (which would be very good idea IMHO)...
I would buy something like this (from newegg.com):

• Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
  Item #: N82E16822148288
  -$5.00 Instant
  $74.99
  $69.99
• G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ
  Item #: N82E16820231122
  -$40.00 Instant
  $99.99
  $59.99
• Foxconn M7VMX-K LGA 775 NVIDIA GeForce 7050 / nForce 610i Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
  Item #: N82E16813186138
  -$10.00 Instant
  $53.99
  $43.99
• Intel Pentium E5200 Wolfdale 2.5GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80571E5200 - Retail
  Item #: N82E16819116072
  $83.99
• Rosewill R220-P-BK Black 0.5mm SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
  Item #: N82E16811147074
  Rosewill RP500-2 500W ATX12V v2.01 Power Supply - Retail
  Item #: N82E16817182016
  -$27.00 Instant
  -$10.00 Combo
  $89.98
  $52.98
• MSI R4670-2D512 Radeon HD 4670 512MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail
  Item #: N82E16814127383
  +
  MSI Rainbow6 Vegas2 Bundled Game Gift - OEM
  Item #: N82E16800127001
  -$39.99 Combo
  $15.00 Mail-in Rebate :frown:
  $119.98
  $79.99

Subtotal: $390.93

I think that would be decent if you don't expect to play Crysis with high quality settings
Hard drive is pretty good $/GB value and 32MB cache - not as quiet as Samsung SpinPoints F1, but performs pretty well with big files.
I don't have experience with Rosewill cases or power supplies (haven't seen them in Europe that much), but I think they'll do their job properly.
Radeon 4670 is ok for the price and it's bundled with game

I kind a forgot the cd/dvd-drive... That's like additional 20-30 usd.
But if you don't need new hard drive, then it should be fine - and in that case I would replace the processor with Intel Core 2 Duo E7200.

 

[Jon.Monreal]

$400 isn't much to work with I would recommend building a computer that can be easily upgraded as you get more money.

I would agree and get a dual core cpu, you could try and overclocking for a few faster mhz.

When you buy ram I doubt you'll be able to afford 1 gig or ram. So check how many slots you have on your motherboard plus if its dual channel ram. I would buy like 512 than later upgrade to 1 gig. Well then again I'm not too sure about building budget computers.

Dont forget OS unless using old, this adds up. If you really need to you dont need a case, yay better ventilation just make a makeshift one. But be sure not to smash your parts to bits... I would recommend buying OEM's as there are much cheaper but only come with limited manufacturers warrentys.

One important thing to consider is that system builders save big on copies of Windows. For example, on Newegg, right now Windows Vista Ultimate costs $267.49. If you are building and get an OEM copy, however, it only costs $179.99! Also, you can still get an OEM copy of Windows XP Professional for $139.99. Home premium is just $99.99. You can see Newegg's system builder copies here.