Basic Internet PC

[flm_savage]

Ok so my mom says her old P4 is just too slow to check e-mail or create presentations with so she asked if i could put something together for her.

I figure this should be quick enough for internet browsing so i bought it last night. Video card is basic since the the most intense graphics it will ever display is the progress bar when XP starts up. And all for less that $700



Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200
CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800
Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5
EVGA GeForce 8600 GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16


Shuttle SX48P2 E barebone kit
Shuttle Specs:
CPU Supported
CPU Type Intel Core 2 Quad / Core 2 Extreme / Core 2 Duo
CPU Socket Intel Socket T(LGA775)
FSB 1600/1333/1066/MHz
Chipset
North Bridge Intel X48
South Bridge ICH9R
Memory Supported
Memory slot 4 x 240Pin
Memory Type Supported DDR2 800/667
Max Memory Supported 8GB
Dual Channel Memory Supported Yes
Expansion Slots
PCI Express 2 x PCI Express x16

Storage
IDE ATA 1 x ATA 100
Serial ATA 4 x SATA 3.0Gb/s
SATA RAID RAID 0/1/5/10
Onboard Audio Realtek ALC888DD
Communications
First LAN Marvell 88E8056(10/100/1000Mbps)

Extension Bays
3.5" Internal bays -1
5.25" External bays-1

Front Panel Ports
Front USB 2
Front Audio Ports 2 jacks
Back Panel Ports
Rear USB 6
Rear IEEE 1394 1
Rear e-SATA Ports 2
RJ45 1
Rear S/PDIF Out 1 x Coaxial out
1 x Optical out
Rear Audio Ports 6 jacks

 

[hamz9561]

On a lot of the Shuttle kits, they use on-board video so the video card may not be necessary. I would check into that. Also, the quad-core processor and 4 GB memory are a bit overkill for what is going to be used for surfing the net with Windows XP. I would recommend going with a faster dual core processor such as Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 2.8 GHz for about $40 less. 2 GB of memory is more than enough for Windows XP. The most supported by Windows XP Home or Professional is 3 GB. The other thing I don't see is a DVD drive. You might want to look into an inexpensive burner. I see them for between $40 and 50 all day long.

Since this is just for doing presentations and web surfing, you don't need a lot of horsepower to do that. When building a computer for a "customer," keep their needs in mind first. Then start thinking about what you need to meet their needs, not exceeding them by a lot. This saves them money over the long haul. I had to learn this the hard way building AutoCad workstations for my dad.

Hope this helps.

 

[flm_savage]

it doesn't have onboard video, i wish it did. I picked up a dvd burner for it as well, i forgot to list it.

I figure its cheaper in the long run to build a strong pc the first time around instead of replacing it in 2 years. This will last her an easy 5-6 years. I could have skimped on everything but i still would have spent between 400 and 500 and it makes sense IMO to just spend a little more and be done with it. She really wasn't concerned with the cost, she just said fast and small. She was elated to hear it was less than 700.

I plan to put her up to 8gb of ram when windows 7 is released. Even though the board supports DDR3 i think DDR2 800 will be fine. I may drop the timings on the ram a little. Corsair seems to respond better to timing changes rather than frequency changes.

I always go overkill if the budget allows.

 

[hamz9561]

Unfortunately, the people I work with would consider that an extreme machine. lol. Up until he died, my dad used a computer that I built 4-years before. He like to use them until they died and I couldn't put any more band-aids on them.

Another friend that I support, is using a computer that her son built about 5 or 6 years ago. I am in the process of upgrading it to something a bit less obsolete.

 

[AKap64]

First post!

If its not to late you should check out the barebones kits at Tigerdirect.com

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4820683&Sku=B69-1090

that for $300 then all u need is a cheapo GPU and an OS

just my 0.02

 

[hamz9561]

I know about Tiger. My dad used to buy his computers there before I moved back from Kansas. After I got back those were the machines I was doing the temporary resurrections on.