Cheap Molex to SATA

Mercutio

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
Joined
Jan 17, 2002
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Anyone know of a particularly cheap place to get lots and lots of standard molex to SATA connectors?

Used to be, they just gave you bunches of them when you bought motherboards or something.

Now I need a bunch of them and I do not want to pay $2 apiece for them, which what everybody wants to charge me.
 
I need a hundred, minimum.
I have, uh... six. Looks like I have six.

This is easily as annoying as having to buy IDE cables.
 
20 would be a good start...

I'm doing kid classes this summer. The kids are 18, not 14 like last time I had to do this. And they're supposed to be "normal" kids.

I get to do three sessions a week with these kids. We're going to build some computers, install Windows and drivers and software, and then make sure everyone knows how to do basic computer things like copy files and burn CDs.

There will be at least sixty and possibly as many as one hundred of these kids.

Anyway, I was given a budget of $600 per kid to get a computer + everything else. This is what I came up with:

AMD Sempron 3500
Biostar nv6100 motherboard
1GB DDR2
80GB Hitachi hard disk
Foxconn mini-tower
SATA DVD Burner
Logitech Keyboard and Optical mouse
17" Acer LCD
Crappy HP Printer
Windows Vista Premium

Total per PC works out to $591. There's actually no place I could make an improvement that would not blow my budget. I'd love to go to an x2/3600, but I can't (nor a Pentium D dual-core 2.66GHz machine - the motherboards cost too much even if the CPU price is right). If I move up to a 120GB drive, my price blows up. I'd love a better case but experience shows that Foxconn is the best low-end option available. And I can't dump the printer, even though that would make for a vastly better PC.

I will note that something similar from Dell (e531, Sempron 3400, 1GB RAM, 160GB drive, 17" LCD, no printer) is $759, shipped; I'm still looking really good, pricewise.
 
I spend a few hours every week as a contract technician at a computer shop. They have lots of them. I'll try to convince them to let them go for...50¢ each. Below that, they won't agree. If you can PM me your zip code, I'll be able to calculate shipping.
 
Sounds like an interesting class. Let us know how it goes.

Though I never took a class to learn how to assemble a computer, I just kind of did it. I did burn out some components while messing with a computer, but that is just part of the learning process.
 
I never went a class either. I found it rather easy assembling the PC. Getting all the parts to work together was a different story.
IRQ jumpers...eeech.

Bozo :joker:
 
Coug, the parts would be going to US ZIP code 46304 and if you can get 'em for $.75 or less I'll be ecstatic.

As far as computer building... the idea is to teach these people that their computer is nothing to be afraid of. They can work on it and learn more or less how it works without too much effort so when they go away to school they won't be having panic attacks over every little error message.
 
Mercutio said:
As far as computer building... the idea is to teach these people that their computer is nothing to be afraid of. They can work on it and learn more or less how it works without too much effort so when they go away to school they won't be having panic attacks over every little error message.
Click to expand...

I've done this a few times with a couple kids each. A client's kids at their home. The first time it was 12-year olds, the second time it was some girls before they went off to college. Dad wanted to buy them new computers, and I thought that if they built them themselves they would have less issues with them later.
 
Sorry Merc, turns out the new owner of the game center threw out the box of adapters along with the box of IDE cables, USB headers, SATA driver disks, and other crap I was keeping squirreled away there.
 
I think I'll be OK with what you're sending Coug.
I will try to get more when do my second wave of students, maybe.

Or maybe pick a motherboard that has two IDE connectors.
 
Mercutio said:
I will note that something similar from Dell (e531, Sempron 3400, 1GB RAM, 160GB drive, 17" LCD, no printer) is $759, shipped; I'm still looking really good, pricewise.
Click to expand...

Dell deal this sunday was $400 for
AMD X2 4000+
2GB DDR2 (two sticks not four)
80GB Drive
Dual Layer DVD Burner
nvidia Geforce 6150 integrated graphics
1 year warranty.

I thought it was a good deal.
I bought one for my mom.
 
My current learning project is the Linux Terminal Server Project, specifically the k12ltsp designed for school computer labs. My mother is a 3rd-grade teacher in a public school, and has been talking about getting me to put machines in her classroom for nearly a decade.

I'll be looking at new or refurbished thin clients; perhaps 5 of them. Any suggestions?
 
ddrueding said:
I've done this a few times with a couple kids each. A client's kids at their home. The first time it was 12-year olds, the second time it was some girls before they went off to college. Dad wanted to buy them new computers, and I thought that if they built them themselves they would have less issues with them later.
Click to expand...

And did the girls have fewer computer problems in college?
 
Merc - how much do they charge the students? And they get to keep the PC afterwards, I'm guessing? Is this an extension class thingy, community college thing? Neat idea.
 
Adcadet said:
And did the girls have fewer computer problems in college?
Click to expand...

Not the first time, they still need to make mistakes the first time. But when I pointed out what they had done, they realized the error in their ways; haven't heard from them yet this year, but summer just started.
 
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