How would you build a good $600 PC?

[trangler]

We all look for, and appreciate, those special deals that pop up on this forum, but suppose you had to build a $600 system in the next week or 10 days and it had to be of pretty good quality (no junk, no cows) and fully upgradable (no off-the-shelf Dells or HPs, etc., with proprietary mobos and OS recovery disk configurations) -- but you have no parts on hand? What would you buy and who would you it from to get the prices and service that make the most sense?

This is what I put together this week, cutting some corners here and there to keep it under $600 but basically using quality stuff (prices include shipping):

Case and PS: Antec SLK3700 with Antec 350-watt PS -- $67.50 at accupc.com.
Motherboard: Asus A7V8X-X -- $64.99 at newegg.com.
CPU: Athlon XP2000+ Retail -- $66.00 at newegg.com.
RAM: Crucial 256MB DDR2700 -- $47.99 at newegg.com.
Video Card: Gainward GeForce4 Ti4200 64MB Golden Sample -- $105.00 at newegg.com.
HD: Maxtor 80GB 7200 8MB cache -- $59.93 at Office Depot (with tax and after $15 coupon code and $30 MIR)
Fans: Evercool CUD-725 CPU fan/sink & 120mm Galaxy Case Fan -- $22.98 at hardwarecooling.com ($11.99/$3.99 plus $7.00 shipping)
CDRW: Liteon 52x24x52 -- $43.99 at newegg.com.
FLOPPY: Sony 1.44 drive OEM -- $13.00 at newegg.
OS: Windows XP Home -- $97.00 at newegg.com.

TOTAL COST: $588.38, shipped.

I'll submit that this is a pretty damn good, well-rounded system. What would you have done?

[mAdMaLuDaWg]

Not bad, but you know what, if you have been actively persuing freebies/good deals over a long period you could bring that baby well below 300. A few past deals of this board that come to mind are 17" Monitor (FAR), DDR Sticks (FAR), Logitech Wireless combo (free),Geforce 4 ($90), 120 GB HD ($20) etc etc... But the problem is you have to be dedicated to finding good deals and wait for a long time to get all the parts. My cousin did this and man, he had a loaded system for well under $250..

[Omardeth]

looks pretty good but i would switch out the motherboard for this one

Shuttle Motherboard for AMD processors Model AN35N-Ultra Retail 74$ free shipping newegg


switch out this vidoe card , it is refurb but is better and alittle cheaper .

GAINWARD/CARDEXPERT GeForce 4 Ti 4800SE8X AGP, 3.6ns, 128MB DDR. 102$ free shipping newegg

go to googlegear to get XP home 92.50 free second day shipping .

also get the cdrw from like officemax or office depot they have a couple that are 9.99 after the rebates .

[thekingofpain]

Good option would be a well configured Dell---ask Doc about it...

[trangler]

Omar,
The Shuttle isn't one I'm familiar with, but one review I read was negative, calling the board unstable, and the other summed it up this way: "The AN35N is much like an accountant; it's dependable and a little boring." Not that that's a bad thing. It's just the reviews on the Asus were universally pretty good.

But, damn(!) I wish I'd seen that video card. You're absolutely right. Better card, better deal.

On XP Home, Googlegear was cheaper, and so was accupc.com ($89.90), but you have to buy hardware from them to get that price. So if you need something they have and the pricing works out, it's a better deal than newegg. It didn't work that way for me on this purchase.

And you're also right that you can get a great deal on a Cendyne (rebadged Liteon?) or similar at Office D and/or M, although I've heard bad things about the rebate reliability at O Max.

Thanks for understanding the purpose of this thread, Omar.

[Omardeth]

its all good bud just trying to share the luv . as far as shuttle goes i have a nforce2 board mn31n and i have had no problems with it at all . its just with the kt400 chipset you can't go to the 400fsb amd cpus . don't get me wrong its a good board i have a few asus boards myself . if you look at reiview on newegg for the shuttle an35n they all seem to be pretty good and this is comming from people that own the board not testing it . i take owner reviews alot more serious than testers reviews .

and you speak as if you already got the stuff . if you did then you did good . we can always find better after the fact

[MateoV]

Looks pretty good. Only thing I would do is step down the graphics card to the Albatron GF4 mx440 64MB ($50 at egg) and get another stick of 256MB ram. This will do you more good overall than having a slightly better video card.

[consumertalks]

Originally posted by thekingofpain
Good option would be a well configured Dell---ask Doc about it...

I agree 10million%. Doc is the reason I own a Dell right now. Back in April they had a $75 off refurbished desktops coupon. With that and free shipping, I snagged a P4 2.2 w/CDRW for $310. Thanks again, Doc!

[Gait_Keeper]

omar you Da man with da links

where's JP??????????

that xp home looks good I need a copy and lic.

[pinoy87]

If I wont overclock then i would not to get the HSF because the retail CPU comes with a HSF.

256mb pc-2700 crucial ram-
Is there really a need for ddr333? The 2000+ operates at 266mhz FSB so DDR266 will be enough. Also getting 2 sticks is really worth it for use with dual channel. If your I was getting 1 stick then i wouldnt get the nforce2 and save some money and go with kt400.
Corsair Value PC-2100 128mb CAS2.5 $35.00 free shipping (scroll down to Corsair Value PC-2100 128mb) here I would get 2 but would go with the 256mb corsair pc-2100 if just 1 stick.

kt400 mobo: Biostar M7VIT PRO $55.00 free shipping (scroll down to M7VIT PRO) here