New PC build for review.

[Poppa_Meth]

I'm planning a budget PC for my mother. She'll mainly be using it for internet, some light office work, billpay, letters, that sort of thing. No gaming is at all likely on it. I already have some components and this is what I have to get. Any suggestions of modifications?


http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?description=19-112-190&DEPA=0
Celeron D 320 2.4GHz
$72.00

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-128-242&depa=1
GIGABYTE "GA-8I848P-G" i848P Chipset Motherboard for Intel Socket 478 CPU -retail
$67.00

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=11-129-122&depa=1
ANTEC Solution Series Super Mid Tower Case with 350W Power Supply, Model "SLK3700AMB" - Retail
$69.00

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-141-424&depa=1
Kingston 184 Pin 512MB DDR PC-3200 - Retail
$65.25

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=22-148-015&depa=1
Seagate 80GB 7200RPM IDE Hard Drive, Model ST380011A, OEM
$60.33

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=36-116-123&depa=1
Creative SBS270 2.0 Speakers -RETAIL
$21.00

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=27-106-823&depa=1
SONY Black 52x32x52 Internal IDE CD-RW Drive W/ CD Maker Software, Model CRX230ED-B2, OEM
$23.50

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=21-103-203&depa=1
Samsung Black 1.44MB 3.5inch Floppy Disk Drive, Model SFD321B/LBL1, OEM Drive Only
$7.50

Logitech Mouse $20.00

Logitech Keyboard - Have

Monitor - Have

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-125-153&depa=1
GIGABYTE ATI RADEON 9250 Video Card, 128MB DDR, 128-Bit, DVI/TV-Out, 8X AGP, Model "GV-R925128D" -RETAIL
$52.00

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?description=37-102-151&DEPA=6
Microsoft Windows XP HOME Edition With Service Pack 2 -OEM
$92.95

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=35-100-007&depa=1
Arctic Silver Premium Silver Polysynthetic Silver Thermal Compound, Model "Arctic Silver 5", 3.5-gram( 1 cc. ) tube
$7.59

Total $558.12

[yoda313]

Hello,

Well you could drop it to a 40gig harddrive if its only for net use and light office work. (unless she'll be doing a lot of downloading ).

Also - don't you have any old speakers laying around??? That could shave a little more off your package cost....

The ram is probably the right amount though I have heard people getting along with 256 instead of 512 (though I love my 512 ).

Kevin

[Poppa_Meth]

The price difference for the 40 Gig HD is negligible. I'd rather pay a few dollars more for twice the storage space.

[Poppa_Meth]

Oh and I have a set of speakers, but the volume control doesn't work too well on them. sticks quite a bit. $21.00 for speakers won't kill me though. And I'd be hesitant to put less than 512 on the RAM. I've used PCs that run just fine with 256, but performace has been greatly improved with 512.

[yoda313]

Hello,

Sure. Just thought I'd mention it....

Oh also - a floppy drive??? Is that necessary?? I think most of the new computers come with memory card readers... Unless she has a ton of old floppies that she uses regularly.....

Kevin

[Poppa_Meth]

To me yes it's necessary. I have yet to not use the floppy on a PC for something at some point in time. Besides, it's not costly and I don't need the bay for anything else. I don't use one that often but there always seems to be the rare occasion that I could use it to do something very easily instead of taking extra time to burn bootable CDs and whatnot.

Thanks for your input on it though. It's appreciated. Maybe one day I'll get over my floppy fixation.

[ViRaL1]

No dvd of any kind?

[budz]

No dvd of any kind?

how about getting a cdrw/dvdrom combo like a liteon?
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=27-106-972&depa=1

[Soopafresh]

Are you positive that Mobo can handle a Celeron ? 90% chance it will, but check.

[ViRaL1]

It says so in the link at Newegg.

[Poppa_Meth]

I seriously doubt my mother will ever use a DVD drive in it. I may go ahead and do one that as it would make transfering massive data to it easier if I ever needed to do so. And a friend of mine has a cheap pre-built with the same mobo running a Celeron just fine.

[Blazey]

If nothing graphics heavy will be done on this machine, why not get a mobo with on board video and drop the card to save a few $$?

[Poppa_Meth]

I've been considering on boards graphics. That's another peeve of mine. I always like a card in the machine to take as much load off the system as possible, but I may consider it in this case since the PC will be used for nothing at all graphics heavy.

Also would an AMD Sempron be a better choice in this case than the Celeron? I know next to nothing about AMD processers. If so what speed chips would I need. Not sure how they rate compared to the intel chips.

[Poppa_Meth]

The only two boards I can find with on board graphics that I would actually buy run $96 and $116. I think for a $10 price difference I'd rather stick with the AGP card.

[Blazey]

With the $ that close I agree with the AGP choice. The AMD is a good chip, and so is the Celeron. IMO, for the usage you've indicated, it will make no difference.

[Poppa_Meth]

Thanks for the input. Looks like I'll have some decisions to make.

[glockjs]

semp's kill celerons....for the same price you can get a semp that compares to a 2.6 intel....

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=19-104-205&depa=1


plus u get so much more in features on a board for a way less price with amd...this one is $52 with onboard vid and it's asus

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-131-509&depa=1

i like everything else though. maybe add a lite on dvd drive so she can watch dvd's and copy on the fly if she wanted to..

[Poppa_Meth]

I'll check into the AMD chips a bit more then. I'm not too fond of VIA chipsets though. I'll probably check into an nForce board if I go AMD. I'm still considering the DVD drive. I know she'll never use it and she probably never will figure out how to burn a CD. The burner is there mor for my use if I need to transfer anything from it.

[ViRaL1]

If you're going with a Gigabyte board and a Radeon 9200, why not kill 2 birds with one stone and go with the GA-8TRS350MT board which has onboard Radeon 9200 graphics AND an AGP slo for $11 more then the board you picked out alone.


http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=13-128-256&depa=0

[Poppa_Meth]

I was looking at that board earlier actually. How good are the ATI chipsets though? I know the graphics are decent, but I know nothing about ATI mobo chipsets.

[ViRaL1]

I built a couple systems on the 9100IGP (non-pro) chipset for xmas and they're doing well. Setting them up and installing all the apps went pretty fast. I don't think much stress has been put on them since I gave them out but I haven't heard any complaints.

This is a board I used, along with the same processor you chose, although I got them txgvn weekend at a really good price. $71 for two boards and $134 for two processors.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-139-147&depa=0

[Poppa_Meth]

Thanks again. I'm still trying to decide between AMD and Intel. I just hate messing with something I'm not all that familiar with.

[Scottie]

I have 2 AMD systems here I like AMD alot, I have a XP 3200 Barton and my 7 year old daughter has a Sempron 2800.

I got mine because I wanted the 400 FSB I got hers to replace her Athlon 1.1 GHZ, the only thing is hers has only the 256 KB f Cache but my girlfriends parents just bought a Sempron system the 3000 and it has the 512 Kb Cache if I knew I could have gotten that I would have went with that, there are also 2 version of the Sempron 3000 from what I can tell one has the 512 Kb Cach and the other has the 256 Kb Cashe with a tiny higher GHZ speed