building a computer

**bishop** · 26 Mar 2004, 09:20 AM

A friend at work said he would build me one for $300. I already have a monitor, speakers, keyboard and mouse. I'd like to spend no more than $200 if it can be done. I don't need anything super fast. Maybe a 1.5ghz or up proc. So I'm thinking about doing this myself, but it will be my first time. If you had only $200 to build a pc which components would you choose? Keep in mind I'm not a pc gamer. I'll use it for media and burning cd's the most. Oh and it will be running on win 98 until I can afford to upgrade to xp. My current setup is a 500mhz amd and it chokes on most of the media I download these days and has trouble with some websites too. If you could recommend any online retailers you would buy from that would be great too! Thanks for any input.

**Wildkat** · 26 Mar 2004, 10:05 AM

Using www.newegg.com

ASUS A7V8X-MX SE, onboard video, sound and LAN $59.00
AMD Athlon XP 1800 $49.00
Western Digital 40GB 7200RPM IDE Hard Drive, Model WD400BB $59.00
256 MB Ram $40
=$207

If you need a New Burner and Case
Lite on 52x $33
Codegen case $27

total $267

Thats a decent system for what it sounds like you would need, then could always throw a better video card in and double the ram if you want to do some 3d gaming...

**Lhadatt** · 26 Mar 2004, 10:29 AM

I approve. That's a good parts selection for that cheap.

**Rumpy** · 26 Mar 2004, 12:32 PM

And when you get more cash get some more ram. You'll see a difference.

**bishop** · 26 Mar 2004, 12:46 PM

Originally Posted by Wildkat

Using www.newegg.com

ASUS A7V8X-MX SE, onboard video, sound and LAN $59.00
AMD Athlon XP 1800 $49.00
Western Digital 40GB 7200RPM IDE Hard Drive, Model WD400BB $59.00
256 MB Ram $40
=$207

If you need a New Burner and Case
Lite on 52x $33
Codegen case $27

total $267

Thats a decent system for what it sounds like you would need, then could always throw a better video card in and double the ram if you want to do some 3d gaming...

This all sounds really good. What ram do you recommend? Also which case are you referring to?

Originally Posted by Rumpy

And when you get more cash get some more ram. You'll see a difference.

Even though I'm using win98? I probably wont upgrade to xp until later.

**Rumpy** · 26 Mar 2004, 01:01 PM

You can never have too much ram. It'll take less stress off the computer if you're burning a disc and watching a movie (or whatever multitask you're doing). And if you ever go to XP you'll really want at least 512. Either way it's an easy and cheap upgrade when you got the cash flow and looking to give your computer a little boost.