$350 Barebones Vista/7 PC ?
In the ZDNet blog Hardware 2.0, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes wrote an article called "$350 Barebones Vista/7 PC". The system he came up with is an Intel. But it's not complete. What he has listed has everything EXCEPT the DVD burner and the case. (As normal it does not include the operating system or anything outside the case.) He was showing how much you can now buy for $350.00 compared to, say, a month ago.
Here is the list of parts he constructed:
CPU: Intel Pentium E5200 Wolfdale 2.5GHz MOTHERBOARD: ASUS P5N-EM HDMI MEMORY: Crucial 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 VIDEO CARD: HIS Hightech H467QS512P Radeon HD 4670 HARD DRIVE: HITACHI Deskstar T7K500 HDT725032VLA360 (0A33435) 320GB POWER SUPPLY: SeaSonic SS-300ET 300W
The total cost of what he has listed is $344.94 in a NewEgg Wish List. (If you throw it in the NewEgg "buy basket", it comes to a total of $364.02 shipping it to Minnesota zip code 55111.)
Now, like I said, he didn't include the DVD burner or the case. So I went hunting for a cheap case that still had some fairly good reviews. I ended up with the Rosewill R102-P-BK at a cost of $19.99. With the $12.99 shipping charge, it comes to a total of $32.98. For the DVD burner I chose the Samsung Black 22X DVD+R 22X. This DVD burner is a 2 time winner of the Customer Choice Award at NewEgg. It costs $27.99. With the shipping charge of $6.99, it is $34.98.
If we add everything together, we get a total now of $431.98 including all shipping charges to Minnesota zip code 55111.
Needless to say, the $350.00 box just came up to over $430.00 after including everything to build a fully functional box, minus the operating system.
That's not to bad, but it isn't a true $350.00 computer. I also saw there might be 1 very large problem right off the bat with this set-up. Since we are dealing with a micro ATX case (that's what most of them were that are under $20.00), the video card he put in the build might not fit the case. It is the newer "long card" configuration which needs space behind it versus the older "square card" configuration. A square card will fit in just about any case as long as it doesn't have the "half height" card restriction.
If the video card fits in the case, this would make a good Intel starter system for the money.
Now that we have Adrian's Intel system out of the way, I decided to put together an AMD system for about roughly the same amount of money. (A total of 431.98 including all the parts and shipped to Minnesota zip code 55111.)
Here is what I came up with.
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ MOTHERBOARD: GIGABYTE GA-MA78GM-S2H (This is the 3 time winner of the Customer Choice Award for AMD motherboards at NewEgg.) MEMORY: Kingston ValueRAM 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 VIDEO CARD: SAPPHIRE 100255L Radeon HD 4670 HARD DRIVE: Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD3200AAKS 320GB POWER SUPPLY: SeaSonic SS-300ET 300W
That completes the AMD build. The total cost in the NewEgg Wish List is $345.95.(When put in the NewEgg "buy basket", this comes to a total of $361.44.)
After adding the same Rosewill case and the same Samsung DVD burner, our total in the buy basket (or cart) is $429.40 to Minnesota 55111.
Well, with the AMD system, we didn't break the $430.00 mark for a total. The AMD system will fit in a micro ATX case since the video card I chose was the older "square card" format and doesn't need the extra room in the case.
As we can all see, the AMD system is about $2.00 cheaper than the Intel system. Both systems should be a good match for either Windows Vista or Windows 7 when it comes out sometime in late 2009 or early 2010.
I would recommend changing the HIS video card in the Intel system for the Sapphire card in the AMD system. Both cards cost the same. It's just that the Sapphire card is shorter. That is the only reason.
Have fun with either of these builds.
Till Next Time!