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This info is out of date, but the concept remains the same.
Total cost of the below is about $500 (Shipping around $20-30 or so)
ALBATRON KX400-8X SKTA ATX,ATA/133,AGP 8X MB $75 (Includes 6 channel audio)
AMD XP 1800 SKT A CPU RETAIL BOX (Includes Fan) $70
APACER 512MB PC2700 DDR MEMORY,W/O ECC W/333MHZ FSB $65
ABIT SILURO GF4 TI4200 8X AGP,64MB DDR $135
WESTERN DIGITAL 40GB ATA/100,IDE,7200RPM,8.9ms,2MB $70
MACRON ATX MID TOWER CASE $30
AOPEN 52X CD-ROM, IDE INTERNAL, RETAIL PACK $20
MITSUMI 1.44 FDD INTERNAL,OEM PACKAGE FLOPPY $7
AOPEN KB858 PS/2 107 KEY KEYBOARD $5
MITSUMI 5 BUTTON SCROLL PS/2 MOUSE, 400DPI $4
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There is nothing complicated about it, really; although it does require some work, some patience, and is a little nerve wracking the first time you do it. (Probably, you know somebody that can help you who's worked on PCs before.....)
Okay, if you have no mechanical ability and you get lost easily when dealing with technology, you'll probably just want to buy a computer. This will be too much for you.
But if you think you could build one, as far as things not working, each part in the computer is going to have its own guarantee, and you can
always buy a private service contract if that's what you're concerned about.
So, what is the first thing? Decide how much money you want to spend. That controls what you can put in it. Just remember; prices will drop 10%-50% in the next year for the exact same thing, or an example -- CPUs will be 20% faster for the same price in a year. And you might as well just get a new one in 3-4 years that's way more powerful. (Go check out the average specs of computers in 1998.)
------- As per update, a "2.1 GHz" AMD XP this year is $97 with a fan and 333 bus; the below is "1.9 GHz" with 266 bus and a fan for $175.
So this year you get 25% more bus speed, 200 MHz more CPU and a fan for $97 instead of $170 for less.
Pretty durn near half price in one year for 25% bus speed improvment and 10% or so more CPU power.
Also, 512 Meg of RAM at 333 is $65, versus 512 at 266 for $150.
A TV out GeForce 42xx with 128 Meg and 8X is $190 vs ATI 7500 with 64 M and TV out at 4X for $160.
Better sound, 333 vs 266 bus, and built in Network card MotherBoard for same price.
And so on. ------------
Second, decide which parts are more important than others. That will control how good each
piece is going to be. For example, do you want to have a huge flat screen monitor? Or even a new
monitor at all (if the one you have is sufficient, should you have one.) Need lots of RAM or lots
of HD space? Video? Sound? What will you being doing with it? Do you want AMD or Intel or
you don't care? Which OS will you run - move your current OS install licence, get a free OS like
Linux, buy a new OS.
Third, price out the parts you think you want. A search engine that tracks prices is
PriceWatch. Companies like Computergate have parts (they also
build computers to order) and there are others like them. (At least to check prices out.) Related
to this is matching the CPU to the Motherboard to the RAM. Most everything else is "standard".
(More links to more info at bottom of post.)
Example: I'm going to say I'm moving a Windows 95 licence from one machine to the new one,
I'm going to keep my current 19" monitor, and I want to spend $1000 or less. I use the machine
for light gaming and general use, mostly. I want 512 Meg of RAM, an 80 Gig HD, and a CPU at
least 1.5 GHz. I want to play DVDs and have a 5 speaker system. Let's get TV out too. I don't
want to spend more than $150 on a video card, and I want to spend no more than $100 on a
sound card.
This is just an example, you might want different stuff! (Although this example includes no
monitor, you can get a 15" flat panel for $300 or so, 19" tube $190)
So let's build it (All prices are current as of March 2002, and I've included delivery costs in the prices below; descriptions are cut&pasted from PriceWatch listings):
CPU: Athlon XP 1900+ 1.6GHz (Socket-A) 266FSB OEM - $160
Fan: Thermaltake Volcano 5 Heatsink & Fan - A1110 $15
MB: K7VTA3,Ver.2.0,Socket-A,KT266A Chipset,UDMA-100,Audio,ATX AMD XP Athlon Duron - $75
Case: MID ATX CASE WITH 400W ATX POWER SUPPLY $35
RAM: LEGACY 256MB PC2100 DDR Memory module. PC266DDR. $75 * 2
HD: WESTERN DIGITAL WD 80.0GB EIDE ULTRA-ATA/100 7200 RPM 800bb $135
Video: ALL IN WONDER RADEON 7500 64MB DDR, DVI, VIVO (oem) $160
Sound: AC-97 Built on Motherboard $0
DVD: 16X Internal EIDE/ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM Drive $45
Network: 10/100 Mbps PCI Network Adapter $12
Mouse: ABS NETSCROLL MOUSE $6
Keyboard: EAGLE INTERNET KEYBOARD $10
Floppy: 3.5inch 1.44 Floppy Drive $15
Speakers: Creative Lab inspire5.1 5300, 6pcs speakers, retail box, new Subwoofer, Dolby.
surround $85
Total: $903 delivered
Now of course, you may not want a WD HD, so you could get an 80 Gig drive for $120 from Samsung; you may not want a video card like the above you could get one with no video out for $100, you may have speakers, you may only want PC150 RAM on a different motherboard. So you could chop off $100 to $400 from this and get the whole system with a monitor and an OS for the same price. Or maybe you want a better sound card, or just have to have a P4 2.2 GHz.
Or maybe you want to spend $2000 or only $600.
Go for it.
By the way, without shipping; a 2.2 P4 costs $476, the 2.0 is $294 ($269 for the socket 423 2.0)
and the 1.9 $224/$211)
I don't know about you, but I'd save myself $200 by giving up 200 MHz...... Maybe even worth
another $80 saving on another 100 MHz.
(Or in other words, the first 1900 MHz are $211, the next 100 MHz is $80, and the next 200 MHz is $200 -- or ~$200 for 1900 MHz and then $280 for 300 MHz.)
Combos are out there; you could get a faster AMD XP with the PC CHIPS 830LR W/XP-2100
1.73 GHZ SOCKET-A CPU & FAN COMBO for $364 (The total above for the XP-1900 was
$250)
Etc etc.
Need more parts info?
Another company that sells stuff: Buy
Another search engine: StreetPrices
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