My geek thread...
 

Ok, so I'm going to build a budget PC for my buddy.

He only has $350 to spend.

I need a board cpu and some ram and MAYBE a hard drive if there is $$ left over.

Board needs to have onboard sound and video and be a Pentium chip.

What do you think you guys can come up with?

Thanks :)

Steal one?

Nah, I'm on my 2nd strike. I can't go back...I WON'T GO BACK!

:D

bestbuy.com ftw :D i got my daughters 1.8ghz AMD chipped computer, monitor, printer from there for ~$330 after mail in rebates

I'm with Bill....if you are starting from scratch and he just needs something, eMachine or something like that is the way to go.

- Justin

AMD FTW

if all you need is board cpu and ram, www.newegg.com is your friend.

i dont do pentium though, so i cant help you there...but i did just get an AMD athlon 64 2800, a gig of ram, and a decent MSI motherboard for like...$255, plus tax/shipping. doesnt have onboard video though. a $40 AGP card would do fine

Talk to Alex (aka thewraith or something goat on this board). He just built me one for $400. I'm sure he'd have some real good suggestions. I'd help more if I wasn't a computer spaz. :)

That would be TalkingGoat here....

- Justin

uhhh...

flux capacitor!!!!

Kasey, why do you bother clicking on the geek threads if all they do is hurt your brain?

- Justin

'cuz I'm a postwhore with nothing better to do? :P

Yea, that sounds about right. :roll:

- Justin

i built my system for around $1200, so i guess my advice wouldn't be helpful (that doesn't include any software, which i got for free). the most expensive things were the monitor (~$300) and the video card (~$180) which i don't even take advantage of because of stupid cablevision - you can't use the tv tuner without the box, which makes the PVR useless. newegg has some decent deals especially on amd's. they have a great search function. and i'd definitely go with AMD. just watch out, they run a little hotter than pentiums, so don't freak out if your processor temp is at 50* (like mine is right now).

What CPU and what cooler do you have?

That's still pretty high unless you are under full load in a warm room....

- Justin

athlon 64 3000+, with two 120mm chassis fans. usually it's around 40*, but over the summer it'll get up to 50 at regular load. but right now i'm ripping 2 iso's at the same time. that might have something to do with it :lol:

Ok, that sounds better. What CPU cooler do you have on it?

- Justin

heatsink? god i don't remember - thermaltake? it's big...