Computer upgrade on a budget

Ryan from Ohio · Post by **Ryan from Ohio** » Sun Jan 14, 2007 1:15 pm

I have a 52x CD burner and an antec DVD rom/drive but no dvd bruner...

I was told before to look into dual core processors...

I will require a Motherboard, processor, memory, hard drive. video card...

I seen on CAF Geo posted a motherboard for $30.

Blah.

The cheaper, the better really. Basicly if I can get something tossed together that will work for about 2 years, Im cool with that. it doesnt have to be the hottset thing around...

joeyc · Post by **joeyc** » Sun Jan 14, 2007 1:22 pm

Well the great thing about building your own computer, you can hand pick your components. Since your on a low budget, you could go with some stuff a year or so old and still have a kick ass computer! I built mine last year Asus board, athlon 64 3800, geforce 6600, and it still rox by todays standards. Lemme look around and see what I would recommend..

Edit: It depends on what brand of board you want. Personally I don't buy anything but ASUS, but its up to you. MSI is good, Abit used to be good but I'm not sure, ECS is affordable but used to be questionable from my experience. But if you look on http://www.pricewatch.com, you can find the cheapest prices. A bunch of different web companies post there specials on there.

Ryan from Ohio · Post by **Ryan from Ohio** » Sun Jan 14, 2007 1:54 pm

Ya I usually look at pricewatch, newegg and tiger direct...

Looking on New Egg right now.

I got an Asus board right now. Its my second Asus, and I can say with certainty I never want another. Horrible support/download site...

I would preffer MSI really, but at this point Im not going to press cause Im looking to do it cheap... Like motherboard/processor for around $100-150... lol

ZeroAccess · Post by **ZeroAccess** » Sun Jan 14, 2007 2:04 pm

I remember paying 200+ dollars for a 60 gig hard-drive from Western Digital and thinking damn I got a deal. Now its what less than 1 dollar a gig!

32meg Voodoo video card cost like 200 dollars and it was TOP of the line when it was out. Now you can't give them away lol.

I have an e-machine sitting beside me and its an ok lil beast for the 300 dollars I paid for it. My fiance has a dell that cost 700ish and its nice but too much cash for what it is. I build my parents computer 2 years ago with around 700 dollars and it still is.....somewhat up to date because of the luck I had ordering parts.

Be careful going the E-machine/Whatever company because now and days to cut back on cost they use integrated motherboards and not a lot of expansion slots therefore upgraded becomes VERY difficult to do. My E-machines has like 2 PCI slots and thats it. Kind of hard to do anything with only 2 slots.

mspiegle · Post by **mspiegle** » Sun Jan 14, 2007 2:55 pm

Ryan from Ohio wrote:Ya I usually look at pricewatch, newegg and tiger direct...
Looking on New Egg right now.
I got an Asus board right now. Its my second Asus, and I can say with certainty I never want another. Horrible support/download site...
I would preffer MSI really, but at this point Im not going to press cause Im looking to do it cheap... Like motherboard/processor for around $100-150... lol

I would rethink that.... despite their shitty driver downloads, they really do make some of the best boards out there. I've spent LOTS of time with computer hardware (worked as a tech @ PCCLUB for a while), and I can tell ya that when a customer wanted the fastest and most RELIABLE setup, i'd almost always use an asus board. The MSI boards tend to have strange issues here and there, but i've heard that their newest stuff is pretty good.

but whatever you do, DO NOT buy an ECS motherboard. Sometimes they work, but most of the time they dont (random blue screens, system resets, etc). They have horrible quality control and are built with cheap components.

Ryan from Ohio · Post by **Ryan from Ohio** » Sun Jan 14, 2007 3:02 pm

Good call- I was just looking at the one Geolemon is buying...lol

William from NOLA · Post by **William from NOLA** » Sun Jan 14, 2007 3:04 pm

mspiegle wrote:I would rethink that.... despite their shitty driver downloads, they really do make some of the best boards out there. I've spent LOTS of time with computer hardware (worked as a tech @ PCCLUB for a while), and I can tell ya that when a customer wanted the fastest and most RELIABLE setup, i'd almost always use an asus board. The MSI boards tend to have strange issues here and there, but i've heard that their newest stuff is pretty good.
but whatever you do, DO NOT buy an ECS motherboard. Sometimes they work, but most of the time they dont (random blue screens, system resets, etc). They have horrible quality control and are built with cheap components.

Ditto on ECS, those are horrible.

Epox seems to be decent. On my 2nd of those. I've always had good luck with Abit boards. Asus is definately most reliable. Gigabyte is decent too.

joeyc · Post by **joeyc** » Sun Jan 14, 2007 3:04 pm

you have a preference on chipsets? via or nvidia? personally I think nvidia is the best, but you can get a better price on via...

edit: x2 on the gigabyte, I have used several of there boards with success. Just like Asus better..

joeyc · Post by **joeyc** » Sun Jan 14, 2007 3:13 pm

http://www.memoryexpousa.com/mbcoamdat642.html
first MSI combo in the list. That would be a screamer right there, plus you can add a decent video card and memory for 100 or so

mspiegle · Post by **mspiegle** » Sun Jan 14, 2007 3:20 pm

William from NOLA wrote:Ditto on ECS, those are horrible.
Epox seems to be decent. On my 2nd of those. I've always had good luck with Abit boards. Asus is definately most reliable. Gigabyte is decent too.

Whoa, epox still makes boards? They had this one super-bad-ass board back in the day. It came in a really cool box too. I haven't heard of them doing too much since then though.

Abit and gigabyte are certainly good as well. I can only recall one problem i've had with abit, and everything else has been good.