Cheap PC Build - Advice Wanted

I am going to build a new budget PC, I have upto £200 to spend.

The computer is only going to be used as a general purpose PC, and for programming. I am not a gamer, so obviously don't need it super high spec. The Operating System(s) it will run will be Windows XP Pro and Linux SuSE 10 and the types of applications I will be running include Visual Studio 2003, Photoshop CS2, Office 2003, etc.

I am not new to building computers at all, have done so for 5 years... I just would like some advice / opinions. The parts I have in mind at the moment are:

* Motherboard - Asus K8N-E Deluxe (754 Socket)
* CPU - AMD Sempron 2600+
* RAM - Crucial 512MB DDR 400MHz

Plus a little case bundle Ebuyer (UK) sell, which includes 350W PSU, wireless keyboard + mouse. I do not need to purchase a hard drive as I have a spare 120GB lying around, and also have an AGP Graphics Card (32MB) lying around too.

Also I do not need any drives (CD, DVD, etc) as I have lots of those. Basically all I need to buy is the barebones - Motherboard, CPU, RAM and a case.

The above specification will cost £180 including shipping. Is this a good system do you think? Can anyone recommend anything different?

Any advice or opinions would be great!

I program a lot and my system is almost identical. I could program fine with my old system--1.2 Ghz Athlon Thunderbird and 512Mb non-DDR RAM. You'll be good to go.

Also, if you want to program, think about using TextPad. It is a good, simple interface that doesn't take too long to learn, but is fantastic for syntax highlighting, tab-spacing control, and interfacing with multiple languages simultaneously.

A good monitor for text compatibility is well worth it, as well.

Things to ask yourself:
Do you need a floppy drive?
Do you need a front-mounted USB port?
Do you need a spare fan?
Do you have a network/ethernet card/port (or dial-up modem)?
Do you have the tools (screw drivers, thumb screws [easy access to inside], thermal grease)?
Do you have a CPU fan (see note above on thermal grease)?
Do you need a power strip (for all the plugs)?
Do you need speakers?


Well, that's all I can think of. Good luck.

Wow, you saying a 1.2 GHz processor is old? I play games and watch movies on a Pentium 1.2 GHz CPU with 512MB RAM. A good ATI 128MB graphic card with TV input. Photoshop and Office are running fine on this system. The problem is Windows XP lagging at times, but it's able to keep up.

I'm programming on a old Sun UltraSparc 270MHz 64-bit with 128MB RAM.

Ebay is a great source for used parts. Do your homeworks before buying if you don't want to get frauded. Happened one time to me that I didn't receive the goods I ordered, my credit card company gave me my money back without any trouble.

I have already been programming for 5 years on an Intel Celeron 800MHz with 512MB RAM and was coping perfectly, it's just that now modern applications like Visual Studio 2003 and 2005 need a much higher spec computer, so my computer is starting to feel the strain.

I do most of my programming on Linux / Unix systems, and don't use GUI frameworks so I don't need the speed for that, it's mainly for Windows applications.

I will have a hunt around on Ebay as well, but I would like to order it within the next few days, so if I cannot find anything I will stick with Ebuyer.

The motherboard I mentioned also has a lot of expandability, so I can easily upgrade it for the future. I decided not to go with a 939 socket motherboard, as I have found that most of them come with PCI Express slots and no AGP slosts. As I am not a gamer, I don't care about high tech graphics cards and such, so that isn't important to me.

Looks like good specs from here. If you go intel, mot intel workstation boards have onboard video card anyway, but if you have one laying around, I guess it's irrelevant.

Hehe, speaking of building computers for programmers... The company I work for just ordered parts for new programmer computers for all the people with machines slower than 1ghz (about 3 people). All the new machines will be Dual Core 3.0Ghz intels with 2 GB DDR667. what's the point? lol.

I've used 2.4 Ghz P4 processors, with 512 RAM, while running .NET and Visual Studio 2003. It seems to run just fine (a little lag when starting a new project). You'll be good to go, I'm guessing.

I recently switched over from VB6 to VB.NET using Visual Studio 2003 and Dear God is it slow in comparison. I swear that program eats resources at a much quicker rate!

Here is a very good site which has cheap and reliable parts. I would suggets browsing this site, because they have very good deals on barebone systems and barebone parts.


www.tigerdirect.com...

[edit on 10-22-2005 by CPYKOmega]

On that note,

www.tigerdirect.com
www.zipzoomfly.com
www.newegg.com
www.pricewatch.com

Buy refurbished if you can, I've been doing it for the last few systems I built, and I've actually had less problems (So far 0) with the refurbished stuff than I have the new stuff.

The explanation is that refurbished stuff was taken care of by competent engineers who most likely designed the product in the first place, rather than new stuff assembled by trained monkeys on a production chain and they probably doesn't even own a computer at home.