Building a cheapo PC

[lb99]

I want to build a low budget future proof PC, the one I have reached its outer limits years ago, and I am now having trouble expanding it due to obselecence, I have a contact that I trust in malaysia, where everything is cheap as, coz thats where its made, I was gonna get him to send over the boards, and I have dvd writers ect already and I Have no problem using an old case, I dont care about branding but what should I put on my shopping list

[Cajun]

well depends no matter how hard you try whatever you get will be super seeded and your chip won't be used in like 2 years.

Decide if you want intel or amd chip.

Next do you want onboard video (if don't play games or such onboard video is fine, even some modern boards have some pretty good video (128/256megs ati/nvidia video) and that in some way can point you in direction, personally i only realy use gigabyte or msi motherboards, but that is personal preference, its what i used and know work, and if have a problem, can be fixed simple & quickly.

And if you already have hdd/dvd writer, thats all you need bar some ram

[scracha]

Buy a Dell or go down the Warehouse and buy a Lenovo. You'll pay about umm...$20 more than building it yourself, you'll have a warranty and you'll save about 2 hours work.

[imdying]

No such thing as future proof in PCs. What are you going to do when your Maylasian imports are DOA or die after a month? You won't save very much, just go buy a Dell form their website... you won't even have to get out of your chair :)

[dhunt]

Yeah - I'll have to agree with the others get something local is probably the way to go - computers are so cheap now compared to even a few years ago - you wont save much if any.

Also by the time your computer gets here from Malaysia it will be obsolete (Ok that's probably not quite true but you get the idea) so can't really get anything future proof.

[The Pastor]

im going to build a comp soon, 4gb ram 500meg+ vid card some trick mobo and as much hdds i can fit.

[imdying]

Unless you've got a specific application, I probably wouldn't bother with 4GB of RAM. RAM only gets cheaper, buy it when you need it. Same for the HDDs... they're continually in a downwards price/GB spiral, just buy a TB now, and add drives as you need them. Even if you spend the same money in the end, you'll end up with probably 50% more space.

[PuppetMaster]

Depending on what you call "Low budget" and what you plan to use it for. i would go for something similar to this -

Intel Core 2 Duo E6850, 3.00GHz
Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 Intel P965 Express
Seagate 250GB HDD
x2 1GB DDR2-800 PC6400 SDRAM
Geforce 8800 GTS, 320MB, PCI Express

That lot will cost you less than a grand. If you dont need high end graphics or play games etc, then you could get a lesser video card, that one above is around $500.
Depending on what you have now you may also need a new Power Supply, a decent 500w ATX is around $150-$200.
Plus a case.

[skelstar]

Are there not issues with Dell computers spitting the dummy if you put non-Dell stuff in their boxes when its time to upgrade?

[avgas]

Are there not issues with Dell computers spitting the dummy if you put non-Dell stuff in their boxes when its time to upgrade?
Nah both Dell and IBM are just bases to build off.
very good bases.
I'd never build my own again, costs to much and you miss out on about 20 years industry experience when you dont buy a big co.s computer.

[imdying]

Are there not issues with Dell computers spitting the dummy if you put non-Dell stuff in their boxes when its time to upgrade?Naw, they sometimes even send you the part and have you fit it over the phone with a tech on the line. Only reason to build a box these days is high end gaming rig, as these still come with a bit of a price premium.

[PuppetMaster]

Naw, they sometimes even send you the part and have you fit it over the phone with a tech on the line. Only reason to build a box these days is high end gaming rig, as these still come with a bit of a price premium.


Hes talking about voiding the warranty when you open the box and put non-Dell parts inside.

[imdying]

Yep, my post was just an example of how flexible they are these days regarding opening the boxes up and fiddling with them.

[skelstar]

Hes talking about voiding the warranty when you open the box and put non-Dell parts inside.

No I wasn't, I meant the Dell hardware/motherboard not liking you putting in upgrades (ie DVD drive. memory etc) that are non-Dell parts. I'm sure that this has been the case in the last 5 years.

[Morcs]

Find a guy called Java Warrior on trademe.

He his upgrade kits listed.

I bought a new asus board, via chipset etc... 1gb ram with a celeron 3.2ghz for under $400 - all brand new and boxed with warranties.

A great option if like you said already have a case, psu, drives etc...

[Cajun]

i think you be wrong skelstar

I have upgrade main dell machines with new drives/ram

Often the biggest problem is onboard video, and no agp slot to upgrade, so i have been known to install new motherboards dell boxs, with dell cpu, cdwriter and more ram

and what have you.
---

I still build computers for people, really depends on what they are after, if you just after something yo surf internet, do email, go warehouse whatever and get a dell, but if you want to look at games, or video editing it always best to custom make the parts so they work well together.

[skelstar]

i think you be wrong skelstar
Ok, cool. Thats why I asked.

[Drunken Monkey]

To clarify, Dell, IBM/Lenovo, HP/Compaq "etc..." don't build much proprietary hardware into their machines these days, so non-OEM hardware can usually be installed without any issues. The days of machines only accepting manufacturer approved parts are generally long gone.

[lb99]

well depends no matter how hard you try whatever you get will be super seeded and your chip won't be used in like 2 years.

Decide if you want intel or amd chip.

Next do you want onboard video (if don't play games or such onboard video is fine, even some modern boards have some pretty good video (128/256megs ati/nvidia video) and that in some way can point you in direction, personally i only realy use gigabyte or msi motherboards, but that is personal preference, its what i used and know work, and if have a problem, can be fixed simple & quickly.

And if you already have hdd/dvd writer, thats all you need bar some ram

youre on to it, I am happy with my OS, hdd, and dvd, but I want to expand my ram, processor, video, and sound, on a new main board, mainly cause mine only has pci slots, I dont give a toss about what the case looks like, and power supplys are easy enough to get hold of, I just need a shopping list,

mainboard
processor (whats the difference between amd and intel?)
ram
video
sound
ethernet
usb (lots of)

[Cajun]

youre on to it, I am happy with my OS, hdd, and dvd, but I want to expand my ram, processor, video, and sound, on a new main board, mainly cause mine only has pci slots, I dont give a toss about what the case looks like, and power supplys are easy enough to get hold of, I just need a shopping list,

mainboard
processor (whats the difference between amd and intel?)
ram
video
sound
ethernet
usb (lots of)

Well most motherboards now have video/sound/ethernet/usb on board, it realy depends on what sorta video you are after. if you are just web surfing email and what not anything will be okay, but if play basic games, you might want something which has a good onboard video card (but in turn this steals some of your ram)
Aka the computer i just build for dmnt, on the motherboard a 'ATI Radeon X1250' which you can tell it to be 32,64,128,256 megs of ram,
Ram cheap as chips 1Gb around $100ish
And well the chip realy depend son you, like i said earlyer i perfer amd, but others intel,
Intel/AMD are they only two companys that make chips for home computers, Intels are more expensive since often you are paying for name, at the moment they have the edge at higher end of marked. but they normally that fast average user not notice the difference.

since the chip also decides what motherboard you get. you decide from there.

If ya want to know more, drop me a pm, with sorta $$ you wanting to spend, and i can tell you what you could get in nz for that same money

[lb99]

Well most motherboards now have video/sound/ethernet/usb on board, it realy depends on what sorta video you are after. if you are just web surfing email and what not anything will be okay, but if play basic games, you might want something which has a good onboard video card (but in turn this steals some of your ram)
Aka the computer i just build for dmnt, on the motherboard a 'ATI Radeon X1250' which you can tell it to be 32,64,128,256 megs of ram,
Ram cheap as chips 1Gb around $100ish
And well the chip realy depend son you, like i said earlyer i perfer amd, but others intel,
Intel/AMD are they only two companys that make chips for home computers, Intels are more expensive since often you are paying for name, at the moment they have the edge at higher end of marked. but they normally that fast average user not notice the difference.

since the chip also decides what motherboard you get. you decide from there.

If ya want to know more, drop me a pm, with sorta $$ you wanting to spend, and i can tell you what you could get in nz for that same money


I'll sort out a budget and get in contact, cheers.... by the way, my hdd is faulty, how do I transfer my OEM install to a replacement one?

[Lias]

No I wasn't, I meant the Dell hardware/motherboard not liking you putting in upgrades (ie DVD drive. memory etc) that are non-Dell parts. I'm sure that this has been the case in the last 5 years.

Dell have been known to use non standard parts as have all the other major OEM's (IBM, HP/Compaq, Gateway etc). Mostly they are reasonably standard though.

And I agree about not buying from Malaysia to save a few bucks.

[Lias]

I'll sort out a budget and get in contact, cheers.... by the way, my hdd is faulty, how do I transfer my OEM install to a replacement one?

You dont.. If your old PC has an OEM copy of windows its LEGALLY only allowed to be used with that PC.. You change PC's you buy a new copy (which is why OEM copies are cheaper, and the COA is generally stuck on the side of the case)

If the only "media" you have is a HDD recovery partition its also damn near guaranteed to not work on another PC, recovery partitions(or discs for that matter) are almost invariably locked to the manufacturers hardware, and the drivers etc are generally part of the install so it would fail to boot on alternative hardware.

If thats not what you mean ignore me lol

*edit* Also if your old piece of shit happens to be a PC Company PC let me know, I can modify the bios on most motherboards to take their OEM XP install..

[lb99]

You dont.. If your old PC has an OEM copy of windows its LEGALLY only allowed to be used with that PC.. You change PC's you buy a new copy (which is why OEM copies are cheaper, and the COA is generally stuck on the side of the case)

If the only "media" you have is a HDD recovery partition its also damn near guaranteed to not work on another PC, recovery partitions(or discs for that matter) are almost invariably locked to the manufacturers hardware, and the drivers etc are generally part of the install so it would fail to boot on alternative hardware.

If thats not what you mean ignore me lol

*edit* Also if your old piece of shit happens to be a PC Company PC let me know, I can modify the bios on most motherboards to take their OEM XP install..

I want to install the OEM software on the origional pc, with a new hdd, so that should be ok surely, how do I do that?

[Lias]

I want to install the OEM software on the origional pc, with a new hdd, so that should be ok surely, how do I do that?

If the old HDD is so stuffed that it cant be read, then your pretty much stuffed. You'll need to contact the OEM and see if you can purchase a set of restore discs for your particular model. Otherwise if the HDD has issues but is readable any computer shop should be able to ghost the partition over onto a new HDD for you.

[Gremlin]

im going to build a comp soon, 4gb ram 500meg+ vid card some trick mobo and as much hdds i can fit.
meh... got that, going from 2gb to 4gb didn't make much difference at the moment, but if I run virtual machines (highly probable) I'll need the ram. If you have 1gb single channel, going to 2gb dual channel makes a massive difference, spesh when tabbing out of a game, for example.

If you know what you're doing, and can source parts with warranty without a massive mark up, I would build your own. I despise all the crap that comes installed automatically, even Dell has started that. I enjoy building mine anyway, as they aren't normal, so its fun to drool over the parts.

Re amd v intel, it depends what your going to get, and what fan you speak to. amd outclasses intel a lot, especially regards to heat, but the dual core ones need drivers, and take a bit of work to run stable (mine did). Intel core 2 duo's are proving quite cool and well priced tho, spesh the Exx50 series that are coming out, but you need 1333fsb, etc, so hmmmm got off topic... anyway...

no such thing as a future proof pc... ever...

[breakaway]

I bought a new asus board, via chipset etc... 1gb ram with a celeron 3.2ghz for under $400 - all brand new and boxed with warranties.

Celeron? $400? Sounds like you got ripped. However, if you aren't in the know, I guess it's a good idea to get a upgrade kit.

PS Be very careful buying computer parts on trademe. They will almost always rip you off.

Check out http://www.pricespy.co.nz/ for the cheapest prices in retail stores in NZ.

If you need help building a computer, PM me, and I'll sort you out.

[imdying]

Ouch, I didn't wanna say anything :o