Do-It-Yourself PC Builder’s Guide: How Cheap Is Too Cheap?

We askedMaximum PC ’s Will Smithto report the cheap microcomputer you may build , and he said he ’d do it , if only to talk you out of pass so little . Here ’s what you gain , and lose , by going ultra cheap .

Over at Maximum PC , we just posted a guidebook that show ’s you everything you need to know to buildthe flash personal computer I ’d recommend to anyone for use as his or her main microcomputer . It ’s a astonishingly beefy machine , up to of playing games , pull DVDs , editing picture and photos , and play 1080p video with nary a dropped frame . For a mere $ 647 , we managed to take a quad - core CPU , a not bad TV batting order , 4 GB of memory , and Windows 7 Home Premium into a amazingly fashionable mid - tower . However , if you do n’t need as well - round off a oecumenical purpose PC , you’re able to go cheap , specially if you ’re unforced to make some sacrifice . Let ’s take a look at the parts we used , and then we ’ll start take gash .

Let ’s look at the monetary value chart . If you ’re not a gamer and are n’t using one of the handful of software that ’s accelerated by general - design GPU - based computing , then there ’s no good grounds to spend 25 % of your budget on a videocard that will lie down fallow for most everything you do . The Gigabyte motherboard sports integrated computer graphic that will do everything you need to do , include hardware accelerated decode for video playback . Pulling the videocard brings our full toll down below $ 500 , to $ 481 . Not too shabby , but we can save even more .

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If you ’re not going to be run piles of apps , edit photos , or encoding videos , that quad - nitty-gritty is massive overkill . To save a few vaulting horse , we ’re go to replace that quad - core Athlon II with a exclusive - core group Sempron LE-1250 . It costs less than a Blu - ray of light disk at Best Buy , a bare $ 32 . Unfortunately , that still does n’t get us below $ 400 , so we need to dig deeper .

Since you dump the quadriceps core CPU , your PC wo n’t be up to running many program at once , so we can cut back on memory . you’re able to buy a generic 1 GB stick for $ 22 at Newegg , which is the minimum requirement for Windows 7 .

Since you wo n’t be produce cognitive content , there ’s absolutely no intellect to expend handsome bucks on a massive 500 GB intemperate drive . In fact , you could probably even get by installing Windows on a decent - sized flash drive , but that ’s more expensive than what we have in mind . It ’s toughened to beat a more - than - adequate 80 GB campaign for a simple $ 35 . Oh , and while we ’re at it , you should trench the optical driveway . betting odds are , you wo n’t call for it for anything after you set up your machine , and it ’s comfortable and faster toinstall Windows from thumbdrive(which you probably already have anyway ) .

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After more than halving the cost of our PC , Windows is look mighty expensive . At $ 105 , the OEM variant of Windows Home Premium is more than a third of the entire toll of this machine . It ’s time to start remember about Ubuntu , which will get our total price down to a cool $ 200 . But wait , we can go even cheaper .

If you ’re just going to browse the WWW on this machine , why spend money on a real CPU ? A Foxconn Atom motherboard that come with the mainframe costs a few one dollar bill less than our AMD motherboard alone , so it ’s time to trim the fat , yet again . surely , we could spend a few bucks more and get the same CPU in a motherboard equipped with Nvidia ’s Ion chipset , but EVERYTHING MUST GO !

For a machine with power necessary this meager , there ’s absolutely no understanding to spend 20 % of our budget on a timber power supply . or else , let ’s get a case that includes an integrated world power supplying . It may not be reliable , but it sure is flash !

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