Computer geeks - a moment of your time, please.

[BSS]

My seven year old dell took a crap last week, and my backup (HP pavilion 505n, also seven or eight years old) sounds like a wood chipper cycling on and off. So I'll be buying the stuff for a friend to put a new PC together for me within the next few days.

All I really use it for is storing and listening to music, watching youtube, posting on tgr, copying CDs, checking avalanche reports & email, and your other basic computer type-stuff like MS word, paying bills, etc. No video games or any of that high speed stuff.

I want to spend less than $300, and I already have the OS (XP).

FOR THE MONEY, do you think I can do better than this, this, and this?

[XXX-er]

find something people have been using for a door stop or a plant stand

[zombinate]

nah, those are all good, go for it.

[zselby]

Looks good to me. Might save a few bucks and go with this dvd drive.

[RShea]

I'd first avoid Tiger Direct. And as far as the individual components- the hard drive brand I'd select as first choice is Seagate (5 year warranty vs 3 year on WD). The price on the bare bones is OK but the CPU is an OEM which only has a limited warranty compared to an AMD boxed CPU that has a 3 year warranty, and no cooling fan is included (where the boxed includes a fan also). So add a fan to the price or blow up the CPU without any cooling on it.

The case has a 300 watt power supply in it- marginal if you only use the 1 hard drive and DVD, but if you ever want to add stuff - especially a video card it will be on the replacement list for a PCI-Express video card. I usually use either 400 or better yet 450 watt power supplies exclusively.

Also if your Windows you are going to use is still only 32 bit, then the 4 gig of memory will probably only show up at 3 gig or a little more (you do not get the full 4 gig limit because of video and bios etc. )

Check out Fry's and Newegg for some options also.

[RShea]

Looks good to me. Might save a few bucks and go with this dvd drive.

Slightly slower speed and no Lightscribe disk option but yes that would work for a basic drive for DVD burning that is nothing fancy.

[Ringo]

Newegg x2

Really can't do wrong with grabbing parts from them.

Scrounge what parts you can from your old system (CD player, case, power supply) and find a good deal from a MB, CPU, RAM combo with a decent warranty. If the cases you have are some of those shitty proprietary cases, which they probably are, hit up a recycling center or craigslist and find a decent case for free. Then upgrade parts later as you need/want.

[crackboy]

that first system sounds exactly like my wifes laptop with more ram. its a good setup and can handle a lot when it actually works

[Ryan Pringnitz]

Can I take this time to bash you infinitely for not learning everything there is about pc maintenance and repair? Calling you a jong and stuff...

Not a bad deal.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827151171

This is a little cheaper of a burner.

Biostar are entry level boards. But you won't benefit from the nicer boards unless you use them for what they are designed for.

[RShea]

Can I take this time to bash you infinitely for not learning everything there is about pc maintenance and repair? Calling you a jong and stuff...

Not a bad deal.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827151171

This is a little cheaper of a burner.

Biostar are entry level boards. But you won't benefit from the nicer boards unless you use them for what they are designed for.

Biostar are what I would consider middle of the road, not really entry level. I've been running one of their older Socket A Athlon boards for probably 6 years with just a fan that gets noisy. They have an OK warranty - only 1 year and are better built than something like PC Chips or ECS or a few other lower end cheap entry level boards out there that are basically through away if they break. Not up to a level of Asus, Gigabyte, and a few others that are out there with 3 year warranties.

[zselby]

Agreed on Newegg and avoiding Tiger Direct. Here's a decent system from Newegg for under $300.

CPU - $54
Case - $42
Motherboard - $50
RAM - $28 after rebate
Hard drive - $60
DVD burner - $23

$257 plus shipping, although most of these have free shipping.

[yodaottis]

I fully agree on newegg.
Good deals, good service. They're kinda like the bc.com of nerd shit.

[SorryBro]

Agreed on Newegg and avoiding Tiger Direct. Here's a decent system from Newegg for under $300.

CPU - $54
Case - $42
Motherboard - $50
RAM - $28 after rebate
Hard drive - $60
DVD burner - $23

$257 plus shipping, although most of these have free shipping.

I think I'll piggy-back onto the thread instead of starting a new one.

If someone (me) were to want to add minor gaming to the package above, what video card would you computer gurus suggest? I don't want to spent $300 and I don't need something for super Halo or WoW sessions, just something decent.

[wi3dzmin]

If someone (me) were to want to add minor gaming to the package above, what video card would you computer gurus suggest? I don't want to spent $300 and I don't need something for super Halo or WoW sessions, just something decent.

Xbox 360.

[BurnHard]

Agree on Newegg and DISAGREE on Tiger Direct. Bought many many things from them, always super fast shipping, best prices, and good customer service.

[schuss]

I think I'll piggy-back onto the thread instead of starting a new one.

If someone (me) were to want to add minor gaming to the package above, what video card would you computer gurus suggest? I don't want to spent $300 and I don't need something for super Halo or WoW sessions, just something decent.

I seem to remember ATI killin' it recently. Just set a budget and buy the best card you can for that price. Anything over $100-150 is going to run all of today's games really well (except for maybe crysis).

[ACHTUNG]

I have a shload of new computer parts sitting around (excess inventory). I didn't take the time to read this whole thread so I don't know what you need. PM me with what you need and I'll see if I have it for dirt cheap.

[ch0whound]

Have bought off NewEgg and Tiger with no issues.

Why not go with a cheap Dell? Service might suck, but at least there IS service. Check out this site for coupons (saw a full setup for $279): http://www.techbargains.com/catsearch.cfm/0_3_1

[Vasya-s-Marsa]

Another good site to buy computer stuff from is ncix. I live in Canada and have bought from them a lot with zero issues and very fast service (usually got my stuff next day), but they apparently also have a US site, FWIW.

[nord]

I am building a new computer. I'll mainly use it for websurfing. I got a great deal on a AMD LE-1660 processor and a Biostar MCP6PB M2+ motherboard $59 +tax. I'm wondering if my 24 pin 300 Watt power supply will be enough.

This is the same motherboard as BSS was going to get (see first post)and the processor is a low energy 45 watt single core 2.8GHz. I'll Probably will be running 4 GB of RAM and using the onboard Graphics. Added power draws are my old IDE drive and DVD ROM drive.

[milton]

Do not skimp on your power supply, buy a quality one. I recommend SeaSonic, Sparkle, Silverstone, and PC Power & Cooling.

PSU calculator...
http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

[dumpy]

^^^X2^^ Your power supply while not fancy or performance enhancing is a vital part of your PC. A PS failure can bring other components down with it.

Ignore the advice given earlier about reusing your old PS if it is original to the machine, especially if you are having loud noises (may mean a failed PS fan) and turning on/off issues.

I'll also recommend Dell, primarily because of their service, but that may not be relevant in this situation. People may complain, but it is leaps and bounds above HP, Sony (the two worst), etc. However this applies if you pay for it, without buying the extra support, it's pretty much the same as anyone else. If this were a laptop, I'd recommend going Dell and paying for the support, but with a desktop I'm not so sure this is needed. Swapping out ram, HD, DVD, NIC, etc is cake on a desktop and most parts will work. Not so with laptops.

You could try configuring a system from the vendors on Pricewatch. Maybe build something like this. If you install your old OS (I wouldn't go older than XP), you can save a couple hundred.

Even though the theoretical limit on 32bit machines is 4Gb and in practive 3.1-3.5 Gb, ram is cheap and makes a difference. Put in 4, that should give you 3.5 or so.

[nord]

Milton
Thanks for the power supply calculator. i had found some but not as complete as that one.
The calculated power for my system is 219 watts.

Dumpy
Your "this" link shows nothing.
My socket AM2+ MB and LE1660 Combo was $59 are you beating that on pricewatch?

[dumpy]

Dumpy
Your "this" link shows nothing.
My socket AM2+ MB and LE1660 Combo was $59 are you beating that on pricewatch?

Shit my session must've timed out, it was a system I configured for about $300.

[dumpy]

Milton

My socket AM2+ MB and LE1660 Combo was $59 are you beating that on pricewatch?

Yup

(until this one goes away, then it's just another link to nowhere)