Dear rafikki,
I am not in a position to make any recommendation as to which
computer-parts vendor you should patronize, but let me mention that
I have always bought my parts from TigerDirect. I have not yet been
disappointed by their service, and I've found that they always have the
lowest or nearly the lowest price on everything.
If I were to order a system from them to meet all your specifications,
I would pick the following components. In each case I have chosen a very
inexpensive model that still comes from a reputable manufacturer. I know
from experience that if you buy the absolutely rock-bottom cheapest parts,
you'll end up with a system that spontaneously reboots a dozen times a
day, and I don't think that's what you want.
Case with power supply
----------------------
I would pick a PMI mid-tower case with a 300-watt power supply, which
is ample for a 2 GHz CPU and several I/O cards. A similar case can be
had for $5 less, but a customer review mentions that it buckled when he
placed some heavy books on it. I don't know whether the PMI case is any
stronger, but at least there is no evidence to the contrary.
TigerDirect: PMI EZ-Media SOHO ATX Mid Tower Case with Pentium 4 Ready
300Watt Power Supply: $34.99
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=683841&Sku=P452-3006
CPU At least 2 Ghz
------------------
A good choice here is a 2.66 GHz Intel Celeron, which is even cheaper than
the comparable AMD processor, the Sempron. The Celeron has half the cache
size of its big brother, the Pentium 4, but costs half as much. Anyway,
when you're running graphics-intensive games, the bottleneck is not at
the CPU but at the video card. If you're not willing to wait 7-21 days
for the least expensive Celeron to ship, you can pay $20 more for the
next model up, which is in stock now.
TigerDirect: Intel Celeron D 330 2.66Ghz / 256K Cache / 533 FSB / Socket
478 / Processor: $79.99
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=914147
TigerDirect: Intel Celeron D 335 2.80Ghz / 256K Cache / 533 FSB / Socket
478 / Processor: $99.99
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=914148
Motherboard (preferably a couple of USB 2.0 connectors, a few PCI slots, and of
----------- course whatever is appropriate for the Video Card)
For the Celeron, you want a Socket 478 motherboard. It is also a good
idea to pay attention to the arrangement of the I/O port cutouts on
the back of the computer case so that you don't end up having to punch
holes in it to accommodate the motherboard. A perfect match for the CPU
and case above is the following board from Mach Speed. The only cheaper
option from TigerDirect is to pay $5 less for a Shuttle motherboard that
doesn't match the case cutouts. Both that alternative and this Mach Speed
board are currently available with a $30 rebate form that you have to
fill out and mail in according to the manufacturer's exact instructions
if you want to get the money. Then you wait two months for the check,
which you must quickly cash before it expires. They deliberately make
it difficult for the consumer to get a rebate paid out, so I usually
don't take rebates into account when I make a purchasing decision.
TigerDirect: Mach Speed X-Caliber P4X400DBP VIA Socket 478 ATX Motherboard
/ AGP 8X/4X/2X / Audio / 10/100Mbps Ethernet LAN / USB 2.0: $64.99
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=146921&CatId=182
Video Card (128 mb, for gaming)
----------
You can buy an AGP or PCI video card for the above motherboard, which has
one AGP slot and five PCI. However, a given model of card is typically
about $10 cheaper in the AGP version. I would get the following 128 MB
card from ABIT, a reputable manufacturer whose chipsets I currently
use at work. This card has digital and TV outputs in addition to the
conventional VGA output.
TigerDirect: Abit Radeon 9200se / 128MB DDR / AGP 8X / VGA / DVI /
TV Out / Video Card: $54.99
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1079108&CatId=694
RAM 512 mb
----------
To match the motherboard and CPU above, I would want to purchase PC2700
DDR RAM, which runs at 333 MHz. At present, one stick of 512 MB RAM is
cheaper than two sticks of 256 MB each. I would choose Viking memory,
which is not the cheapest, but I have bought it before and trust the brand
enough to buy it again. It might interest you, or it might not, to know
that this particular product comes with a $15 mail-in rebate at present.
TigerDirect: Viking 512MB PC2700 DDR 333MHz Memory: $84.99
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=513669&CatId=843
DVD-ROM
-------
The DVD-ROM drive is one of those interchangeable components where no one
model works better than another. The only difference between brands might
be their expected lifetime. Since I like my hardware to last for years,
not months, I would buy a well-established brand name. Furthermore, since
brand-name DVD-ROM drives cost almost the same nowadays as brand-name
DVD+/-RW drives, which let you not only read but burn discs, I would
buy the latter. I'm salivating over the Toshiba 8x8 DVD+/-RW drive. If
my girlfriend insisted that I buy a drive with a black casing to match
the computer case above, I would pay $10 more for the equally nice
Memorex drive.
TigerDirect: Toshiba 8x4x12x DVD±RW / 32x16x40x CD-RW / Dual / DVD
Burner: $59.99
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1076616&Sku=P34-2024
TigerDirect: Memorex D20243 / 8x4x12x DVD±RW / 24x24x40x CD-RW / Nero
Software / DVD Burner: $69.99
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1079112&Sku=M200-4200
Hard Drive (greater than 40 gb)
----------
A good rule of thumb is that no matter how much storage you buy, you will
always end up wanting more. The best you can hope to accomplish with
the purchase of a larger drive is to put off the inevitable slightly
longer. Personally, no matter what capacity I buy, I always insist on
a model with 8 MB of cache rather than 2 MB, since reading from the
hard-drive cache is much, much faster than seeking the data from the
disk proper. A very good deal at present is the Western Digital 80 GB
drive for $75. An even better one is the 120 GB model, which costs a
third more but gives you half again as much disk capacity. It also comes
with a $30 mail-in rebate at present.
TigerDirect: Western Digital / Caviar / 80GB / 7200 / 8MB / ATA-100 EIDE /
Hard Drive: $74.99
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=322750
TigerDirect: Western Digital / 120GB / 7200 / 8MB / ATA-100 / EIDE Hard
Drive: 9$99.99
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=291932
The above are pretty much the components I would buy in your situation,
although I might not buy them all from the same source. If I did buy
them all from TigerDirect, choosing the cheaper option in each case
where I listed two, the total before taxes and shipping would come to
$454.93. Shipping would add another $31.16, for a total of $486.09.
I have not included the value of any rebates, since I habitually don't
assume that I will manage to follow all the redemption instructions
on time.
The computer case alone contributes about $12 to the shipping charge,
so I would probably buy a similar case, with an identical I/O port cutout
to match the motherboard, from a local discount computer shop. This shop
can't match TigerDirect's pricing on the other components, however. An
added advantage if you don't live in Florida, Illinois, or North Carolina
is that you don't pay sales tax on the TigerDirect purchase.
If you feel that my answer is incomplete or inaccurate in any way, please
post a Clarification Request so that I have a chance to meet your needs
before you assign a rating.
Regards,
leapinglizard |
