Aight heres my latest dilemma:
I have a friend who is in need of a comp for college
First the budget is around $550 (not including my markup)
Second he wants me to build it

Normally I tell people who don't wanna spend at least 700 through me to go to dell (no pun intended) or gateway, and I might have to do the same here.

Requirements are complete system with monitor, keyboard, mouse and speakers (might have a pair for him) and he wants it to play games out of the box, but realistically for the price range, he can upgrade later on. I'd like to make it one pimped out looking machine since it's coming from me, but it's going to have to be on that budget.

So far I've figured
NForce2 IGP mobo, probably Micro-ATX, not sure which brand
AthlonXP 2000+ (would be nice to get him a 2500+ though)
256MB Crucial DDR333
40GB Hitatchi 7200 2MB Cache
17" CTX monitor
Antec Minuet Case
Logitech Keyboard and Mouse
XP Home

While looking at newegg and factoring in shipping I constantly blow my budget.
any sugguestons or ideas?

tell him he needs to spend more if he wants "real" gaming. Otherwise, it's very easy to make a fast reliable machine for 550... you just can't expect the Best in every single category. For instance... get him a Radeon 8500 or even 7000 off of newegg. Get a cheaper motherboard - The ECS K7S5A Pro board is awesome. Get a combo drive dvd/cd-rw... or for that matter... just get him the DVD and he can upgrade whenever. Get PC133 SyncDRAM rather than DDR - Realistically, if this guy can't build his own system then he won't be able to feel the difference between DDR SDRAM and SDRAM. Top that off with some good speakers... say around $60-70 and a nice keyboard and optical mouse.

Asus P4R800-V Deluxe ($120) good IGP and can support all Intel proc's
Celeron 2.4ghz ($70)
512mb PC-3200 Corsair ValueRAM ($90)
X-Dreamer Case (includes PSU) ($50)
80gb IDE Hard Drive ($65)
17" CRT ($75)
CheapO Keyboard & Mouse ($30)

$500

PC-3200 RAM so if he gets any new CPU it WILL work fine


This gives you the option for any AGP vid card, any current Intel CPU and another DIMM of 512mb PC-3200 Corsair (good stuff, suprisingly at the low end of the price scale too)

Here's a big tip though; do NOT cheap out on parts to "get more" it doesn't pay off...

Here's another setup BTW;

AMD AXP 2600+ Barton ($90)
Shuttle AN35N-Ultra ($55)
512mb PC-3200 Corsair ValueRAM ($90)
GeForce FX 5200 ($60)
X-Dreamer Case (includes PSU) ($50)
80gb IDE Hard Drive ($65)
17" CRT ($75)
CheapO Keyboard & Mouse ($30)
$515

thanks guys
I don't think I'm going with the cheap vid card and mobo, as I was thinking an IGP chipset is all he's used to and the cost doesn't justify it. Also, arkangyl where do you get your prices? I still have to pay the exorberant price of shipping a monitor so maybe I'll hit up staples or circuit city some time to find a cheap monitor. Also how's the reliability of the PS that comes with the X-Dreamer? thanks again

oh and also, gotta factor in the price of XP home, this has to be legit

Probably a taboo subject here, but why not utilize the wonderful world of e-Bay to get some of those items cheaper? While I tend to patronize the online retail community as much as possible, sometimes you simply just have to say that enough is enough.

For example, I have a slight case of carpal tunnel so I have a MS natural keyboard at home. Well, doesn't do well when I'm at work. Work won't buy me a different keyboard ("What? Didn't your computer come with one?") so I went to e-Bay and picked up one for $15 rather than the $40 I seen elsewhere (not to mention shipping). Also, I got three 80mm quality fans with four LED's inside for about $5.00.

So, I would still go with NewEgg with the mobo, cpu, heatsink/fans, power supply, but with e-Bay as far as a keyboard/mouse/speakers/lighting/possibly the drives. A lot of times you can actually find some computer stores that purchase in bulk computers from schools and companies, who then turn around and cannibalize the computer to sell off bit by bit...maybe you can pick up a tube monitor and pc case there pretty cheap.

Then, you can dress it up with some cheap LED's, get a $10 window kit, spray the monitor, keyboard, mouse, and inside of the case with UV reactive paint (without the hardware inside, of course), pop in a UV light...cheap, but flashy enough to the non-pimp eye. It wouldn't take much off the top, but it would take some. You could even go far as to cover the outside with about $10 of animal print fabric.

In addition, hey, he's in college. He'll soon learn enough about scouring the alleyways at night looking for that orange suede couch with the permanent dark stain on the cushions.

P.S.
Hope the mentioning of e-Bay doesn't get me banned here...I've never seen anyone refer to it so I'm to assume it's taboo.

I got ALL my prices from www.newegg.com

for the monitor just go to CRT > 17" > All


also my dad has the X-Dreamer and he doesn't believe in spending xtra on a PSU (he doesn't really push it either) and it works great, his 2.6C is stable at 3.2ghz on stock and his voltages seem fine

Just went by a computer "salvage" store today and seen a 15" NEC CRT for only $55.00. The thing looked practically brand new. Would have bought it just for the price but what am I going to do with it? Maybe when I work on getting a three-panel display (read about it in PC Upgrade briefly).

Rob

Quote: Originally Posted by mtmanrob Just went by a computer "salvage" store today and seen a 15" NEC CRT for only $55.00. The thing looked practically brand new. Would have bought it just for the price but what am I going to do with it? Maybe when I work on getting a three-panel display (read about it in PC Upgrade briefly). Rob

I bought my 16" NEC CRT for about $70, ..really good monitor. Also, I'm pretty sure its new, too.

17" CRT for $70 after rebates at BestBuy every week.

One like this?

Like this. It's $100 with a $20 rebate.

My old NEC MultiSync monitor lasted from 1995-2002... RIP. Now I'm behind some god awful monitor from HP.

I really need to upgrade to a Sceptre LCD.

Got off topic - anyways - yah those MAG's are a good deal really.

Sceptre LCD? Why not go for a Dell (gasp) I'm serious though, I've heard they are REALLY good gaming LCD's, the 20.1" is $900, the 19" is in the $600's and the 18.1" is just under $600 (with student discounts)

Not to bad IMO

I can pick up 17" CRTs fairly consistently at yard sales for about 10 dollars, got a Gateway 17 incher last weekend for 6 dollars, good solid monitor, decent picture

Another place to get parts from is Zip Zoom Fly- they usually have free 2nd day shipping on their parts.

Zipzoomfly is the sh*t, and Newegg is good too. They are some of the best sites I've seen. I still check out http://www.pricewatch.com. As far as reliability and relatively cheap prices...but HUGE inventory http://www.tigerdirect.com is good also (sometimes). Tigerdirect has lots of rebate deals too. I like the free magazines.