On the suggestion by sycophant I would have to agree that a barebones
system would have you running at the best for the cheapest price. If I
remember correctly tigerdirect is a refurbished online distribution so
the alternative I would suggest if you like new parts would be from
the list below:
http://www.newegg.com
http://www.mwave.com
Also, another website you might want to check out
http://www.spoofee.com
It is an online deals site which occasionally posts deals on Dell
computers which have coupons for bargain desktop computers sometimes
being about $400 with an included lcd monitor and a decent computer.
Also with the Dell's the add on options of a webcam for $20 dollar is
usually within the customization options.
As for if you want to build it yourself then the operating system does
become one of the most expensive parts of this system, as the windows
operating system by itself is expensive, which is why I still would
recommend a prebuilt system, the plug and play capabilities of those
are unparalled for the work in building your own if you have never
done it.
Windows OEM XP Home is running about $90 on newegg.com
The motherboard should be too much of a concern, it really depends on
which processor line you are more comfortable with. Both the athlon
lines and pentium's are dropping in price right now due to a new
release by intel of the core 2 duo chips, so now is the time to buy a
new processor. Some of the older product lines are at deep %50 cuts
and this is something you won't see reflected in prebuilt machines for
a few months.
My personal recommendation is to go with an athlon 64, socket 939,
probably about a 3500+ which is running about $89.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103533
The motherboard itself is something you might have to decide on, look
for socket 939 and any other classifications you want and read the
reviews on them, usually newegg reviews are fairly accurate
descriptions of the product. Here is a board for about $60 which is of
the newer technology so it leaves room for upgrades if you ever decide
to go the route of windows vista. Can support up to 4GB of ram, has
SATA (faster hard drive transfer), and can be upgraded with a video
card which vista is requiring.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813135177
512MB of Ram runs between $40 and $50, I have posted links to a $40
512MB stick, which is more budget ram although I have to admit the 1GB
stick I have in my gaming system even performs well, and then a $50
512MB stick which has faster CAS latency and a heatspreader, so that
you won't have to worry about any ram modules going out on you.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820223009
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820146846
Hard drives, look for something in the SATA (serial ATA) variety, this
will give you good transfer rates and I have noticed the increase
speeds of these drives over IDE even with simple web surfing tasks.
Capacity is up to you, but check out newegg to see what you might
want. Here's an 80GB for about $45.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822135106
Optical drives, go with 16x dvd-rw which is running under $40 for a
decent drive, this way you'll have dvd viewing and burning in case you
need to back up your system at any point in time.
Cases are best bought directly on sale at your local electronics
stores, the shipping on one of these things can totally blow away any
savings you may get from an online store. Also this way you can see
the case before you buy it.
Keyboard and mouse, under $20 on newegg for a basic set, wireless
under $40 I believe.
Webcams can be bought for as cheap as $10, or you could go as expensive as $100.
Here is one that I think would suffice for $40, and is logitech which
I have known them to be quality.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16830108128
Monitor, 15 inch lcd's are really available to the point where they
are cheap anymore, its almost just easier to take the plung into a 17
inch lcd. For $130 you can get a 15 inch lcd, for $150 you can get a
17 inch, for the upgrade from 1024x768 to 1280x1024, its worth the $20
in the amount of screen real estate while web browsing.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824009081
If I forgot anything let me know. |
