Regular Build

**wille21** · November 22nd, 2009, 01:25 AM

Can anyone build me a nice computer for around 200 dollars Its mainly for Homework etc for now. I will upgrade it later. I want to start off cheap, then through time I will upgrade. O and btw No Os needed also I will choose my own screen and keyboard etc. This is just for the tower. The Os I will be using will either be windows 7 or windows xp.

**pullmyfoot** · November 22nd, 2009, 02:56 AM

thats not going to be very possible. Firstly, buying windows 7 leaves you about $100 for your computer, which isnt going to get you anything but a 4 year old second hand computer, much less a half decent new one. Unless you have an old copy of XP lying around of course. Even then $200 is just too low to do anything useful. $350-400 is more realistic. For $200 go find yourself a decent second hand computer

**RicheemxX** · November 22nd, 2009, 03:06 AM

Agreed, you could go over to newegg (or an e-tailer of your choice) and try to piece together a system, but you are going to be buying the lowest of the low end just to get enough parts in there to work.

TBH if you are on that tight a budget and need to buy absolutely everything you might either A) buy a dell w/monitor and everything and upgrade that down the road or B) try to find something on a local site that is used.

edit: a third option, if you have a local fry's and can find a decent mobo/cpu combo on-sale - they should have some this week - you might be able to squeak out a system, but you'd still be running at a bare minimum.

**RicheemxX** · November 22nd, 2009, 03:55 AM

Here's a for instance for you - now assuming that is that you are buying your OS and an LCD monitor. You take the $200 you have for the build, the $100+ for the OS and about $100-120 for a decent LCD (that'd be on-sale). That gives you a total for what you'd be building as $400-450.

You'd need to add another $150-75 or so after taxes but for $450 you could get this Acer and that would come with more RAM, a larger HDD and overall be a better build than anything you could do with just trying to piece together a $200 build and adding on your own OS and monitor.

**wille21** · November 22nd, 2009, 11:26 AM

Originally Posted by pullmyfoot

thats not going to be very possible. Firstly, buying windows 7 leaves you about $100 for your computer, which isnt going to get you anything but a 4 year old second hand computer, much less a half decent new one. Unless you have an old copy of XP lying around of course. Even then $200 is just too low to do anything useful. $350-400 is more realistic. For $200 go find yourself a decent second hand computer

My friend said he can hook me up with Windows 7 for 35 dollars or something. $200 dollars can't build me a decent tower, with no os? If not then I can raise it to 300 dollars or so.

**pullmyfoot** · November 22nd, 2009, 01:14 PM

Id say 340 is more relistic really. This is about the cheapest thing worth buying. This is under $340 without shipping. Im afraid this is not a very good time to buy ram. The prices of (DDR2) ram basically doubled over the last two months. DDR3 also increased, but not as much (it was always higher than DDR2 anyways). In any case, this means that DDR3 and DDR2 are pretty much the same price now.

I presume this computer is not going to be doing any gaming, right? Becasue its not going to be very fun gaming on this computer, especially any newer games (that motherboard runs onboard graphics). You could always upgrade in the future to a proper video card. Nowadays you can get a pretty fast card for very little money. $80-100 (on a video card) is enough to turn this into a half decent gaming rig. $150 and a little overclocking of the CPU (you can probably get it up to 3-3.2Ghz safely with the stock cooler) and you have a nice mid range rig.

CPU: Newegg.com - AMD Athlon II X2 240 Regor 2.8GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket AM3 65W Dual-Core Processor - Processors - Desktops
mobo: Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-MA785GMT-UD2H AM3 AMD 785G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - AMD Motherboards
ram: Newegg.com - Patriot 2GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Desktop Memory Model PSD32G13332 - Desktop Memory
HD: Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Blue WD3200AAKS 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
case: Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER ELITE 335 RC-335-KKN1-GP Black SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Computer Cases
DVD: Newegg.com - SAMSUNG Black 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA CD/DVD Burner - CD / DVD Burners
PSU: Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER Elite 460 RS-460-PSAR-J3 460W ATX12V V2.31 Power Supply - Power Supplies

if you want 4 gigs of ram, you are going to have to fork out an extra 30 bucks
Newegg.com - OCZ Gold 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model OCZ3G10664GK - Desktop Memory

and another 20 bucks gets you this hard drive, which is faster and has an extra 180gb of space.
Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Black WD5001AALS 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

**pullmyfoot** · November 22nd, 2009, 01:32 PM

Originally Posted by wille21

My friend said he can hook me up with Windows 7 for 35 dollars or something. $200 dollars can't build me a decent tower, with no os? If not then I can raise it to 300 dollars or so.

I presume thats a student edition. I love being a student

**wille21** · November 22nd, 2009, 11:20 PM

Originally Posted by pullmyfoot

Id say 340 is more relistic really. This is about the cheapest thing worth buying. This is under $340 without shipping. Im afraid this is not a very good time to buy ram. The prices of (DDR2) ram basically doubled over the last two months. DDR3 also increased, but not as much (it was always higher than DDR2 anyways). In any case, this means that DDR3 and DDR2 are pretty much the same price now.

I presume this computer is not going to be doing any gaming, right? Becasue its not going to be very fun gaming on this computer, especially any newer games (that motherboard runs onboard graphics). You could always upgrade in the future to a proper video card. Nowadays you can get a pretty fast card for very little money. $80-100 (on a video card) is enough to turn this into a half decent gaming rig. $150 and a little overclocking of the CPU (you can probably get it up to 3-3.2Ghz safely with the stock cooler) and you have a nice mid range rig.

CPU: Newegg.com - AMD Athlon II X2 240 Regor 2.8GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket AM3 65W Dual-Core Processor - Processors - Desktops
mobo: Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-MA785GMT-UD2H AM3 AMD 785G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - AMD Motherboards
ram: Newegg.com - Patriot 2GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Desktop Memory Model PSD32G13332 - Desktop Memory
HD: Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Blue WD3200AAKS 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
case: Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER ELITE 335 RC-335-KKN1-GP Black SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Computer Cases
DVD: Newegg.com - SAMSUNG Black 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA CD/DVD Burner - CD / DVD Burners
PSU: Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER Elite 460 RS-460-PSAR-J3 460W ATX12V V2.31 Power Supply - Power Supplies

if you want 4 gigs of ram, you are going to have to fork out an extra 30 bucks
Newegg.com - OCZ Gold 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model OCZ3G10664GK - Desktop Memory

and another 20 bucks gets you this hard drive, which is faster and has an extra 180gb of space.
Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Black WD5001AALS 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

It will do gaming later on. I will be able to upgrade right? Also is this compatiable with windows 7 and widnows xp or only 7?

**technon1** · November 23rd, 2009, 01:05 AM

...

**technon1** · November 23rd, 2009, 01:06 AM

i have an xp system with office 2003 pro on it just lying around, unused

**pullmyfoot** · November 23rd, 2009, 01:20 AM

Originally Posted by technon1

...

???

**pullmyfoot** · November 23rd, 2009, 01:21 AM

Originally Posted by wille21

It will do gaming later on. I will be able to upgrade right? Also is this compatiable with windows 7 and widnows xp or only 7?

its compatible with windows 7 and XP, and linux and, well every OS out there except ones made by Apple. haha. and yes the board has an expansion slot that will allow you to stick in a dedicated graphics card later on. You might want to go with the 4 gb set of ram if you plan to do gaming later on though. Its a bit of a waste to buy a 2 gb kit nowadays, since 4 is not much more, but you were on a strict budget.

**wille21** · November 24th, 2009, 07:14 PM

Originally Posted by pullmyfoot

its compatible with windows 7 and XP, and linux and, well every OS out there except ones made by Apple. haha. and yes the board has an expansion slot that will allow you to stick in a dedicated graphics card later on. You might want to go with the 4 gb set of ram if you plan to do gaming later on though. Its a bit of a waste to buy a 2 gb kit nowadays, since 4 is not much more, but you were on a strict budget.

excellent