I have a 10 year old cuz who lives with my grandma and she would like a computer for him for his school. It doesn't really have to be anything major. I need everything except the Windows OS. It doesnt need speakers, or a powersupply since I have those.

So please help if you could. Im really not good at picking the right parts because I end up going like 35 oe 75 over.

Quote: Originally Posted by Fahye I have a 10 year old cuz who lives with my grandma and she would like a computer for him for his school. It doesn't really have to be anything major. I need everything except the Windows OS. It doesnt need speakers, or a powersupply since I have those. So please help if you could. Im really not good at picking the right parts because I end up going like 35 oe 75 over.

I got lots of parts.

Give me an idea of systems spec's you need and I look around.

Check out my comp. i'm trying to sell, below, i would just get a better video card for it.

http://forums.pcapex.com/showthread.php?t=54814

musclecars im thinking of yours but lets see what Cuban got
Well it doesnt need to be fancy
case: any
mouse and keyboard if you got it
P4 or Athlon don't matter
Hard Drive 80 to 120
floppy drive
DVD-rom
CD RW or DVD RW
power supply
mobo thats compatiable to all this stuff
I was think like a mid range video card.
any cheap monitor
a ethernet card or if the board have it built in disregard it
printer

Its mostly like a whole system
if you don't have a printer thats fine.

if you don't need anything for gaming you can pick up a new desktop for less then 500 bones, plus then it would have a warranty and you wouldn't have to deal with it personally if it broke

FYI: my mom got a Compaq with a 3500+ Venice and a gig of RAM for 620 after rebate here in town, that's easily 10x the computing power anyone that doesn't do more than "school" stuff for the next 10 years...

not saying building one would be a bad idea, but just buying a prebuilt would probably be easier since you don't have to make sure it works and is stable, plus finding all the parts and making sure you're still within your budget

all prices from Newegg: (feel free to browse around for better prices)

MSI K7N2 Deltra2-FSR motherboard $58.95
AMD Duron 1.8 GHz $49.00
Linkworld A313-C00 ATX Case $17.00
2x Kingston 256 MB PC2700 ValueRAM, CL=2.5 $21.25 ea. ($42.50 total)
Sapphire Radeon 9250 128 MB AGP 4X/8X Retail $34.00
Hitachi 160 GB 7.2krpm ATA/133 $76.00
LG 16X DVD-ROM Beige $20.99
LG 52X/32X/52X CD-RW Beige $22.99
Sony Floppy Drive Beige $9.00
Epson Stylus C66 Color Inkjet $63.95
Total: $394.38 excluding S&H

I am soooo hoping that all the links work.

I don't know how much the ink costs for the Epson, but they're pretty much all around the same price range nowadays.

Not the fastest system and definitely not built to be able to upgrade the processor, etc. easily - but given that he's 10, maybe that'll convince him to get a job (mowing lawns or something) so that he can save up if he wants to upgrade it himself or have someone helping him.

Sadly, I would have suggested an Atari, but that probably costs more than the computer, so....*shrug* mehhh..what can you do.

If you get a system from a store, yes it saves the hassle, plus you can get a warranty though it, but I typically don't find that you get the better deal for the buck in the end. (In fact, I find that there are more problems with store-bought systems, which would incline you to WANT to buy the warranty, than if you build it yourself.)

I also find that home-built/custom builds are at least an order of magnitude (more like several orders of magnitude) easier to service than store-bought systems because you don't have any proprietary stuff (drivers, etc...). A good idea though, once you have the system setup - go to all of the manufacturer's websites and download whatever drivers they have and burn them to a CD and keep everything in the motherboard box. Tell the grandma and the kid that that is like the "emergency repair kit" where everything about the computer will be stored there (including all sales receipts, warranty information, etc.) That way, if all else fails, you should be able to just load the CD in, in addition to the one that comes with the motherboard to get the system back up and running.

Saves a LOT of time when crap does hit the fan.

*edit*
The motherboard SHOULD have an onboard NIC. Please verify that. I think that should satisfy all of the requirements listed.

P.S. Add anywhere between $5-20 to it and you can get yourself a NIC based on the Realtek chipset (8139 for 10/100, 8169S for gigabit ethernet) and you have yourself a perfect Solaris server.


Oh yea...forgot the monitor. That I'll leave you to find cuz new monitors can be fairly pricy, especially when it comes to S&H.

View this similar thread.

http://forums.pcapex.com/showthread.php?t=53730

Quote: Originally Posted by Fahye I have a 10 year old cuz who lives with my grandma and she would like a computer for him for his school. It doesn't really have to be anything major. I need everything except the Windows OS. It doesnt need speakers, or a powersupply since I have those. So please help if you could. Im really not good at picking the right parts because I end up going like 35 oe 75 over.

you could try a HOLE saw on that HOLE 500 Dollar computer lol

Damn Digi, I wasn't going to ding him on that, but hey

Try Dell. They often run 300 dollar PCs. Or try ChinaMart.

Quote: Originally Posted by Slider Damn Digi, I wasn't going to ding him on that, but hey Try Dell. They often run 300 dollar PCs. Or try ChinaMart.

no.....not the 'D' word!!!! At that point, you're better to go with an abacus. FARRRR more reliable!

*chants* NO MORE DELL. NO MORE DELL NO MORE DELL......!!!!

Quote: Originally Posted by alpha754293 no.....not the 'D' word!!!! At that point, you're better to go with an abacus. FARRRR more reliable! *chants* NO MORE DELL. NO MORE DELL NO MORE DELL......!!!!

I agree...get a Compaq, at least they use ASUS mobo's now...

actually I don't really care what you get as long as it works for you and isn't a piece of sh*t because nobody deserves a POS unreliable computer.

Quote: Originally Posted by Andrevas I agree...get a Compaq, at least they use ASUS mobo's now... actually I don't really care what you get as long as it works for you and isn't a piece of sh*t because nobody deserves a POS unreliable computer.

No Asus motherboard either. Sorry. Their entire engineering team should be fired or shot (lol...one in the same thing in THAT country i suppose.). I have NO idea what they've been doing or smoking over the past 5 years, but you'd have better luck with Dell. (Sad to say, but true.)

ECS and PCChips, top the bugdet reliability list (surprisingly - even to me.) MSI for entry-level stuff. (and possibly a few others). DFI for gamers and OCers. (Apparently DFI spends more time doing trace optimizations than Tyan does. Crazy. That WOULD help to explain why they're doing so well though. AND stable platforms too.)

I usually start off with MSI now cuz they're inexpensive enough, and also reliable/stable enough for the cause.

*edit*
Sorry. No crappaqs either. No Dells. No HPs/Crappaq. Nothing OEM preferably actually. *in the voice of Dennis Leary* Custom built. All the way.

(I am sooo hoping that people get that reference.)

Quote: Originally Posted by alpha754293 all prices from Newegg: (feel free to browse around for better prices) MSI K7N2 Deltra2-FSR motherboard $58.95 AMD Duron 1.8 GHz $49.00 Linkworld A313-C00 ATX Case $17.00 2x Kingston 256 MB PC2700 ValueRAM, CL=2.5 $21.25 ea. ($42.50 total) Sapphire Radeon 9250 128 MB AGP 4X/8X Retail $34.00 Hitachi 160 GB 7.2krpm ATA/133 $76.00 LG 16X DVD-ROM Beige $20.99 LG 52X/32X/52X CD-RW Beige $22.99 Sony Floppy Drive Beige $9.00 Epson Stylus C66 Color Inkjet $63.95 Total: $394.38 excluding S&H I am soooo hoping that all the links work. I don't know how much the ink costs for the Epson, but they're pretty much all around the same price range nowadays. Not the fastest system and definitely not built to be able to upgrade the processor, etc. easily - but given that he's 10, maybe that'll convince him to get a job (mowing lawns or something) so that he can save up if he wants to upgrade it himself or have someone helping him. Sadly, I would have suggested an Atari, but that probably costs more than the computer, so....*shrug* mehhh..what can you do. If you get a system from a store, yes it saves the hassle, plus you can get a warranty though it, but I typically don't find that you get the better deal for the buck in the end. (In fact, I find that there are more problems with store-bought systems, which would incline you to WANT to buy the warranty, than if you build it yourself.) I also find that home-built/custom builds are at least an order of magnitude (more like several orders of magnitude) easier to service than store-bought systems because you don't have any proprietary stuff (drivers, etc...). A good idea though, once you have the system setup - go to all of the manufacturer's websites and download whatever drivers they have and burn them to a CD and keep everything in the motherboard box. Tell the grandma and the kid that that is like the "emergency repair kit" where everything about the computer will be stored there (including all sales receipts, warranty information, etc.) That way, if all else fails, you should be able to just load the CD in, in addition to the one that comes with the motherboard to get the system back up and running. Saves a LOT of time when crap does hit the fan. *edit* The motherboard SHOULD have an onboard NIC. Please verify that. I think that should satisfy all of the requirements listed.

Nice build there! but you could do this, eliminate the graphics card,mobo, and CPU, and add this combo http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?inv...2600-N&cat=MBB

Save you a couple of bucks for the monitor, and hey, you got a 2GHz CPU! It has onboard video, sound and nic. Not a fancy rig, but cheap and functional. You can always add a video card if you need it.

Have a good one!

E

Quote: Originally Posted by Fred_G Nice build there! but you could do this, eliminate the graphics card,mobo, and CPU, and add this combo http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?inv...2600-N&cat=MBB Save you a couple of bucks for the monitor, and hey, you got a 2GHz CPU! It has onboard video, sound and nic. Not a fancy rig, but cheap and functional. You can always add a video card if you need it. Have a good one! E

like I said, there are probably better prices around (please do take note that if you shop from a wide variety of places, it might end up being the same because of all the S&H costs), so there's that to consider as well prior to purchasing.

Usually what I would do when shopping around is if I see that one of the larger, most expensive components is at a better price somewhere else, I would try to see how many of the rest of the components I can get at the same place to help save on S&H charges. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

I just picked Newegg because people here seem to have like a insatiable fetish for them. *shrug* (that and TigerDirect (which I personally wouldn't pick because their prices really aren't that much better than any other place.) Granted, Newegg is a fairly reputable company to be getting computer parts from (though I missed the days when they used to have free shipping on just about everything - put them slightly ahead of the competiton.)

Another good place to browse for prices from many stores at once - http://www.pricewatch.com.

I use that like a devote Christian (esp. one who's in the ministry) uses the Bible. Not quite the same "age", but it's a good source.