I looking to build a barebone system for the rents and I was hoping to get some ideas here. I looked at mwave.com and liked what I saw but was unsure of the motherboard. Whats a good stable motherboard for the best price and that will last? Just trying to make a simple system here for internet used and solitare.
Barebone
- Thread starter Mr.Gig
- Start date
Adcadet
Storage Freak
OK, basic system for office-type use/internet...this is what I'd recommend off the top of my head:
1. CPU - AMD Duron. These have an excellent Price/perofrmance ratio, and it looks like the current motherboards will probably support the future AMD CPUs.
2. Motherboard - I recently put together a basic PC using an ECS K7S5A motherboard that worked very well. I'd recommend looking into a fairly intergrated board (AC97 sound or better especially) as it makes life easier. I would, however, think carefully about integrated video. Perhaps if the PC is only going to be used for office apps this won't matter, but most integrated video is horrible.
3. RAM - DDR is better, but PC133 may be worth looking into. I'm not sure how big a performance hit you'll take by going PC133 over PC2100. I know when I build a basic PC the cost wasn't really justified IMO (plus, the motherboard I used could take either DDR or PC133, allowing them to upgrae to DDR later if they felt like it).
4. Video - not really sure. For office apps alone antyhing modern will probably due. If interested in light gaming, check out a GF2MX-based card.
5. Hard drive - for a budget, I think any of the newer 5400 RPM drives will probably due fine. But the cost for a 7200 RPM drive may not be that large, and appreciated in office apps. Since you're situation might be very cost-sensitive, and I have no idea how much space you'll need, I'm not going to recommend a specific drive.
6. Other....I wouldn't spend too much on the latest and greateest CD-ROM, since it'll probably rarely be used. A burner might be nice, but I have no idea if your situation needs it. A nice case is always nice - I'm not sure what good yet cheap midtowers are out these days.
Hope this helps!
Adcadet
1. CPU - AMD Duron. These have an excellent Price/perofrmance ratio, and it looks like the current motherboards will probably support the future AMD CPUs.
2. Motherboard - I recently put together a basic PC using an ECS K7S5A motherboard that worked very well. I'd recommend looking into a fairly intergrated board (AC97 sound or better especially) as it makes life easier. I would, however, think carefully about integrated video. Perhaps if the PC is only going to be used for office apps this won't matter, but most integrated video is horrible.
3. RAM - DDR is better, but PC133 may be worth looking into. I'm not sure how big a performance hit you'll take by going PC133 over PC2100. I know when I build a basic PC the cost wasn't really justified IMO (plus, the motherboard I used could take either DDR or PC133, allowing them to upgrae to DDR later if they felt like it).
4. Video - not really sure. For office apps alone antyhing modern will probably due. If interested in light gaming, check out a GF2MX-based card.
5. Hard drive - for a budget, I think any of the newer 5400 RPM drives will probably due fine. But the cost for a 7200 RPM drive may not be that large, and appreciated in office apps. Since you're situation might be very cost-sensitive, and I have no idea how much space you'll need, I'm not going to recommend a specific drive.
6. Other....I wouldn't spend too much on the latest and greateest CD-ROM, since it'll probably rarely be used. A burner might be nice, but I have no idea if your situation needs it. A nice case is always nice - I'm not sure what good yet cheap midtowers are out these days.
Hope this helps!
Adcadet
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Look at the "Systems people buy" thread.
Try a Gigabyte GA-72X (GA-7DX if you're not a VIA fan) or an FIC AZ11EA + a Duron 900 or 1GHz, 256MB SDRAM, 40GB WD or Maxtor hard disk... maybe a $500 machine with a decent monitor. Not terribly upgradable but it's a really nice machine for the money. Of course, what you charge for it is your business.
The AZ11EA is a nice board but it can be a little flakey. My distributor is big on Shuttle's KT133a board (dunno what it's called), too, but I'm not a Shuttle fan.
If you've got an extra $25 - $30, an Epox 8KHA + DDR is a great combo.
Try a Gigabyte GA-72X (GA-7DX if you're not a VIA fan) or an FIC AZ11EA + a Duron 900 or 1GHz, 256MB SDRAM, 40GB WD or Maxtor hard disk... maybe a $500 machine with a decent monitor. Not terribly upgradable but it's a really nice machine for the money. Of course, what you charge for it is your business.
The AZ11EA is a nice board but it can be a little flakey. My distributor is big on Shuttle's KT133a board (dunno what it's called), too, but I'm not a Shuttle fan.
If you've got an extra $25 - $30, an Epox 8KHA + DDR is a great combo.
Tannin
Storage? I am Storage!
I only used two Shuttle boards. One was their TX. Best damn TX board I ever used. Only good TX board I ever used, come to think of it. I never did like the TX chipset. The other was an MVP3 board, which was a decent, stable product, not much to distinguish it from a dozen other MVP3s. Nice minor layout, bit of a problem getting long PCI cards into it, like the Voodoo II which was popular at the time. Sold maybe 30 of the TXs, about the same of the MVP3s. Had perhaps two or three MVPs fail on me - about average - and I don't think any of the Shuttle TXs failed. I'd buy Shuttle again.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
The HOT-591 (the MVP3 board Tannin refers to) the board I had a bad experience with. Specifically, I bought 20 at once, had most of them arrive with bits of the SIMM/DIMM (IIRC that board had both) brackets floating around in the boxes, one with the CPU SOCKET floating around the box (ie de-soldered from the board)... and one that I thought was OK, I had a PCI socket snap off the board while I was inserting a card.
Couldn't believe any of the above made it past QA, packed the whole box back up, and shipped 'em back for some FICs.
Couldn't believe any of the above made it past QA, packed the whole box back up, and shipped 'em back for some FICs.