Budget build for my sister.

[Marke522]

Hi, thanks for reading!

My sister called me about a week ago asking if I would get her some more memory for her computer, she finally got cable internet at her apartment, and it felt a little slower than she was used to at work.

She has an OLD Gateway, no telling how old, Pentium 4 1.3 Ghz with only 128 mb RAM. I've looked online at a few places that still carry memory for that computer, PC 800, and it's about $300.00 for 1GB.

SO.... I told her to take that $300.00, and let me use it to build her a brand new system. I guess we can use the harddrive, and optical from the Gateway, but I wouldn't trust it farther than I could throw it.

Here's what I've come up with:

COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UW Black Aluminum Bezel , SECC Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail $49.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811119068

Antec earthwatts EA380 380W ATX12V v2.0 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply - Retail $34.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817371005

ASUS P5KPL-CM LGA 775 Intel G31 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail $54.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131288

Intel Pentium E2180 Allendale 2.0GHz 1MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - Retail $69.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116052

G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail $33.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231144

Western Digital Caviar Blue WD800JD 80GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM $34.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822135106

LG Black 22X (CAV) DVD Burner - OEM $24.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827136152

This puts me at $303.93 + shipping.

We do not need a monitor, mouse, keyboard or speakers. Will be using all the old things from the Gateway.

We don't need Windows, I'll be using XP. If I plan on using the CD-Key on the side of the Gateway, would that be some kind of breach of the EULA? The Gateway is going to be in the trash when we are done I'm sure.

If you guys see something that doesn't quite fit, or a better product at the same or similar price, please feel free to reply. Any and all replies welcome.

[glc]

You can't use the Gateway load of XP, and the Gateway key will probably not work with any copy of XP that you have. You may get lucky, but don't plan on it. It is a breach of license.

Recommendations:

The E5200 is only $3 more than the E2180, and will totally blow it away.

DDR2-1066 is way overkill and the motherboard can only run it at top speed with a 1066 or higher bus processor - and even then it's not necessary. For maybe $5 more, you can get 4 gigs of DDR2-667 or DDR2-800. That is all you need.

[Marke522]

She got her tax refund Friday, so going to order everything tomorrow or Monday, if the Gateway key doesn't work, I'll just order an OEM of XP from Newegg. Also thought about trying to use the existing HDD in the new build, but I'm sure it would flag and fail the requried reactivation. Besides, I think it would better off just to leave that old beast alone, and use it for the kids, or maybe a backup/emergency system to get online should the new build fail or happen to be tied up with another user. If I do decide to use that old Gateway, I'll have to be sure to get a new copy of XP for the new build.

Replacing the CPU and RAM as suggested, now going with:

Intel Pentium E5200 Wolfdale 2.5GHz 2MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - Retail $72.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116072

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail $44.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231122

Have to select a new HDD because the WD is now Auto-Notify. I'll do that soon and repost with the new item.

Thanks again for reading.

EDIT -- Thinking of adding a different PSU, I notice it went up by $25.00.

[glc]

Take advantage of a closeout:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136010

That's a rugged raid-duty drive, it should last forever in a workstation as a standalone.

[Marke522]

Awesome find, many thanks!!!

Total price is now $352.93, if we don't need to get XP.

I'll get this if I have to, Pro http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16832116515

Still not yet sold on Vista, but if my sister wants to get it, you think Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit would be the right one? $99.99.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...indows%20vista

[shadowpr]

Get xp home oem if you're going xp.

Most users won't have a need for pro.

For vista, I personally went home premium 64 since I had 4gb of ram. If you want to try that route, just check to make sure that there are drivers available for all your peripherals. If there are, then just check to make sure any must have programs will run under it.

[not important]

500W Antec Basiq for $65/free shipping.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817371004

[glc]

Why? The EA380 is all he needs with no video card and it's a lot quieter.

[Masaki 7-11]

I would drop down the PSU to a 350W Antec Basiq which sells for about $20: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817371013. The power requirement for the build above is under 250W, so dropping down the PSU to a 350W Antec Basiq will save money and still provide enough power.

[Marke522]

If there was going to be a video card added, or a 2nd optical or 2nd harddrive, would that Basiq have enough power for additional components? I'd hate to upgrade that later after only 6 months or so.

I wonder if the extra money now would help to "future proof" the build somewhat.

[Masaki 7-11]

Originally Posted by Marke522 If there was going to be a video card added, or a 2nd optical or 2nd harddrive, would that Basiq have enough power for additional components? I'd hate to upgrade that later after only 6 months or so. I wonder if the extra money now would help to "future proof" the build somewhat.

You would have a good amount of additional power left over for upgrades, adding another optical and/or hard drive wouldn't be a problem; however you probably won't be able to put in a higher powered video card (such as the 9600GT or HD3850; ones with a PCIe power connector). A card such as the 8600GT or HD4650 will work fine with the power supply. If you want more headroom in terms of power I would go with the 500W Antec Neo Power (sells for about the same as the 500W Basiq and 500W Earthwatts but has three +12V rails rated at 17amps each) over the 380W Antec Earthwatts as it provides a lot more headroom (the Earthwatts 380W Power Supply will provide about a much headroom as the Basiq 350W in terms of what type of video card you can use). Link to the 500W Neo Power: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817103940

[Marke522]

Woooooooow, that's a nice one.

She won't need that for sure. The only thing that comes to my mind, is that she does a lot of stuff with Adobe and Dreamweaver, if those programs are going to be fine the the onboard GPU, then we won't have to worry about a graphics card. More storage space later, sure, but she won't ever play and games. Maybe solitare or Free Cell.

[ceh4702]

My thoughts is the whole build is way underpowered.
Processor is 2 years out of date - Suggest a E7200 or similar.
Suggest using 2 GB of 800mhz RAM.
Suggest Vista SP1.
Suggest SATA DVD +/- R.
Suggest Intel DG35 Integrated MB.

I think purchase would be around $600.00 or so.

I think using too cheap of parts could mean you are poroposing building a computer that is already 2 years out of date. This is just my opinion. I have had problems using out of date parts that were obsolete within one year of my purchase. So instead I say purchase for the future.

[Marke522]

Thanks, but I was trying to stay around $300.00. If you look at her current rig in the first post, it's about 7 years out of date, so this will be a big step up for her.

I've spent $2,000.00 on a build before, and it was considered "out of date" after only 6 months, so......

[Masaki 7-11]

Originally Posted by ceh4702 My thoughts is the whole build is way underpowered. Processor is 2 years out of date - Suggest a E7200 or similar. Suggest using 2 GB of 800mhz RAM. Suggest Vista SP1. Suggest SATA DVD +/- R. Suggest Intel DG35 Integrated MB. I think purchase would be around $600.00 or so. I think using too cheap of parts could mean you are poroposing building a computer that is already 2 years out of date. This is just my opinion. I have had problems using out of date parts that were obsolete within one year of my purchase. So instead I say purchase for the future.

The build isn't really out of date at all. The E5200 is only slightly slower than the E7200 and is much less expensive. Intel branded boards aren't that good and the G35 chipset isn't that much faster than the G31 chipset. Vista may be fine for higher end builds or if you have a specific need for it; however XP is pretty stable, fast and secure, there is still no need to upgrade to Vista.