I've got a challenge for you.

What's the best computer you could build for $200-300? Relying on like I suppose mostly online hardware vendors and such.

Anyway, it would run linux, no need for a monitor, graphics are important but by no means top priority, and err... Mostly just want it to be powerful and cheap.
So, any ideas?

 

why do you need a powerful computer? I still use a $50 600MHz Celeron Coppermine CPU with 128 MB RAM... and i get by fine. And oh yeah, i run linux, too.

 

Cause currently I'm on a p3 933mhz with 256mb and 32mb geforce2 gts or whatever and I find it rather insufficient. And I need a bigger hard drive too. Originally my budget was more like $1500, but I've cut down on what I plan to do with it and have better use for said money. Oh and it's Redhat 9 right now, suppose I'll go for Fedora Core or whatnot with the new one if it comes about..

 

why do you find it insufficient?

 

You probably won't get THAT much better than what you have for $200 to $300.

However, if you're willing to sell what you have (minus the peripherals maybe) and throw in $400, you could probably get something quite decent.

http://www.tomshardware.com/

 

Well I figure the cheapest AMD Athlon 64 I can find, plus about 1 gig ram and a motherboard would be the main cost, then harddrive and like a 128mb graphics card or so and such, I can pull the cddrive and such from this compie.

 

Just upgrade your current machine. Some RAM and a new harddrive should be fine. I highly doubt you can buy a computer that's better than yours on your budget, and if you will somehow manage to do so, it will have bad components which will ultimately break (possibly losing all of your data).

 

Well, decent motherboards that can run Athlon 64s are generally around $80 to $100.

Athlon 64's are about another $100 most likely.

A GB of RAM, for an Athlon 64, is probably going to gost you at least $100, if not $150, depending where you go.

And then a hard drive, anywhere from $50 to $100.

That's why I said sell your old junk (not that it's junk) and throw in $400.

 

Buy mine Patrick.. can't recall the individaul spec' but it sounds better than what you have.. . It has whatnot and that i do know.. Take it off my hands for the £150

 

Here are the specs for an excellent 500$ machine

 

Well, if I actually convince my cheap ass to spend some money, I'ma do it. :H Under $350, athlon 64, 128mb graphics, and not less than 768mb ram. I fugre that's do able, and I suppose small shit won't be incl;uded in the budget if necessary, but I'll try to fit it all in. Of course I'll probably just decide to not spend any money cause I'm cheap like that.

 

Alright, main thing taking up money is the CPU, cause I want at least an Athlon 64.. So anyway, so far...

-AMD Athlon 64 2800+ Newcastle 800MHz FSB 512KB L2 Cache Socket 754 Processor

-ECS 755-A2 v1.0 Socket 754 SiS 755 ATX AMD Motherboard

-TRENDnet TEW-423PI IEEE 802.11b/g PCI Wireless Adapter up to 54Mbps Data Rates WPA-PSK, 64/128-Bit WEP & WEP Passphrase

-Western Digital Caviar SE WD800JD 80GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache Serial ATA150 Hard Drive

-CORSAIR ValueSelect 512MB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200) System Memory

-CHAINTECH LA-FX20-H Geforce FX5200 128MB 64-bit DDR AGP 4X/8X Video Card

-Rosewill Value R103A Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 350W Power Supply


Comes out to a total of $320.98 not including tax or shipping..
I did lower my specs a bit, but still, doesn't seem too bad. If I was willing to sacrifice and get a Sempron 64 I could easily get it under $300.

Oh and I went for stuff that had at least decent reviews form many people.

 

heres a relativly fast setup
http://www.amberpcusa.com/smoreinfo.asp?iid=1565
or
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=150993&affiliate=shopping

good luck with the project

 

So does the above sound good? You people think I should do it?

 

I'm sorry did you just slip into finnish?

 

Alright I think I'm gonna order all this shit (got no choice now cause my stupid compy died ) Anyway:

Linkworld 435-10 C2228 Black & Silver Steel/Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 430W Power Supply

EPoX EP-8KDA3I Socket 754 NVIDIA nForce3 250 ATX AMD Motherboard

AMD Athlon 64 2800+ Newcastle 800MHz FSB 512KB L2 Cache Socket 754 Processor

Western Digital Caviar SE WD800JD 80GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM

CHAINTECH LA-FX20-H Geforce FX5200 128MB 64-bit DDR AGP 4X/8X Video Card

GeIL Value 512MB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200) System Memory

Creative SBS260 1.8 Watts RMS 2.0 Speaker

LITE-ON SK-1789/BS 2-Tone 104 Normal Keys 14 Function Keys PS/2 Wired Slim Keyboard


All together it come out to like $336 including 3 day shipping. Sound good to you guys?

 

Looks excellent. Got some quality parts in there, Athlon64, Caviar drive. The past few video cards I've bought have been chaintechs. Good value and decent for overclocking.

 

Well, I've now gotten everything ordered, but I can't decide about the OS. I've ordered an Ubuntu cd already, and probably going to get FC4 cd's, but anyone have any other suggestions?

 

I've heard good things about slackware.

 

Woo I've got it all together Running 64 bit Ubuntu at the moment but some things are kinda pissing me off about it, may try SLAMD64 (slackware). Kinda a pain in the ass when things don't have a 32 bit version though.. Most shit's simple enough to add the 32 bit files but some things are a bit of a hassle.