Building my own PC & have questions

[gniknave]

I need to do this on the super cheap. I already have a tower, plenty of fans, 2 DVDRW's and power supply.

What I need to know:

How can I get the motherboard, cpu, video card, sound card (if it's not built in the motherboard), memory, hard drive, and operating system disk on the cheap?

I don't need this pc to do anything special. I just want it to at the very least perform like my laptop.

My laptop has an AMD Turion 64 X2 [1.6 ghz, 256kb +256kb L2 cache, up to 1600mhz system bus] 1024 system memory, 100gb (5400rpm) hard drive

I'm happy with how the laptop performs, and I don't need the PC to do anything more. My PC will be mainly for casual use to keep people from coming over my apartment and using my laptop to get on the internet, I'd like to limit how much I use the laptop.

Any help is appreciated, but please speak in plain English, I'm not an expert.

[n0odle]

I build PCs for friends and family I believe I can help you. What's your budget?

[Encryptshun]

http://www.newegg.com

[gniknave]

I build PCs for friends and family I believe I can help you. What's your budget?

My budget is $200-300, but preferably cheaper. I don't want to get too high up there because then it would start to defeat the purpose of me making my own system when I could go buy one for the same price. What part of the Bay are you from?

http://www.newegg.com

thanks!

[Dattebayo]

http://www.pricewatch.com

[skydragoness]

http://www.newegg.com

/thread My computer was built w/ 100% Newegg-bought parts.

[n0odle]

For 300 you might as well get a factory built with the specs you want lol

and yes newegg ftw

[xekushnr]

/thread My computer was built w/ 100% Newegg-bought parts.

Same here!

Actually my current video card was store bought. The place was going out of business, and it was real cheap.

newegg.com

[gniknave]

For 300 you might as well get a factory built with the specs you want lol

and yes newegg ftw

So are you saying that I could get the specs I want for cheaper through newegg? Any product recommendations on that site?

[Urabus GodofTraction]

A month's worth of checking http://www.slickdeals.net daily can get you some seriously good equipment, seriously cheap.

[BoostFab]

http://ww.frys.com have good sales every friday.http://www.pricewatch.com is good place to see good prices

video = nvidiasound = noboardmotherboard = nvidia chipset, (i personally like amd am2)mem = DDR (not ddr2, for budget mind)

[honda_killer240]

AMD>intel

motherboard i like either asus or abit

nvidia on the video for sure

ddr2 is perfectly fine. u can get a gig dual channel set for like 60 bux for a few set off of newegg if u wanna go dd2 800

for hard drives trust no other then western digital

http://ww.frys.com mem = DDR (not ddr2, for budget mind)

ddr2 has become cheap to. i can get a 512 stick of ddr2 for my computer for 15 bux shipped from newegg.

[otterman]

I don't expect you to be able to find any parts if you can't even find the computers section on Nico

[MinisterofDOOM]

AMD>intel

Right now that's very much up in the air depending on what set of chips you're looking at.

No doubt the K8 is superior to the P4. But the Core 2 is more than a match for the K8-derived Athlon X2.

The new K10 looks to be one serious beast of a chip, though. It shares a lot of it's predecessor's benefits while bringing AMD up to speed with the multi core world.

For what Evan's after, AMD is indeed probably the way to go. P4 sucks.

[honda_killer240]

Right now that's very much up in the air depending on what set of chips you're looking at.

No doubt the K8 is superior to the P4. But the Core 2 is more than a match for the K8-derived Athlon X2.

The new K10 looks to be one serious beast of a chip, though. It shares a lot of it's predecessor's benefits while bringing AMD up to speed with the multi core world.

For what Evan's after, AMD is indeed probably the way to go. P4 sucks.

im putting off putting an SR in my coupe so i build a new rig with this chip

Brand AMDProcessors Type DesktopSeries Phenom 9000 SeriesModel HD9600WCGDBOXCPU Socket TypeCPU Socket Type Socket AM2+Tech SpecCore AgenaMulti-Core Quad-Core <-------------- Name Phenom 9600Operating Frequency 2.3GHzHT 3600MHz<--------not to bad either/not a bad chip for 280 bux L1 Cache 4 x 128KBL2 Cache 4 x 512KBL3 Cache 2MBManufacturing Tech 65 nm64 bit Support YesHyper-Transport Support YesVirtualization Technology Support YesMultimedia Instruction MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSE4a,3DNOW! ProfessionalVoltage 1.10/1.15/1.20/1.25VThermal Power 95WCooling Device Heatsink and Fan included

AMD nuff said
Modified by honda_killer240 at 2:43 AM 12/14/2007

[MinisterofDOOM]

Yep, very nice.

[240Knightrider]

Whats the real question? Want to build it cheap?

Newegg is ok. Not the best deals around like most believe.

Ebay or of course through me . Or from the Great TigerDirect.comMSI PM8PM-V order it from the seller Gearxs if from Ebay. Pentium D 3.04 DCGet a gig of memory to boot. Fans are not too expensive dont spend more than $30.But make sure it comes with the cooling gel. Once you get those together dont pay more than $50 for a nice 160GB HD. You can pay a little more ang get twice that if you look around.

If you need more help just post. Ive built to many machines to count.

[gniknave]

I don't expect you to be able to find any parts if you can't even find the computers section on Nico

I'm not here very often these days but I've been a member for going on 4 years. I must have missed the addition of the computer forum.

[jallen]

slickdeals is a must. although you could probably find a full desktop setup for the same price as individual parts

start with this thread

http://forums.slickdeals.net/s...53826

[honda_killer240]

Or from the Great TigerDirect.com

tigerdirect is the gay. i have ordered a hand full up parts from there and had to return them all DOA. my roommate built a whole computer from there cuz it was "cheap" and he went against my advice on going to newegg. out of everything ht bought from there for his computer he had to return the motherboard it was DOA he had to return the RAM twice. the hard drive was not the right one he ordered. since then he has dealt with just newegg.

[Zyphar]

tigerdirect is the gay. i have ordered a hand full up parts from there and had to return them all DOA. my roommate built a whole computer from there cuz it was "cheap" and he went against my advice on going to newegg. out of everything ht bought from there for his computer he had to return the motherboard it was DOA he had to return the RAM twice. the hard drive was not the right one he ordered. since then he has dealt with just newegg.

My first computer was from Tigerdirect. It was fine until I wanted to upgrade. I just wanted to replace my video card and I ended up changing everything because it wasn't compatible. (They used a PCI slot for a video card back when AGP was the norm). They screw you over by showing off a good video card and CPU and they going cheap on every other part they can find.

A good place to start would be... http://www.zipzoomfly.com

Most of the time you can find a better deal then newegg. I always search for hours to find the best deal and I always end up at Zipzoomfly. They also have free 3 day shipping on most of their parts.

So far I have built 3 complete PCs from parts ordered from them.

[Zyphar]

Oh and goto...

http://www.tomshardware.com

If you want to check out good reviews on pretty much any computer part.

[jallen]

also if you buy something from tigerdirect with a rebate, you shouldn't actually expect to get your rebate...ever

[BoostFab]

Newegg is ok.

newegg & fry's is best in my book. no hassle experience.

Get a gig of memory to boot.

that's windblowz for you, 2 gig for vistcrap. see my avatar!

Once you get those together dont pay more than $50 for a nice 160GB HD.

you can do 320g for $69 at Fry's http://shop3.outpost.com/%7BIe...96757

[myother45isalesbaer]

I was surfing the NICO site and found this question. Did you ever get an answer? I see some good advice. Here's my take. I have built about 5 of my own on the cheap, but I had one advantage, I could get parts free from work. Older ones, but free.

1. Tiger Direct is bad news. I agree with all those posts.2. Buying a chassis and trying to get all the proper parts you need to work is really an adventure left to the "geek squad" and no disrespect to them.3. For $200-300 hundred you are probably best getting a used machine that is not up to your laptop specs. Your budget is a little tight to stay state of the art.

If I can help........let me know. No charge for advice. Do you want to buy an older Dell 8100 with upgraded memory, two hard drives running at 1.5 gig. I am using it now and it has served me well for many years. A few hundred would go a little way to me getting a faster machine.

[VMPhil]

most Def again Slickdeals or Newegg. tiger direct rarely comes through. If you want to do MoBo+CPU+OS for 2 to 300 bucks then you are either gonna have to find one hell of a deal that packages in XP (or *Shudder* Vista) Home. or you are looking at a flavor of linux (free). cause XP costs about $110.

[myother45isalesbaer]

Most definitely some sound advice. Building on the cheap without free hardware and software is pretty close to impossible for $200-300.

[otterman]

tigerdirect is the gay. i have ordered a hand full up parts from there and had to return them all DOA. my roommate built a whole computer from there cuz it was "cheap" and he went against my advice on going to newegg. out of everything ht bought from there for his computer he had to return the motherboard it was DOA he had to return the RAM twice. the hard drive was not the right one he ordered. since then he has dealt with just newegg.

Yeah Im not a big fan of Tigerdirect. I never had problems as far as products being DOA but they charge a lot for shipping on some items and their rebates take FOREVER to come back to you.

[PoorManQ45]

AMD Thunderbird @ 1.2GHZ with 1GBsdram running on windows 98SE will blow all of your setups away.

[myother45isalesbaer]

Oh please give me a break. In what way and how do we measure your ULTIMATE machine. You want me to get on a mainframe and blow your tiny PC away?

To this day IBM big rigs still rule. Get an education on computers before you start stating.............well...........kind of stupid stuff.