Well, I have a friend who commited a mortal sin...

of course, he's oblivious to this, as he isn't a hardcore nerd... he was mostly just asking 'cause he's kind of down on his luck... he asked me if I'd be willing to part from one of my computers.

I of course, immediately decided to build him a cheap system, 'cause I ain't giving up my Win98-still-runs-my-old-games rig.

If you want to go cheap, it's usually best to look into a bundle (at least it's been my experience thus far). If you have a Fry's Electronics or the like, these deals can run into the Ub-ah-schweet... still, for a guy in the sticks (like me), deals are available at newegg and directron.

So, I found out how to build a pretty decent system for under $200.00.

The ultimate bargain hunter could probably do better, but a Sempron 3000+ for a guy who doesn't play games isn't too shabby (I should really try to make some gamer friends out here... but I just haven't had the time... dangit).

So, let's look into this shall we?

Cheap case: $15.00
Mobo and Proc: $80.00 (Sempron 3000+ and ECS mobo with integrated sound and video)
PSU: Got one of those lyin' around. Otherwise, cheap-ass power supplies usually come with the case.
RAM: 512 Megs of cheap PC-3200 goodness. $29.00
HDD: for $40.00 you can get a cheap 80GB Hitachi death (uhh... desk)star
NIC card: $10.00 for a Dlink

Well... that's it folks... you can slam out a POS worthy of internet usage and maybe a little more. Hell, it also makes a decent file server if speed isn't your goal in life.

Of course, it may cost you a little more if you want something besides your ancient copy of Win98 or Linux on there... but it's all up to you.

Even the cheapest mainboards come with onboard NICs these days, so trim another tenner off, or use it to go to the second-hand shop and pull out a used CD reader so you don't have to steal it from the old box.

BTW If you go the AM2 route it ends up being a little bit cheaper. It shouldn't be a bad system at all. When I first built my main computer the specs were almost identical (slower proc) and it handled most things just fine. Heck mine even managed Vista just fine. As long as you make the page file super big you shouldn't have too many problems with it either.

AMD Sempron 3000 & ECS Mobo w/ integrated 6150 video--$70
512mb PQI Turbo DDR2 800--$16

Here is what i just bought my Uncle for his flight sims, i had the peripherals, so for the tower, under 275 and can game (Kinda). What do you guys think?

Newegg.com - Athenatech A4202BG.X350 Black/Gray Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 350W Power Supply - Retail
Newegg.com - Open Box: BIOSTAR K8NHA Grand Socket 754 NVIDIA nForce3 250Gb ATX AMD Motherboard - OEM
Newegg.com - SAPPHIRE 100182L Radeon X1550 256MB 128-bit GDDR2 AGP 4X/8X Video Card - Retail
Newegg.com - AMD Sempron 64 3100+ Palermo 1.8GHz 256KB L2 Cache Socket 754 Processor - OEM
DIMMS x 2 Newegg.com - CORSAIR ValueSelect 256MB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Desktop Memory - Retail
Newegg.com - EXCELSTOR Jupiter Series ESJ8080S 80GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
Newegg.com - LITE-ON Black 16X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 16X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 24X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM IDE DVD Burner - Retail
Newegg.com - Dynatron A41 70mm Ball Cooling Fan/Heatsink for AMD CPU - Retail
Case Fans x 3 Newegg.com - MASSCOOL FD08025S1M4 80mm Case Fan - Retail Case Fans x 3

Why not go AM2 instead of 754? Dual channel support, DDR2, cheaper, better future upgradability.

You can get a gig of DDR2 for like 34 bucks, a sempron processor for about the same price, and a cheap good overclocking motherboard for about 50-100.

Quote: Originally Posted by eascarface BTW If you go the AM2 route it ends up being a little bit cheaper. It shouldn't be a bad system at all. When I first built my main computer the specs were almost identical (slower proc) and it handled most things just fine. Heck mine even managed Vista just fine. As long as you make the page file super big you shouldn't have too many problems with it either. AMD Sempron 3000 & ECS Mobo w/ integrated 6150 video--$70 512mb PQI Turbo DDR2 800--$16

That tells you something, a new tech deal that actuall cheap than an old tech one...

You can ditch the NIC with that one too. Its onboard. But you can find cheaper DDR ram

I built a entire computer (moniter and all) for around 150$

Specs were vista compatable. (HA...)
950MHz P3
mATX onboard video sound and ethernet
40GB HDD
12" LCD screen
512MB ram
PS/2 mouse and keyboard
DVD/CD reader
SilentX mATX PSU

It toataled after shipping from the various sites, and tax from one ? around 210$
But for the project i got most unique design goal, since i went to bare minimum, and show that you can build a computer for around 200$

I'm still working on the 100$ computer, but like they say, the first 20 million is the hardest

AM2 is soo much more economical at least in the UK. The main factor being DDR2 512MB = £10 DDR1 512MB = £18. And AM2 will at least have some upgrade options.

Sorry for the double post, but I though I would recommend perhaps getting one of the new Celerons too. It would kill ANY sempron.
Newegg.com - Intel Celeron 420 Conroe-L 1.6GHz 512KB L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - Retail

Last week I got a laptop for £20 inc p+p admittedly said laptop has only a 233mhz pentium 2 and 32mb of ram. I managed to get a free laptop card Ethernet thing from a friend which has Linux kernel drivers, combined with Linux PIC assemblers and Qbasic it's enough for any electronics work I have to do

although admitidly I'm having great trouble actualy getting the laptop from the parcel company... who don't knock to save the trouble of actualy delivering! (believe me there parcel delivery men sneak up the path with a pre filled in you were out card just to save time :O )

Quote: Originally Posted by Zaltan Sorry for the double post, but I though I would recommend perhaps getting one of the new Celerons too. It would kill ANY sempron. Newegg.com - Intel Celeron 420 Conroe-L 1.6GHz 512KB L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - Retail

Damnnnn

They finally came out with Core 2 Celerons