I want to replace our 6 year old dinosaur P4 system because it is slow
compared to the newer stuff. And it's been upgraded to its max specs.
I priced Dells on their website and was unimpressed. For about $450
(including shipping), I could buy their basic system, but it's
handicapped with a crappy Celeron with low L2 cache, crappy graphics,
one gig of RAM, and just a CD-RW/DVD combo drive.
But for $300 worth of parts from Newegg, I can get an ASUS mobo with a
fast AMD Athlon 64 X2 cpu, 2 gigs of RAM, decent video, ASUS DVD burner,
ASUS case, and all the other necessary parts. I thought the major PC
co's like Dell or HP would be more competitive in terms of the specs of
their machines, but I guess not. A friend just paid about $900-$1000
for an HP that has just slightly better specs than the one I am building
for $300. Home brew all the way, for me. "Roll your own" and save.
Here are the parts I am buying to build a low end machine that we use
for mostly internet (Firefox) and office apps (OpenOffice) and some
older PC games. Any advice or alternative recommendations for these
parts?
ASUS M2N-MX SE Plus AM2+/AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 6100 Micro ATX AMD
Motherboard - Retail
Item #: N82E16813131249
Return Policy: Limited 30-Day Return Policy
Select An Optional Extended Warranty Plan 1 Year Extended Service Net
Replacement Plan -- $14.99 2 Year Extended Service Net Replacement Plan
-- $19.99
$54.99
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4000+ Brisbane 2.1GHz Socket AM2 65W Dual-Core
Processor Model ADO4000DDBOX - Retail
Item #: N82E16819103774
Return Policy: Processors (CPUs) Return Policy
Select An Optional Extended Warranty Plan 1 Year Extended Service Net
Replacement Plan -- $14.99 2 Year Extended Service Net Replacement Plan
-- $19.99
$59.99
ASUS 18X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black PATA Model DRW-1814BL -
OEM
Item #: N82E16827135148
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy
$28.99
ASUS TA-853 (generic) Black/ White Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
350W Power Supply - Retail
Item #: N82E16811173031
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy
$20.00 Mail-in Rebate
$49.99
Western Digital Caviar SE WD800JD 80GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
- OEM
Item #: N82E16822135106
Return Policy: Limited 30-Day Return Policy
Select An Optional Extended Warranty Plan 1 Year Extended Service Net
Replacement Plan -- $9.99 2 Year Extended Service Net Replacement Plan
-- $19.99
$41.99
G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual
Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-8500CL5D-2GBPK - Retail
Item #: N82E16820231144
Return Policy: Memory (Modules, USB) Return Policy
-$30.00 Instant
$99.99
$69.99
Subtotal: $305.94
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