Cheapest Computer System

Posted by santosj on May 13, 2006

To really get a cheap computer you need to build with the smallest and integrated components. With that in mind, I decided to go for the Micro ATX case and motherboard style since I’m not going to be adding that many addition drives anyway. It will be very limiting, but will fit into my budget and my style.

Case: $43.99 $41.10
Motherboard: $56.06 $67.72
Processor: $52.66 $49.99
RAM: (1 1GB 333MHz) $88.98 $103.99
Power Supply: $38.00 $39.98
Hard Drive: $58.23 $57.17
DVD-ROM: $30.94 $29.94
Case Fans: $9.68 $9.32 (x2)
CPU Fan: $36.99 $39.99

The Motherboard

The motherboard is good for a few reasons.

  1. Supports onboard video, which doesn’t force me to buy a video card just to run the computer.
  2. Includes onboard LAN, so I don’t have to buy a NIC just to connect to the network. It also frees up a PCI slot.
  3. Includes onboard sound, so I also don’t have to buy a sound card just to listen to sound.

There are a total of two free PCI slots out of the 3 available, which allows me to upgrade later if I choose. Lets say if I want to turn the computer into a TV, I can do so by buying the PCI components to output the display to the tv. It also includes a total of 4 Serial ATA slots, just in case I want to turn one of the Machines into a DVR or Network storage. I do wish it didn’t include the floppy and left out one of the PATA slots because I’m not going to be using them anyway.

Also includes a PCI-Express slot in case I want to play games on the machine later. Which would keep the computer from becoming too obsolete. The only issue is that it only supports AMD pin 754 which is going to have a short life span, so the issue of upgrading the CPU will become a factor several years down the line. However, if at the time there is a cheaper 939 pin motherboard with the same specs, then I’ll go for that one instead.

The Power Supply

The power supply must have serial ATA power connectors, this is a must. I don’t want to have to buy adapters down the line just to connect the devices. The Thermaltake power supply is cheap, silent, and while it only supports two serial ata connects, it has enough regular connects to buy the adapters if I ever get more than two SATA hard drives, which is unlikely.

It is also 430W which should be enough to power a single DVD-ROM drive along with the maximum of three hard drives.

The Memory

I found that it was the same price to get two 512MB 333MHz sticks or to get one 1GB 333MHz stick. If I get the 1GB stick, then I’ll be paying more, but I will be able to upgrade easier to 2GB later if I ever need the extra RAM, which I will when Windows Vista comes out.

Hard Drive

For the base systems, an 80 GB hard drive is big enough for Windows for two partitions one ~60GB and the other ~18GB. The first for Windows and applications and the second for My Documents and system cache. If the Windows Partition ever fails, then the My Documents will still exist. However, if the hard drive fails then my documents would be lost. I do want to have a file server for keeping a backup of the documents.

Replaces

I have a PC that I’m not longer using for anything and only needs a video card to work. I want to get rid of it after I get the other computers. However it is going to need a graphics card.

Computer 1:

Computer 2:

This computer is Pentium 4 based at 2.4 GHz and it is failing. I will most likely use the existing transferable components over to the other systems. Such as the hard drives, DVD-RW, CD-ROM, and fans. Everything else would be recycled. It is well past its lifecycle anyway.

However replacing it will give me a less powerful computer, but won’t be needed when I build my gaming machine.

The cost will still however be somewhat high.

Case: Same As Above
Motherboard: Same As Above
Processor: Same As Above
Power Supply: Same As Above
CPU Fan: $39.93 $36.99

Total to Upgrade: $252.39

I’ll upgrade the cheap one first since it would only cost less than 25 dollars to get it working. Since to upgrade the second one would be cheaper than building a new one, I will just upgrade the second one as a new project. I’ll build a third and then try to build the game machine after. In all, I should have four PCs.

Buy Together But Not All

Some parts need to be bought together to keep compatibility between the parts. Also, the time between purchases may allow the other parts to decrease in price.

Step 1:

  • Case
  • Power Supply
  • Case Fans
  • Total: $102.20

Step 2:

  • Hard Drive
  • DVD-ROM
  • Total: $92.06

Step 3:

  • Motherboard
  • CPU
  • RAM
  • CPU Fan
  • Total: $260.04

Conclusion

Some parts have cheaper prices, but you have to decide on which components you want to last and give you the least problems down the road. If I buy a cheap fan, it is likely to fail sooner than I would anticipate. I can spend more and still be within my budget by taking a chunk of the price from the case, motherboard, and CPU which don’t need to be over powered depending on what I’m going to use them for.

The point is that you have to spend more on RAM and hard drives while you can’t cut back on other parts depending on your needs. If I was building a game machine, I would go for higher CPU and mother board and include a GPU card. However, I still won’t need to spend too much on hard drives and would only probably use one hard drive for the life of the system.

Total: $454.30

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