UBER-CHEAP PC for Mom

[Sovereign]

My mother has an old Dell PIII (1.0GHz/384MB RAM).

Needless to say, it acts up every time I come home from school and just runs like a dog. She wants a new computer and I am trying to scrimp and cut as many corners as possible while still building a reliable and quiet system.

I already have a Pentium D 830 and an ECS 945P-A that I won from LR a while back, and I will be using those two parts. The mobo has built-in sound so we don't need a soundcard.

My mom turns on her computer maybe once a day, at most. It might stay on for a few hours, but that's generally because my dad thinks my mom needs it, leaves it on and then she doesn't use it so it gets powered down again. It isn't on all that often. Putting Linux/OpenOffice on the (old) machine is out of the question because my mom flat out refuses to use non-Microsoft stuff and there's no point in trying to convince her otherwise. It was a huge leap to get her off of Norton and onto AVG.

I've come up with this on NewEgg
- Rosewill R230-P-BK (yeah yeah Rosewill = bad but that's for high end stuff)
- GIGABYTE GV-NX72G512P1 GeForce 7200GS 128MB
- SPARKLE ATX-300GT ATX 300W
- WINTEC AMPO 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2
- Western Digital Caviar SE WD800JD 80GB
- SAMSUNG 20X DVD±R DVD Burner

Price: $180 before shipping

What's with the 2GB RAM? Because I want this machine somewhat, possibly, sort of, kind of able to run Windows Vista when that time comes. I already have a copy of MCE left over from one of my old machines, and she has a copy of Office 2000 from work.

Main concern: Is that PSU gonna cut it with the Pentium D? It's not like she's going to push it...

PS: Someone just told me the Pentium D 830 isn't compatible with the ECS 945P-A? WTF? I seriously doubt the staff here would hand out prizes that aren't compatible...

[dkarko]

Well in general the system doesnt need alot ot power, but most pentium d's are kinda powerhungry. You could find cheap psu's up to 450 (and again branded). 450 would be overkill but 400 is more than enough and safe.

Checking now on a psu calculator, d830 has a max tdp of 130watts. Try cpu util. 85% and system load 90% gives around 260watts.. Take into account the efficiency of the psu and you are already too freaking close to problems!
http://www.extreme.outervision.com/PSUEngine
Even though the processor is not listed in the cpu support page, it should work. If you google you will see that people have this setup working.

Now for simple use, even with vista you wont need 2 gigs! That is because you shouldn't install ultimate version and even if you do you should disable a few uneeded services.
With a little bit of tweaking here i got vista home premium to run on my htpc with just 300mb ram on startup


Finally, don't forget to try and undervolt this cpu as much as possible, it should be hot and noisy with that wattage

[Sovereign]

What about this PSU? RGPS-450W by Sunbeam. My problem is that I always build computers designed to stay on all the time so use all these heavy-duty, premium components when I don't necessarily need them (and to top it off I know next to nothing about budget builds).

[dkarko]

Don't know much about psus. I can't comment on it, except the fact that it looks cheap. But again lot of psu used in BTO systems are usually like that, i mean if the computer is not in heavy constant use it should be fine
Plus alot of reviews are good on newegg, just note that some say it is a loud power supply in the customer reviews!

[DMB2000uk]

http://forums.legitreviews.com/about7169.html

Has some good advice with brands to avoid, and a few cheap ones that are good.

Dan

[dkarko]

Nice!

[ibleet]

I recommend you look here Official tiered PSU brands