BF2S Forums Building my bro a PC for < $600. Any suggestions on my item list?

PspRpg-7 wrote:

The case if fugly.

Not really going for the extreme gamer case with window on the side and pretty lights.  He couldn't give a crap what it looks like.  But IMO, I think the shuttle looks pretty nice.

Kmarion wrote:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813127005
ABIT AB9 $130

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a … 6811119077
COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 $35

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a … 6819115005
Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 Conroe $182

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a … 6817371001
Antec True Power Trio 650W $100

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a … 6822148140
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 $95


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a … 6814130073
Evga GeForce 7600GT $105
640ish

Bahh.. :(came up short on the memory.. but this is what I would suggest for budget.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a … 6820211064
CORSAIR XMS2 1GB DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) $125

Thanks for taking the time to put that together for me, but this has to be a complete PC including monitor, optical drives, I/O devices (KB & Mouse), and speakers.  If I already had all that though, and just needed a tower built, that'd be good.  But remember; there's no need for a graphics/sound card when onboard video/sound will do.  He's not going to be gaming on this whatsoever.

You can try again, if you like though! hehe

Well I know that you cant live without the fastest/best PC parts available to man, Kmarion (as I can't either), but we have to act like we are building a PC just to solely do word processing work on and browse the web and stuff, hah.  I know that's hard to imagine.

  I could actually prolly just put a P4 and DDR mem in there and he'd be fine, but I'd like to at least get somewhat "newer" parts in there and somewhat hook him up cuz my bro is actually building me a 2005 Nissan SE-R, hah.  So this is my thanks to him.  Anymore suggestions would be much appreciated!

theknuck wrote:

he's building you a car and you can only muster up $600!  j/k, do what you gotta do.  do you have any old parts?  try splitin with those.  how bout old monitors?  i know i got 2 crt's down in the basement.  a whole build is gonna be cuttin corners somewhere.  but if he's only using it for internet stuff and music, and no bf2 gaming, then your build looks fine.  sure dual cores are nice for non-gamers but if he really doesn't know much about them, then will he know what to compare it to?  pentium d should suit you budget build and a good 1gb of ram.  nothing special on mobo, as he ain't going sli.  cheapo dvd drive and a nice case on sale from newegg.  don't need a g15 keyboard or mx518 mouse, so that is cheap.  for a non-gamer, $600 should be plenty.  hell, i see pew pews less than that with dual cores and a gb of ram in circuit city flyers.

good luck man and have fun with the build.

lol, well it's not like he's BUYING the car for me, I'm paying for parts/labor too, but this is just an extra thanks for his time.

Nah, dont have any spare parts, I thought of that too.  But whenever I replace a part in my PC to upgrade it, I always find someone to buy my old parts.

pew pews?  LOL... what exactly is that?

PspRpg-7 wrote:

The case if fugly.

yeah u can get a ten times nicer case for $74

Since you're going for a basic PC, just buy a Dell or whatever the hell is on sale.  Try techbargains.com and watch for specials, or just hunt for a friend with a decent used PC.  For what you say he'll be using it for, there's not much need for buying new.  Check your local classifieds even.

You can't beat companies like Dell for bottom-end pricing, so why try?  Just get a E521 or some such and maybe add some additional ram and he's got a Vista-ready PC that probably comes with the free upgrade coupon.

That brings to mind another question.  What software is it going to run?  Planning to go Linux, or use existing licenses,  or pirate or what?  If you've got to buy software, you're not going to make it building DIY for 600 bucks.

InnerMonkey wrote:

Since you're going for a basic PC, just buy a Dell or whatever the hell is on sale.  Try techbargains.com and watch for specials, or just hunt for a friend with a decent used PC.  For what you say he'll be using it for, there's not much need for buying new.  Check your local classifieds even.

You can't beat companies like Dell for bottom-end pricing, so why try?  Just get a E521 or some such and maybe add some additional ram and he's got a Vista-ready PC that probably comes with the free upgrade coupon.

That brings to mind another question.  What software is it going to run?  Planning to go Linux, or use existing licenses,  or pirate or what?  If you've got to buy software, you're not going to make it building DIY for 600 bucks.

Well I just glanced at the link that Kmarion just posted and checked out the specs for the base model E520: $550 for a P4 @ 3.06 GHZ and 512 MBs of DDR2 533?  I'd rather build this PC for the same price and have a considerable performance increase.

I have my own personal copies of XP MCE 2005 that I will install on his PC.  I baught them legitly off of newegg a couple years ago.  Actually, I thought I lost my 1st copy, baught a new one, then found my old copy of XP MCE, haha.. so I'm good on OSs.  I also have MS office too, so no need to worry about all that extra software that retail PCs come with that you'll never use.  Which is another reason I want to build it myself.

I wanted to go with a shuttle case cuz I just personally think it looks cool.  I thought the case looked pretty decent, heh.  My friend has the exact same case cept with a side window and I thought it actually looked kinda slick.  But my bro doesn't want anything flashy, so I got one without the window.  I'll see what else I can find though.

Thanks and +1 the mobo find, unnamednewbie13.  That's definitely a tad better than that questionable PC Chips mobo I found.  I dunno how I didn't find that mobo cuz I was originally looking for a PCI-E with on-board video and never saw one for around the same price.

T4rd wrote:

Well I just glanced at the link that Kmarion just posted and checked out the specs for the base model E520: $550 for a P4 @ 3.06 GHZ and 512 MBs of DDR2 533?  I'd rather build this PC for the same price and have a considerable performance increase.

Performance increase is relative with word processing and surfing.  Even a late model Athlon XP with with 1gb of ram does these things fine.  I would think that as long as it was a later model A64 or Pent 4/Core, it'll be more than enough to meet needs he doesn't even realize he has yet.

Not that I work for them or anything, but Dell  is offering free S&H as well.  Don't forget shipping and tax and such.  Newegg charges tax for me (in TN), so it really adds to the price.  In the case of your order, that's 60 bucks just for tax.  You didn't include shipping and tax in your OP, so I don't know how these things factor for you.