Building dirt cheap but reliable computer.

[David M]

I need to build a dirt cheap but reliable computer for the office. The only thing the computer will do is access the internet and do word processing in MS Word.

My preference is the least expensive AMD (Duron?) with a mobo that does not have a VIA chipset. I like ASUS board but that is not a necessity. Any reliable mobo is fine. An Nvidia chipset is fine. I'm not sure where to find 512 megs of cheap reliable RAM nor a cheap and reliable CD drive. I also need a PSU. I would like to see if I can keep this between 300 and 400 dollars. I also need a case..a plain old beige box would be fine. I dont need a graphics card or sound card. I will be running XP pro which I get through work. I plan on purchasing through Newegg.

I already have a keyboard, monitor and mouse.

Thanks

Here is what I am thinking so far:

Mobo: ASUS A7N8X-X http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_g...964340/blsrt=1

CPU: AMD Duron 2200+
http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_a...1%5B%5D=90:276

[Staren]

You can tweak around with this set-up. I have it set for an Athlon XP so you could drop the price in a few places with a Simpron. My pick for cheap but still good motherboards is MSI. Picked one for my DVR project, and used them in two systems very close to this one for both of my grandmothers who wanted cheap systems to check e-mails and do word prosessing, but could still run some simple games for the younger grandkids. The board I have listed is VIA chipset, but here is a good list http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...InnerManu=1312 Most of them are micro-atx, but that shouldn't be a problem.

Case:
Antec Beige ATX Mini Tower PC Case with 350W Power Supply, Model "SLK1650" - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...129-149&depa=1
$55.50

Motherboard:

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...130-480&depa=1
$69.00

CPU:
AMD Athlon XP 2800+ Processor - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...103-452&depa=1
$120.00

RAM:
Corsair Value Select 184 Pin 512MB DDR PC-3200 - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...145-026&depa=1
$44.67

Video Card:
On-Board

Hard Drive:
Western Digital 80GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model WD800JD, OEM Drive Only
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...135-106&depa=1
$54.50

DVD Drive:
Sony Beige 52X32X52X16 Combo Drive, Model CRX320E, OEM
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...106-818&depa=1
$33.99

Floppy Drive:
NEC 1.44MB Floppy Drive, Model FD1231H, OEM Drive Only
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...152-001&depa=0
$8.00

Sound Card:
On-Board

Modem:
TRENDware/TRENDnet 56K V.92 PCI Data/Fax/Voice Modem, Model TFM-PCIV92A - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...134-006&depa=0
$10.50

OS:
Microsoft Windows XP Home Upgrade with SP2 -Retail
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...116-194&depa=6
$104.95

Total: $501.11

[kram 2.0]

Sempron 2300+ for 64 USD shipped:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819104209

or

Sempron 2600+ Palamero for 75 USD shipped:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819104226

The latter is far better in terms of upgradability, but considering this is going to be a simple office machine, the 2300+ might be the best budget option.

Asus A7N8X-VM (81 USD)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131483



kram

[discodanman45]

If you go AMD I would second the Sempron, great value for the money. The intel counterpart would be a Celeron D cpu. For $70 shipped this is a pretty good deal as well.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819112196

Paired with a $50 micro-ATX Asus board with an Intel chipset, this might be something to consider. Also has onboard video and audio

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131514

For $120, this is hard to beat for the value.

[Cricket]

You can keep the costs down by getting a motherboard with on-board video, NIC, sound, etc...that way you don't spend more for expansion cards. On-board video is fine for an office box.

Take a look at the Enlight cases...good solid plain beige cases with good power supplies. AOpen has a few choices too...not much to look at but the power supply in them is good.

Limit the number of drives to just what is necessary and you should be able to stay within your budget.

Cricket

[glc]

I know you said you prefer AMD, but I build my cheap office boxes with Celeron D's and Intel motherboards with onboard everything. Please do not flame me for posting this suggestion:

Enlight case:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811116165

Asus motherboard:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131514

Celeron-D:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819112190

Kingston value ram:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820141436

Seagate hard drive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148015

Sony CD drive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827101130

310 bucks. Cheap enough? Add 10 bucks for a floppy drive. Upgrade the CD drive to a Lite-On burner so you can do backups if you aren't backing up to a network location.

In the interest of fairness, the AMD alternate would be more expensive:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131483
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819104210

The only way to get the AMD down cheaper is use a considerably slower Duron and/or a Via-based board such as a A7V400-MX. This would put the price in the same ballpark or cheaper.

I know you only want an office box, but please stay away from 3rd tier motherboards. Reliability is very important in office machines.

[David M]

glc, I know better than to flame a moderator. The flamer never wins. I have seen the aftermath.

Thanks for all the great ideas people. Now I have some decisions to make.

[piasabird]

If you are going to use a CDROM then a CD/RW might be nice in case you want to send a disk to someone with files on it or something like that. Of course you could forget the Floppy and the CD/RW and just get a small USB Flash Drive. If security is an issue not being able to copy files may be an advantage.

I kind of like the Asus Barebones Boxes. I have not tried one but they look real good and they have some good reviews. This one is a Sis chipset. What is good about these is they cost about $109 and come with the Case, Power Supply, Floppy, and CDROM. Just add a Processor, HD, and RAM. This model works with both 400Mhz/533Mhz P4/Celeron Processors:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16856110007

I have used Asus Motherboards and CDROM Drives and find them dependable.

They have other models like the 800Mhz i865G chipset for $129. I dont know if the 400mhz Celerons will work in this one.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16856110022

I use an IBM with a 1.8G P4 at work and it works just fine for me. So I would not hesitate to use a 400Mhz or 533Mhz processor just for web surfing and normal work. It uses integrated shared video memory so the video uses 64 Megs of RAM so dont use less than 512Megs of RAM.

[glc]

I'd take a 865G over a SiS in a heartbeat - and put a Celeron-D in it.

[Marke522]

that does not have a VIA chipset

I don't understand why so many people hate these VIA chipsets. I have an ASUS A7V8X and I'd recomend it to anyone. In fact, my last 3 computers have all been VIA, I'll admit the Compaq Pressario wasn't the most stable thing in the world, but the last 2 that I built have been rock solid. I always use AMD Athlons.

Not sure what your budget is, but this is what I would use, just incase you cared. AMD Athlon XP 2600+ "Barton", 333MHz FSB, 512K Cache Processor - OEM

And the A7V8X has onboard graphics and sound and sata, so you won't need to get any additional cards. Sure you can't play Farcry, but this is for work, the A8N-SLI with your 2 Ultra's you made is for FarCry.

[glc]

Not all of us have had good luck with Via. I won't touch another one, I've spent way too much time (time is money) screwing with the flaky things and processing RMA's over the years, and wound up with dissatisfied customers to boot.

[David M]

Thats what I keep reading about VIA chipsets in here as well. The cost savings is not worth the additional headaches. I need a reliable computer so the Nvidia chipsets came to mind first.

[glc]

Nvidia is the best out there for AMD processors, and Intel is the best for Intel processors. In the budget (i.e. cheap) PC arena, there's no real cost savings or performance advantages picking AMD over Intel and vice versa these days, it's personal preference and I definitely prefer Intel simply because in my experience, it's more stable and reliable. Your mileage may vary.

[Marke522]

The only time I've ever really had trouble working on computers was trying to make a clean install on a prebuild. Sometimes it's hard to find the chipset drivers because they are all in the restore cd or restore partition. I'll admit I have had a few headaches working on Compaq and Gateways. But I thought that was mainly because they used the cheapest parts they could gather at the time. Even the same computers have different parts in them at times. Most the flaky boards I've seen were Soyo, and we all know how good they are.

[Antistupid]

Marke, from my experience, Via on AMD is not that bad, usually. However, Via on Intel is horrible. BUT, nVidia does make better chipsets, and so I still suggest them over Via.

[Cricket]

Originally Posted by Marke522 Most the flaky boards I've seen were Soyo, and we all know how good they are.

Those are probably the ones that were made by ECS. The SOYO motherboards that were actually made by SOYO were actually pretty good. I have several Slot 1 i440BX SOYO motherboards that are great performers and never give me any problems at all.

Cricket

[glc]

The smaller motherboard manufacturers are dropping out one by one, outsourcing their production to ECS to price compete. More often than not, the quality goes down the toilet when this happens and they give up - Soyo and Shuttle are victims of this, and I gotta wonder how much longer Epox will be around.

[ror_b211]

Try geeks.com if you want REAL cheap stuff

[glc]

You gotta know what you are looking at if you buy from the Geeks. I've gotten some great deals out of them, but a lot of their stuff is just junk.