"Ask CCF" - Please Suggest a Good, Cheap DIY PC Configuration

[The Gorn]

I want to build my wife a new computer - I don't like Dells any more and I am tired of adware on low end systems.

Some components like hard drives and memory seem dirt cheap today.

So what I would like to build is a 4 GB system with dual or quad core CPUs that runs Windows 7 with alacrity. It doesn't have to be a barn burner with high end graphics. She'd be happy with a reasonably fast, contemporary system (she now uses a Dell Vostro 200 with 2 GB which runs Windows XP Pro and which is blue screening too much for our comfort.)

I don't need much expansion capability so large cases with multiple bays and multiple PCI and Firewire ports are not really needed here.

Suggestions on a good combination of components?

Like to stay at or under $250.

[Origisaurus]

Your price point may be a bit unrealistic.  I'm pretty sure you can build what you want for $500 or less.  No monitor, but a tower with dual-core, DVD-R, 4GB RAM, 50GB or more disc,  and a bunch of USB ports.  My starting point for shopping is Tiger Direct.

[pxsant]

I  agree with Origisaurus.  Building it yourself would be satisfying but you would end up spending 50% or so more than a complete system from Dell or Tiger Direct or Newegg.  You can get a nice system with monitor for around $500.  No way you could build a comparable system for that. 

The only way to meet your price point is to get something used from eBay or Craigslist.

[Origisaurus]

Given what I know about your predilections, I wouldn't recommend a brand-name box, unless it was a refurb at a rock-bottom price, well under $200.  P'raps $500 is a bit much, but I think $300 is closer to what you're looking for than $200.  Better to match your requirements than to save $50.

Just had a talk today about monitors.  You simply can't buy a CRT anymore.  And decent LCDs go for $125 or less.

In replying, I assumed that you, like me, have a few working monitors lying about.  No need to buy another, until something dies.   Same way NICs and video drivers, in the parts bin.

[Richardk]

I haven't built one in years but off-the-shelf is so cheap today. I agree with the others about the price point being low for a DIY option plus where to look.

Just had a talk today about monitors.  You simply can't buy a CRT anymore.  And decent LCDs go for $125 or less.

Ha, just found a brand new CRT in storage. How did we forget about that? Now, what to do with it?

[DG9]

What does/will she use it for? 

[pxsant]

I wouldn't recommend a brand-name box, unless it was a refurb at a rock-bottom price, well under $200. 

Actually that's a pretty good idea.  Here is an example of a cheap refurb from Microcenter.

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0364508

It does not have enough memory so you would end up around $200 or so for the box.  Add another 125 for a monitor and you are only around 325. 

Go to the main page of Microcenter and click on the "Refurbished Deals" tab for a complete list.  Just be sure to check the specs before you buy to make sure it can take the correct amount of memory and also check memory prices for that type.  I use http://www.1stchoicememory.com/ as a memory supplier.

I purchased my last laptop from Microcenter as a refurb and I am very satisified.  Saved about $$200 as compared to a new one.

[Walter Mitty]

This may be off base for the OP's immediate goal. 

I like closeouts.  The machine I am currently typing this on was a Wal-Mart closeout.  It came with XP and the usual complement of free applications.  It cost me $299, or maybe even $199, I forget which. 

I saw the close out one week, and in my usual fashion, I resisted the temptation to buy on impulse.  I went back a week later, and the closeouts were gone.  In their place was a model that cost $100 more, and came with Vista.  I didn't want Vista, and I didn't want to pay $100 more. 

So I asked the sales clerk about the close out.  She told me that there were two or three left out back,  and she went and got one for me.  It has served me well.  Then again, I impose an extremely light load on my desktop machines.  Just barely scratch the surface.

In the 1990s we had bought a closeout for a home machine, while I still had another machine as an office machine.  That one lasted us about five years.  It served us well.

[I D Shukhov]

What does/will she use it for?

Right, if it's for web surfing and web mail I think a Linux system will meet the requirements of < $250 and running with alacrity.  I have my doubts about a system at this price running Windows 7.

Just to brainstorm this a little,  could you create an account for your wife on your powerful i7 machine and let her use it remotely with http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rdesktop.  I think you could easily get away with a cheap machine in that case.  The cheap client would run Linux and use Rdesktop -- your i7 machine would have more than enough horsepower for her to use.  Rdesktop works great.

An additional advantage of having your PC serve windows sessions is that you don't have to maintain an additional PC, as in backups, updates, updating virus-prone applications like Adobe products, running 3rd-party antivirus software.  As long as Rdesktop is the only application used, the Linux OS can probably get out of date and it wouldn't matter.   All of the administration would be done on your PC.

Never mind.  Windows does not allow concurrent users without a hack:  http://www.missingremote.com/guide/how-enable-concurrent-sessions-windows-7-service-pack-1-rtm.  Probably more trouble than it's worth.

[Walter Mitty]

There's an obvious down side to closeouts.  You're on the trailing edge.  That's not good for leapfrogging.

I was never on the leading edge, if you exclude the MDL project.   Maybe that's why I wasn't more successful.  But it was a lot lower stress. 

I didn't learn structured programming until about 1974, about ten years behind the leading edge.  I didn't learn relational databases until about 1984, a full 14 years after EF Codd's paper, and a good six years after Oracle RDBMS.  I didn't buy an IBM compatible PC until 1992,  when I wanted some applications that ran on Windows 3.1.

[The Gorn]

It looks like I'll have to do my own research and get back to the board with some answers.

The point of this is to come up with much better hardware than the major vendors like HP, Dell, etc supply in their prebuilt pieces of poo.

And another point of this is to *not* be on the trailing edge with another 1 GB machine that runs Windows XP.

I meant the cost without the OS, by the way.

[pxsant]

I ran some real numbers by pricing individual components at Microcenter.  This is average run of the mill stuff, not high end.  You could go about $100 less by going with a Celeron and a lower end mtherboard. 

For mid range items, add $200 or so.  For high end, non gaming, add $500.     So your objective of $250 will not even come close for a low end system.


Motherboard - $75
Intel I5 Processor - $150
4 gig memory - $50
DVD Writer - $30
Case/power Supply - $75
Monitor - $125

Total - $505

[The Gorn]

Ok, thanks.

Meanwhile, the lowest end Vista and Windows 7 compatible boxes from Newegg and Tiger sell for $350 and under, but include the OS too. I was trying to beat that price level. So that is where I came up with a target price.

I was not including a monitor, just the PC box with CPU, memory, and a DVD drive.  You did leave out the hard drive (her current HDD is pretty small, like 80  GB.) But one could replace the price of the monitor with a slightly lower price for a current 1 TB hard drive and the overall price is still about the same.

I was thinking more along the lines of a bare bones MB+case kit from Tiger or Newegg. And I was not thinking of a processor as current as the i5. But even lower prices on those items would not make an appreciable difference in the total price. Maybe $100 less.

[The Gorn]

This may be off base for the OP's immediate goal. 

I like closeouts. 

Not really. That's a good idea. And in the same mode: refurbs, deals of the day via Woot and similar sites, and clearance items. I don't want to go one generation back since that is what my wife is on right now, but you are thinking as I am.

My motivation for aiming so low in price is simple: PCs are practically sold obsolete. I consider them Kleenex grade disposable appliances. And this time around, that fact bugs me enough to try to bargain shop.

$500 for a powerful, current machine is really not a bad deal at all. But if I can go lower, why not try?

[Origisaurus]

PCs are practically sold obsolete. I consider them Kleenex grade disposable appliances.

PC makers are students of Alfred Sloan, who sold us any number of Chevys slightly different from last years' model.

But, just as my 1937 V8-60 got me from point A to B, even though it was 20 years out of date, I submit that you don't need the latest PC.  If your Main Squeeze were doing cutting-edge work, she might need that latest and greatest.  If not, a one-or-two generation out-of-date machine might just be right for her.   At the minimum of the price curve.

You've got it absolutely right wrt obsolescence.  The game is to ride the curve of cost vs utility.