Fry’s electronics has a one day sale for Memorial day where they offer an ECS NVIDIA 7150 based motherboard and Intel E7200 2.53 GHz 45nm dual-core processor for $130. This will allow you to build a great computer for $379 which is even lower cost than my previous budget built-list.
The only downside with this motherboard is that it doesn’t come with HDMI or DVI out and only has a VGA DB-15 port so you can use it to drive an LCD HDTV. It also only has RAID 1 and 0 and not 5 for the storage. But for a budget PC for general purpose computing and some light game play, you can’t beat this deal. Here’s the build list you need for this computer if you happen to pick up one of these combo deals.
| Component |
Price |
| ECS GF7050VT-M (NVIDIA 7150) with Intel E7200 2.53 GHz 45nm CPU |
130 |
| 2 GB DDR2-800 DIMM |
43 |
| Cooler Master Elite 340 – SMALL MicroATX tower (in store pickup) |
40 |
| FSP300-60GLN 300W efficient power supply |
44 |
| Western Digital 500 GB SATA hard drive (lowest power consumption) |
90 |
| LG black 20X DVD burner, SATA |
32 |
| Sub total (including shipping) |
379 |
A lot of gamers on a budget want to know how to build the cheapest biggest bang per buck gaming PC so here it is. This computer has surprisingly low power consumption with the latest generation NVIDIA 9600GT graphics adapter and Intel dual-core 45nm processor. In fact, I would go as far as saying that this is probably the most energy efficient gaming computer in its performance class with idle power consumption in the 60 watts range and peak power consumption in the low 100 watts range.
This system runs cool and quiet with very respectable frame rates on a 22″ or smaller LCD with (1680×1050 resolution). The motherboard has 5 SATA ports with RAID 0, 1, 1+0, and 5 capability and it’s perfect for storing all your videos. Just add a few more terabyte hard drives and this computer becomes the heart of your home entertainment video library.
| Component |
Price |
| MSI (Intel P35) Neo2-FR LGA 775 motherboard with ICH9R RAID |
118 |
| Intel E8200 Wolfdale 2.66GHz dual-core 45nm (Penryn class) |
185 |
| ECS N9600GT-512MX EDM GeForce 9600GT 512MB ($10 rebate) |
147 |
| 2 GB DDR2-800 DIMM |
41 |
| Cooler Master Elite 330 – ATX tower (in store pickup) |
50 |
| SeaSonic S12 II SS-330GB ATX12V 330W “80 Plus” Power Supply |
68 |
| Western Digital 500 GB SATA hard drive (lowest power consumption) |
90 |
| LG 20X DVD burner, SATA |
32 |
| Sub total (including shipping) |
731 |
It’s been a while since I’ve put out a PC build list so I’m going to start with a value edition with an embedded NVIDIA graphics motherboard and Intel dual-core CPU. Note that this is more than powerful enough for any media center or office computer and even some casual low-end graphics gaming. It’s a nice small computer that’s designed to be very quiet and fast.
| Component |
Price |
| MSI P6NGM-FIH (NVIDIA GeForce 7150) HDMI Micro ATX |
84 |
| Intel Pentium E2180 Allendale 2GHz dual-core |
70 |
| 2 GB DDR2-800 DIMM |
41 |
| Cooler Master Elite 340 – SMALL MicroATX tower (in store pickup) |
40 |
| FSP300-60GLN 300W efficient power supply |
44 |
| Western Digital 500 GB SATA hard drive (lowest power consumption) |
90 |
| LG 20X DVD burner, SATA |
32 |
| Sub total (including shipping) |
401 |
Later this week I’ll put up a more powerful value system that can game well on any LCD up to 22 inches.
There was a time when I was proud of my latest handiwork with my Polycarbonate AIO PC I built for my mother, but Jake von Slatt and Doc Datamancer are making me look like a little kid with works like the above. I’d post a picture of my work but I’m a little intimidated by the work above so I’ll let you follow the link to see for yourself. Nice work Jake and Doc!