Cheap Computer Parts

Price/performance ratio drives a lot of budget minded computer buyers। The logic is that by buying something that's a little bit behind the "state of the art", you can get a reasonable machine for a modest budget। Right now, your best price/performance ratio is with the 64-bit (Vista-capable) Celeron 420, which is one of the last processors using the Socket 775 LGA architecture। The current sweet spot is at 1।6 GHz, but they may not be on the market much longer, as Intel's Core 2 processors move down the product hierarchy in favor of multi-core designs। Be warned, this is probably the last of the single core processors; this machine has the potential to be relegated to secondary duties fast।


For the motherboard for this machine, your best choice is the ECS P35T-A, which has more USB ports, and a PCI-Express card, and four RAM slots। It has onboard sound, but no onboard video worth mentioning; get a good PCI express video card, but don't bother with one that's a "gamer's card"। This machine isn't a game machine, so save the money and get the cheapest one you can find at the time। That being said, I don't have a specific recommendation, because "cheapest PCI express video card" changes literally every 24 hours, and any of them will be more than you need।


You're going to need RAM, especially with Vista, and this machine can take DD2-800, which is the current "commodity priced" RAM। (The board was chosen with this specifically in mind। A cheaper board ended up having RAM that was twice as expensive, and proved to be no bargain at all।)


For drives, consider a 32x DVD R/W drive; they're at the point where they're all around $30 or less। For a hard drive, a straightforward 120 GB Barracuda is just fine at under $50। A wireless network card for $10, and we're pretty much good to go, other than a case and power supply (400W is the minimum we recommend for a power supply) and a monitor।
If there's any place where "cheaper" shouldn't be your mantra, it's your monitor। It is the one piece of computer hardware that you're going to keep when this computer is stuffed in the attic as woefully obsolete, and it's the piece of hardware where the extra money spent will give you an immediate and constant benefit.