I need to build a REALLY cheap Computer for my teacher, please advise.

[DataOrb]

Hey, a teacher of mine asked me to build her a REALLY (REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY) Cheap "Upgrade/Computer" for her.
anyway, she is keeping her monitor, Hard Drive and cdrom, however, all else MUST go.
no problem right? well no! her Cash limit is 300$. yes, 300$!!
arrghh!!! 300$, and I am not from the US, so it's TWICE AS HARD with local prices!!


So, here is what I could find for that price:

Intel Celeron Based Mahine:

Abit VL6 Mainboard (onboard Sound). Via
ApoloPro 133 Based. - 100$
Intel 466Mhz PPGA Celeron. - 70$.
64mb PC100 SDRAM. - 80$
Diamond Stealth G460 Video. Intel 740I 8mb - 28$.
ESS Based PCI SoftModem - 25$.

= ~300$.

What do you think? (Remember, she only needs a BASIC computer. Net Acsses, Word Power Point. nothing more).

OR a K6-2 Based Machine.

AOpen AX59 Pro Minaboard. - 98$
K6-2 500Mhz - 69$.
64mb PC100 SDRAM. - 80$
Diamond Stealth G460 Video. Intel 740I 8mb - 28$.
ESS Based PCI SoftModem - 25$.

= ~ 300$.
So what about this?
with what config do you think I should go with?
NOTE: I can't overclock anything in this computer.
NOTE: mybe someday she will want to upgrade to a stronger CPU/Video card.

can you recommend of any other upgrade?

Thank You For your help.

------------------

"Excuse me for butting in, but I'm interrupt-driven..."
__________________________________________________ ____
Worstation Specs:
Asus P3B-F w/Celeron@680mhz
160mb PC100 7ns RAM.
Matrox G400 142/190Mhz.
IBM 75GXP 7200RPM 15Gb.
Seagate U8 4.1gb Hdd,
SBlaster Live! Digital.
17" Mag InnoVision 770Ti TrinitronFR Monitor @1152X864
Logitech MouseMan Wheel USB (on Everglide Giganta SE)
Focus 127keys MM Keyboard.
HP SCSI Cd-Rw 7200Si
AOpen X48 CD ROM.
AOpen 1040Pro Slot DVD
3Com NIc @ Tevel/3Com Cable Modem
Modded case, the "banshee". 6 fans.
3Com Palm IIIx + GoType + AxxPAC

[HollyBerri]

Good shopping, DataOrb!

I'd say go with the Celly system, for 3 reasons:[list=1][*] It's generally more stable than a K6-2 system;[*] It's a bit more powerful;[*] It's more upgradeable in case she wants a faster CPU at some point.[/list=a]

If you're spending $100USD anyway, why not get a BX board?... You can surely get one for the same price or cheaper. Check in various reseller's discontinued bins-- that's how I got a DFI BX board for $65USD (it was some time ago, and TC Computers no longer sells their discontinued warehouse stock that way ).

I know, she said she doesn't need much... but I have found that when people get PCs they find all kinds of things that they didn't know they could do before that they suddenly can't live without. So I always think you should leave some room to grow in any system you build. You wouldn't want her to have to build a whole new system just because she discovered Everquest or Quake3!

Can't you find a TNT or maybe even a TNT2 for about the same price? I think you'd do better with that than with the I740... maybe even an original G200, if you can find one-- not the new MMS version.

Boo to the SoftModem. Don't have experience with it, but anything called 'SoftModem' sounds bad to me. If you spend maybe $10 more for a voice modem, it will give you a Wave device and you can skip the onboard sound. It won't be perfect, but if and when she finds she needs an actual sound card, any old SB AWE 32 is cheap enough.

Check out The Computer Geeks Discount Outlet. They're very reliable, and they have some great deals on odd-lots and discontinued items.

------------------------------
Holly



[This message has been edited by HollyBerri (edited 30 July 2000).]

[DataOrb]

Thank HollyBerri,
Anyway, a Hardware modem costs too much for a 300$ System. I did not find any "Hardware" modem for under 60$, and beside, the ESS Chipset on the modem does the Modulation, and only the data transfer is done in software. so it got some "Hardware-ish" Qualities in it.
And about a BX Board, well, no. sorry.
Europe Prices are Higher then in the USA.
However, I can Squeese the Asus P2B-F or the DFI P2XBL-R.D, both are BX Based.
do you think I shuld go for them?
and what do you think about this PcChips board: http://202.82.156.83/766lmrt2.html
this will save me 30$, as it got Integraded all (video+sound+modem) for 100$, which can go into other parts of the system.

and about a video card, well, the Cheapest TNT2 I could find is for 60$. which is just to high for this sort of a system. I need a 30$ Video card.
I can get a speedstar 8 mb, but I am not sure.

------------------

"Excuse me for butting in, but I'm interrupt-driven..."
__________________________________________________ ____
Worstation Specs:
Asus P3B-F w/Celeron@680mhz
160mb PC100 7ns RAM.
Matrox G400 142/190Mhz.
IBM 75GXP 7200RPM 15Gb.
Seagate U8 4.1gb Hdd,
SBlaster Live! Digital.
17" Mag InnoVision 770Ti TrinitronFR Monitor @1152X864
Logitech MouseMan Wheel USB (on Everglide Giganta SE)
Focus 127keys MM Keyboard.
HP SCSI Cd-Rw 7200Si
AOpen X48 CD ROM.
AOpen 1040Pro Slot DVD
3Com NIc @ Tevel/3Com Cable Modem
Modded case, the "banshee". 6 fans.
3Com Palm IIIx + GoType + AxxPAC

[Sir Hitech]

DataOrb:

How about:

AMD Duron 600 - $74
Gigabyte GA-7ZX SocketA MB w/ audio - $125
Generic PC100 64mb DIMM - $55
Vediologic Apocalypse 3Dx 4MB SDRAM Video card - $12
Motorola Internal 56kFlex and V.90 modem - $8

=~$300 (including shipping?)

Or you can go for that E-machine...hahahaha

[DataOrb]

Sir Hitech, Local prices for that are:
600Mhz Duron - 100$.
Gigabyte GA-7ZX SocketA MB w/ audio - 134$.
Generic PC100 64mb DIMM - $75
ESS Modem (Motorla SfotModem is not good, trust me) - 25$
and a i740 8mb - 30$ (can't find the card you offerd). there are CHEPAER video cards, but not worth it.
so a Duron machine is: 364$.

which is just a 'TAD' Too high...


------------------

"Excuse me for butting in, but I'm interrupt-driven..."
__________________________________________________ ____
Worstation Specs:
Asus P3B-F w/Celeron@680mhz
160mb PC100 7ns RAM.
Matrox G400 142/190Mhz.
IBM 75GXP 7200RPM 15Gb.
Seagate U8 4.1gb Hdd,
SBlaster Live! Digital.
17" Mag InnoVision 770Ti TrinitronFR Monitor @1152X864
Logitech MouseMan Wheel USB (on Everglide Giganta SE)
Focus 127keys MM Keyboard.
HP SCSI Cd-Rw 7200Si
AOpen X48 CD ROM.
AOpen 1040Pro Slot DVD
3Com NIc @ Tevel/3Com Cable Modem
Modded case, the "banshee". 6 fans.
3Com Palm IIIx + GoType + AxxPAC

[Taz]

Have you considered a i810 or i815 based board, they have integrated video and sound which should keep costs down. Not great performance wise but fine for what she wants it for.

[DataOrb]

well, the Intel i815E board, with 4mb video and sound is 145$ here.
which is more then the 100$ for the Abit + 30$ 8mb Video + Sound. and a better solution.

------------------

"Excuse me for butting in, but I'm interrupt-driven..."
__________________________________________________ ____
Worstation Specs:
Asus P3B-F w/Celeron@680mhz
160mb PC100 7ns RAM.
Matrox G400 142/190Mhz.
IBM 75GXP 7200RPM 15Gb.
Seagate U8 4.1gb Hdd,
SBlaster Live! Digital.
17" Mag InnoVision 770Ti TrinitronFR Monitor @1152X864
Logitech MouseMan Wheel USB (on Everglide Giganta SE)
Focus 127keys MM Keyboard.
HP SCSI Cd-Rw 7200Si
AOpen X48 CD ROM.
AOpen 1040Pro Slot DVD
3Com NIc @ Tevel/3Com Cable Modem
Modded case, the "banshee". 6 fans.
3Com Palm IIIx + GoType + AxxPAC

[GT98]

As for a modem why don't you look at getting a Diamond SupraMax PCI modem? They are hardware based PCI modem and go for about $30 bucks......

Scott


------------------
Abit BH6 with a Celeron 2-566@877mhz,128mb RAM,G400 MAX,SB Live!, Optiquest V95 19in montor, Asus 40x CD-ROM, Aopen 5x DVD-ROM,HP9110i 8x4x32 CD-RW,SupraMax 56k modem, Win2000 on a WD 13 GB HDD, Win98 SE on Western Digital 30.7GB DOA....

[The Rock]

DataOrb:

Stay AWAY from PCchips mobos; stay FAR away. Those things are cheap pieces of garbage, unless they've improved since I last threw one away.

Bart

[DataOrb]

cking4, you are right, and I would enjoy this alot more, if I could buid her a more powerful machine... but she stress me for 300$ only...
and for the amount, I am happy I could find what I had...


------------------

"Excuse me for butting in, but I'm interrupt-driven..."
__________________________________________________ ____
Worstation Specs:
Asus P3B-F w/Celeron@680mhz
160mb PC100 7ns RAM.
Matrox G400 142/190Mhz.
IBM 75GXP 7200RPM 15Gb.
Seagate U8 4.1gb Hdd,
SBlaster Live! Digital.
17" Mag InnoVision 770Ti TrinitronFR Monitor @1152X864
Logitech MouseMan Wheel USB (on Everglide Giganta SE)
Focus 127keys MM Keyboard.
HP SCSI Cd-Rw 7200Si
AOpen X48 CD ROM.
AOpen 1040Pro Slot DVD
3Com NIc @ Tevel/3Com Cable Modem
Modded case, the "banshee". 6 fans.
3Com Palm IIIx + GoType + AxxPAC

[merchant2112]

bh6 , a reall good slot1 bx main board (abit) 94.00 us

or try looking at www.computergeeks.com

these guys have difrent things every day they buy close outs i have picked up odd ball things from them and never had a problem.



[This message has been edited by merchant2112 (edited 31 July 2000).]