How to build an ultra cheap, reasonable PC?

  • Thread starter Thread starter M Wells
  • Start date Start date
M

M Wells

Hi All,

I have a dear friend whose rather ancient PC has finally died and who
isn't in a position to buy a new one.

I'm wondering what kind of money I'd have to spend to put together a
reasonably-powered PC (ie can run Windows XP and applications like MS
Word, Outlook Express, MS Messenger etc) for the lowest price I can? I
don't have a lot of money to invest in the project myself, but I know
how disappointed my friend is that she's essentially cut off from her
online friends, so I'd like to do what I can.

I don't know much about hardware, but I'm looking at this as an
opportunity to learn. I'm based in the Deerfield Beach region of
Florida, if that's a help, in case there are some cheap component
retailers in this area who sell reasonable quality bits and pieces and
have a reputation for being helpful.

I'd love any help I can get to get my friend back online!

Much warmth,

Murray
http://www.planetthoughtful.org
Building a thoughtful planet,
One quirky comment at a time.
 
Hi All,

I have a dear friend whose rather ancient PC has finally died and who
isn't in a position to buy a new one.

I'm wondering what kind of money I'd have to spend to put together a
reasonably-powered PC (ie can run Windows XP and applications like MS
Word, Outlook Express, MS Messenger etc) for the lowest price I can? I
don't have a lot of money to invest in the project myself, but I know
how disappointed my friend is that she's essentially cut off from her
online friends, so I'd like to do what I can.

I don't know much about hardware, but I'm looking at this as an
opportunity to learn. I'm based in the Deerfield Beach region of
Florida, if that's a help, in case there are some cheap component
retailers in this area who sell reasonable quality bits and pieces and
have a reputation for being helpful.

I'd love any help I can get to get my friend back online!

Much warmth,

Murray
http://www.planetthoughtful.org
Building a thoughtful planet,
One quirky comment at a time.
Click to expand...

The described uses are pretty modest, if that's all the performance
she needs then it can make sense to buy used, either a whole system or
whichever parts are needed to upgrade, compliment her existing parts,
depending of course on what she has, which part(s) have failed, and of
course her (or your) ability and time to get the system going again.

We might be able to help diagnose the problem with her system, or if
we had a better idea of it's age, components, and the degree to which
it performed adequately for her usage, better advise on a course of
action.



Dave
 
M Wells said:
Hi All,

I have a dear friend whose rather ancient PC has finally died and who
isn't in a position to buy a new one.

I'm wondering what kind of money I'd have to spend to put together a
reasonably-powered PC (ie can run Windows XP and applications like MS
Word, Outlook Express, MS Messenger etc) for the lowest price I can? I
don't have a lot of money to invest in the project myself, but I know
how disappointed my friend is that she's essentially cut off from her
online friends, so I'd like to do what I can.

I don't know much about hardware, but I'm looking at this as an
opportunity to learn. I'm based in the Deerfield Beach region of
Florida, if that's a help, in case there are some cheap component
retailers in this area who sell reasonable quality bits and pieces and
have a reputation for being helpful.
Click to expand...

Just take a visit to Ebay...
 
M said:
I'm wondering what kind of money I'd have to spend to put together a
reasonably-powered PC (ie can run Windows XP and applications like MS
Word, Outlook Express, MS Messenger etc) for the lowest price I can?
Click to expand...

You might want to look at linux also. as computers get cheaper
and cheaper, the relitive cost of os/apps becomes significant.

open office ( like ms office), evolution or kmail ( mail reader),
gaim provides linux with good apps. And it is free, just like
linux ( and open source to boot).

There are linux apps that don't take as much hardware too, so that
an older pc that is not up to msword/winxp would be fine for
linux and linux apps.

If you need to have a microsoft os, then please note that open office
is also availible under windows.

download
http://www.openoffice.org

review
http://www.smallbusinesscomputing.com/biztools/article.php/2247441

good luck
b²
 
M Wells said:
I'm wondering what kind of money I'd have to spend to put
together a reasonably-powered PC (ie can run Windows XP and
applications like MS Word, Outlook Express, MS Messenger etc)
for the lowest price I can?
Click to expand...

www.fatwallet.com and http://forums.anandtech.com have Hot Deals
forums that are great. www.salescircular.com lists local prices.

Fry's Electronics for a mobo/CPU combo
(http://ads.myoc.com/onlineads/ocr/index.jsp?catId=1), usually $50-$80
(this week's an Athlon XP2000+ for $65)

Fortron-made PSU from www.newegg.com, 350W for $20-38

I don't know about the case, but NewEgg, Dealsonic, and sometimes
Fry's have them cheap. Be sure that it measures at least 19" from
front to back or the CD-ROM may not clear some mobos.

I don't know where you can get cheap memory currently, but the Fry's
generic is OK if you test it like crazy with www.memtest86.com and
www.goldmemory.cz because Fry's gives 100% money-back guarantees. Try
to test the memory in more than one mobo, just in case.

Newegg has refurbished video cards that are sometimes real bargains.

OfficeMax will have an 80GB HD for $20, after rebates, this Sunday.

CD writers are occasionally $0-$10, after rebate.
 
I have a dear friend whose rather ancient PC has finally died and who
isn't in a position to buy a new one.

I'm wondering what kind of money I'd have to spend to put together a
reasonably-powered PC (ie can run Windows XP and applications like MS
Word, Outlook Express, MS Messenger etc) for the lowest price I can? I
don't have a lot of money to invest in the project myself, but I know
how disappointed my friend is that she's essentially cut off from her
online friends, so I'd like to do what I can.

I don't know much about hardware, but I'm looking at this as an
opportunity to learn. I'm based in the Deerfield Beach region of
Florida, if that's a help, in case there are some cheap component
retailers in this area who sell reasonable quality bits and pieces and
have a reputation for being helpful.
Click to expand...

Buy used from a local person. For lowest end, it's not worth going
retail. Check your local papers, newsgroups.. etc. Try to look for
256MB RAM, or above 128 at least. You can probably expect the range
$100-$150.

PS. PC's usually don't die altogether, it's probably just a single a
component (power supply, motherboard, video card/cpu, ram, usually
somewhat in this order). So if you can identify the component, you can
just buy that secondhand and replace. May or may not be worth it, more
the latter if it's really "ancient".
 
H said:
You might want to look at linux also. as computers get cheaper
and cheaper, the relitive cost of os/apps becomes significant.

open office ( like ms office), evolution or kmail ( mail reader),
gaim provides linux with good apps. And it is free, just like
linux ( and open source to boot).

There are linux apps that don't take as much hardware too, so that
an older pc that is not up to msword/winxp would be fine for
linux and linux apps.
Click to expand...

Agreed. A legal copy of XP-Word will be about half of a low end system's
cost.
 
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