Second Build - Budget Rig ... Opinions?

[tombstone]

Hey there ...

With the success of my first build, my step father would like me to build a budget minded rig for him. I'm trying to keep the price, sans monitor, keyboard, mouse and hard drive, at the $400.00ish price point. The PC will be used for basic stuff - e-mail, internet, burning pictures to CD.

These are the components I've chosed thus far. Feel free to provide any comments that you may have.

ASUS TM-231 Black 0.6mm SECC MicroATX Mini Tower Computer Case 300W Power Supply - Retail
ASUS K8V-MX Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
AMD Athlon 64 2800+ ClawHammer 800MHz FSB Socket 754 Processor Model ADA2800BOX - Retail
Crucial 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model CT2KIT6464Z40B - OEM
MITSUMI Black 1.44MB 3.5" Internal 8 in 1 Floppy Drive - OEM
LITE-ON Black IDE CD Burner Model SOHR-5239V BK RT - Retail

I'm not sure about the quality of the ASUS case and PSU ... that's where you guys come in!

Thanks again!

Jeff

[freakitchen]

Your parts selection looks good.

No particular experience with ASUS power supplies, but they're a quality manufactuer, and 300w *should* be enough to power that system with on-board video.

Although a Via chipset isn't considered the best, I've actually used that board before for budget builds, and it's worked fine.

As an aside, I've been using the newer Sempron 64bit processors (754) for budget builds...they seem to be really good performers for the money.

FK

[Panama Red]

Originally Posted by Freakitchen As an aside, I've been using the newer Sempron 64bit processors (754) for budget builds...they seem to be really good performers for the money. FK

Me too. I've been using this MSI board too.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813130526

[kodmaster]

I don't have much experience with intel but I think that if you wanted you could save some money on ram and go with

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145477

which would save you 40 dollars that would probably be better spent in the cd drive department towards a DVD burner. If you want better upgrade flexibility u could go with 1 stick of 512mb memory

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145026

or with 2 of them which I think is still cheaper than you other choice. I don't think you will notice much difference between 512mb and 1gb memory on that computer. Remember this is a budget system and I've got a low gamer system and I still only have 512mb ram which I plan to upgrade as soon as I get money Other than that you may want to go with a non-matx case and motherboard which will allow future upgrades.

kody