Whats the best system you can build for under 500 dollars

[MannyIsGod]

well?

[Useruser666]

www.cyberpowerinc.com

[Aggie Hoopsfan]

Computer, or car audio?

[MannyIsGod]

Computer.

500 bucks won't get you a car audio system that I'd call decent by any stretch.

[Aggie Hoopsfan]

I'm going off Newegg...

AMD 64 2800+ $114
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...103-491&depa=1

AOpen AK86-L Motherboard $65
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...137-042&depa=1

Kingmax 512 MB PC3200 $64.25
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...156-006&depa=1

NEC 3520 DVD Dual Layer Burner $62.50
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...152-040&depa=1

Seagate 80 GB Barracuda SATA Drive $72
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...148-040&depa=1

Antec 350W case $58
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...129-149&depa=1

Asus ATI Radeon 9200SE $48
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...121-506&depa=1

==============

That all totals out to $482, throw in another case fan to help cooling for $9.50
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...129-028&depa=0

Total is $491.

I'm assuming you've already got a mouse, keyboard, monitor, and XP floating around.

[Aggie Hoopsfan]

And I know it'd push you over $500, but I'd throw in a CD-ROM drive also, those run about $15, or $25 for a DVD-ROM (even better).

[MannyIsGod]

Very ing nice.

[Aggie Hoopsfan]

And that'll be a $100 consulting fee by the way

[baseline bum]

That's just sick to have that kind of system for $500. BTW, Newegg is by far the best online dealer I've ever found. The prices are usually very good and the service is top-notch.

2 things
- that CPU is OEM, so you gotta get a heatsink too
- I'm not so sure about AOpen boards. I'd probably spend an extra few bucks to get one made by Abit or Asus who have consistently made incredible motherboards for years (those are the only 2 companies I ever buy a motherboard from) with amazing BIOS best of all no jumpers.

[Nbadan]

with amazing BIOS best of all no jumpers.

No Jumpers is for pussies.

I think it's a mistake not to switch over to a PCI Express if you can afford it, but the video card, MB and 775 Pentuim w/fan will cost around $350 or more leaving little for good RAM, a decent inexpensive Sound Blaster, and a double-layer DVD writer. Probably closer to $600 but at least you'd be moving forward instead of backwards.

[Aggie Hoopsfan]

Yeah, the AOpen gets good reviews, but I'd go with a Gigabit board, or one of the aforementioned Asus or Abit boards (I was trying to come in under price point).

PCI-Express ain't worth it right now. There's scant few boards, and the cost isn't justified unless you're running out to play Doom 3.

Good catch on the processor fan and heat sink, damn had to ruin my fun bum

As long as the board's got 5.1 channel audio, you're fine.

I admit I had to skimp a little on the mobo, but I was doing my damndest to come in under $500.

[whottt]

I'm not sold on the double layer DVD drives yet...I've only had limited experience with double layer disks(renting movies that are double layer) but in my experience once side is invariably ed up and has to be cleaned. Those new sleeves they have come out with may solve that problem though. I got a thing for Plextor drives..but then I'm always having to burn or rip CD+G's for my girlfriend.

That is a good system you picked out there AHF.

I'd definitely give NewEgg a browse but I'd also check the weekend paper and see what kind of deals Frye's is offering...they always seem to have 1 or 2 sweet deals on hardrives, MB's, CPU's, or memory.

[whottt]

BTW, AHF, how about a real test...what kind of new laptop can you get for under $500?







Getting wallet ready and

[Aggie Hoopsfan]

Under $500 laptop? Head down to the south side, it's probably hot though You should asked at Thanksgiving, Best Buy had a Toshiba for $499.

The dual layer drives are great. I just built a new AMD 64 system (liiiiiittle bit faster than the one above) with the NEC burner in it and it kicks ass (for comparison's sake it encodes and burns a DVD in 40 minutes, versus 2.5 hours on my 2 GHz Toshiba laptop).

I haven't even touched dual layer media, it does great on the single layers, and you can do compression with DVD Shrink to fit anything onto one DVD (outside of that LOTR Extended Edition, forget it!).

[MannyIsGod]

The most intensive program used on this computer will be Access.

Not gonna worry much about the power, but I wanted to give my mom the best bang ofr her buck.

I used to be more into building systems, but I've gotten way out of the loop.

Thanks for the help.

[Nbadan]

PCI-Express ain't worth it right now. There's scant few boards, and the cost isn't justified unless you're running out to play Doom 3.

Total cost is just about $100 more than the basic system you designed, but you get comparable performance of a $200-$300 8XAGP GForce or Radeon video card. Besides, Radeon is gonna convert all its newer cards to PCI Express. You know motherboard makers aren't gonna be far behind.

[baseline bum]

I would figure you wouldn't be down with Radeon considering how horrible ATI's Linux support is. They still write their freaking drivers for XFree86 even though most distros have switched to XOrg months ago.

[Aggie Hoopsfan]

For starters, Manny said he doesn't need to do anything more than Access. So why are you even still going about PCI-Express?

And even if it were relevant, it's not even anywhere near just a $100 difference, not even close.

For starters, there are no AMD PCI-Express mother boards out there, you've got to have something with an Intel 915 chipset on board, which basically means you're staring at a Pentium 4. So you've already added on well over $100 in cost for a damn processor and motherboard, just for the *privilege* of buying an expensive ass video card that does Manny's mom no good. But to play devil's advocate...

There's only two decent PCI-Express cards out there, the GeForce 6800 GT (over $400 and usually out of stock anywhere that would have it - it even goes higher than manufacturer's suggested list on eBay!) and the ATI X800 (good luck finding one anywhere, it's basically the vid card everyone's heard of but no one's ever seen).

You're looking upwards of $1000 for a PCI-Express capable system, and for what? Go check out Tom's Hardware, anything over x4 on the PCI-Express is essentially useless in modern day computing, and will be for some time.

Combine all that, spending more jack just for a vid card you're not using, then throw in the fact that you won't even be able to throw Windows 64 on your pretty little PCI-Express system two years from now, and you've just dropped a grand for an already obsolete computer. Good call on that one Dan.

I do all this for a living right now, I'd like to think I know my stuff.

[whottt]

LOL and for starters...from the date ATI starts making cards for PCI express, it'll be about 3 years before they actually have drivers that work worth a with those cards.

Never buy a 1st generation ATI card....ever.

All I buy are ATI AIW's...but I learned a hard and expensive lesson about buying 1st generation ATI's...

ATI has just now reached the point where their Radeon drivers actually work with AGP.

If dude is buying a PC for his mother and it's just to run business apps, the last thing he needs to be doing is ing around with a bunch of 1st generation hardware.

[whottt]

Aggie, you are right, my problem with dual layers has more to do with the disks than the drives themselves...I guess I'm just saying the dual layer format doesn't give me enough incentive to go out and buy a drive just to get the dual layer capabilities....all the new ones will probably have that capability though so I may as well start getting ready for it. I won't pay extra just to get that capability though.

I love DVD shrink, it comes with a bunch of my favorite editing software...like DVD Copy or Clone(otherwise known around my house as, "rent it once, own it forever" )


I'mn bummed I missed out on that Toshiba. The laptop I have right now is an old Toshiba and it has been just about the most durable computer I have ever owned. It's 4 years old and I have never had to do a single repair on it...

[whottt]

Manny I have some questions for you...

1.Does your Mama want a new monitor?
2.Is anyone going to be doing any heavy audio and video work on this PC?
3.Does she already own a copy of WinXP?

I just got done building my mom a New PC...and if your Mom is like mine, $500 spent entirely on the computer and interntal hardware is probably more PC than she needs...

And the monitor is probably important to her...

My advice is don't worry about getting any high end audio or video...a good MB with onboard will work for her purposes...and that way you can spend some of that money getting her either a small LCD monitor or a very large CRT monitor.

In the past, I've always spent a lot of time and effort and $ setting up my Mom's PC for audio and video and she never uses that stuff...ever.

What ever you do, get her an Antec Power Supply and lots of memory.

[Nbadan]

You're looking upwards of $1000 for a PCI-Express capable system, and for what? Go check out Tom's Hardware, anything over x4 on the PCI-Express is essentially useless in modern day computing, and will be for some time.

Combine all that, spending more jack just for a vid card you're not using, then throw in the fact that you won't even be able to throw Windows 64 on your pretty little PCI-Express system two years from now, and you've just dropped a grand for an already obsolete computer. Good call on that one Dan.

I build a PCI Express compatible computer for about $600 so I know it can be done. You don't necessarily have to buy a top-of-the-line PCI Express video card to surpass the video quality you would get from a 256k 8xAGP system. There are quality cards available for less than $135 that will do the job. It's best to stay with Intel MB since intel makes the only BIOs that works with the 775 Pentium chips. Total costs would be about $450 for the video card, MB, and chip delivered. Throw in a $55 512mb PC 2700, a used $20 soundblaster, a $25 52xCD rewriter, a $30 case w/ power supply, a $15 fan w/heatsink, and a $75 WD 8mg, SATA 120GB HD. A bit pricer, but infinitely superior.

[Nbadan]

If dude is buying a PC for his mother and it's just to run business apps, the last thing he needs to be doing is ing around with a bunch of 1st generation hardware.

Actually, I've built quite a few PCI Express systems and they are very stable. Intel boards are notorious for their stability if not for anything else, but your right it's more of a gamers machine than a 'starter' machine. However, I thought the objective was to build the best system for the money, not design the 'best basic system' for the money.

[Shelly]

see what kind of deals Frye's is offering.

We don't have Frye's here. We used to go to the one in the Bay area all the time. That place cracked me up because it was the only computer store I've ever been in where you could by food and shampoo and other crazy stuff like that. I think there were some Moose heads on the walls also.

Toshiba laptops are great. Toshiba desktops are . My dad had two of them and they gave him nothing but trouble.

[Samurai Jane]

We don't have Frye's here. We used to go to the one in the Bay area all the time. That place cracked me up because it was the only computer store I've ever been in where you could by food and shampoo and other crazy stuff like that. I think there were some Moose heads on the walls also.

Toshiba laptops are great. Toshiba desktops are . My dad had two of them and they gave him nothing but trouble.

There's one in Houston.. my in-laws took me there one time.. cool store.

This is Off Topic, but I didn't want to start a new thread..

Any of you programmers know anything about Managed C or MFC? If so, know where I can get it?