What can $700 buy computer wise.

I'm thinking of geting a new computer and self assembling it. I'm 11 years old so my dad will only give me $700. What componets should I put in it?

I found out that you could get these items off newegg.com for $700 + shiping and handeling.
Motherboard-Nforce 2 ultra
cpu-amd athlonxp 3000
Harddrive-120GB western digital
Ram-1GB of cosiars
VGA-ati 9600XT 256mb
cdrw/dvd combo drive
Alien case with 420 watt power
on board sound 5.1 chanel high def.

Don't mean to be rude or anything, but this hardly belongs at ATS. This should be discussed on a computer board or something.

Seems you've answered your own question... I'm assuming you're getting into games hardcore?

Nice to see that you can put together a good system for less than retail again... When I stopped doing it, it was barely worth the effort, as you could get one off the shelf for almost the same money....

cdrw/dvd combo drive....now that's cool, I've really been out of the game for a bit...may need to add one of those to the Christmas Wishlist, hehe....

This is BTS not ATS and the title of this category is 'Computer Help'. Nothing wrong with posting this question here.

This thread was originally posted on ATS and was on ATS when I typed that message.

My apologies nyarlathotep. Carry-on........

I'm no computer expert so I certainly wouldn't know where to start in terms of helping you pick components for a build your own and if you want to build your own computer this advice will be useless but...my computer died a few months ago and I needed a new one so I started hunting for bargains. Ended up finding a compaq presario (i know not the best computer) on sale for 695, after taxes I walked away with a new system for about 750 or so.

It's pretty good, absolutely kicks but in the games department so I'm pretty happy.

So again, if you're looking to build your own computer for fun then this is useless info, but if you just want the best system you can find for 700 I think you might find something by scouring your local classifieds and computer superstore ads.

Hope this is not completely useless and happy computer hunting.

Spiderj

Here is a good deal (in my opinion)if you decide not to build it. eMachines
$600

Here is a monitor for it
www.tigerdirect.com...
$30 (the rebate only lasts until 12/31/04 and it's a no name brand)

Total: $630


[Edited on 1-11-2004 by Mr.President]

VGA doesnt make very good Video Cards, id spend a LITTLE bit more and get an XT from ATI itself, or from Sapphire or ASUS.

If you live in Minnesota or Wisconsin or even Iowa, this weekend there is a huge computer liquidation sale in Shakopee, MN. This isn't some crap 10% off sale, there's computers for like 100 dollars! But if you're into gaming and stuff they have 4-500 dollar computers that really kick.

Yeah, the chances of you living somewhere close are really small, but hey, worth a shot!

Can't find what you're looking for? Go to Puget Systems because there, you can choose every single component you want, plus they assemble it, test it, and make sure everything works before shipping it out to you. They have really good deals on processors!

The one I'm getting is like $3,700 and it is really awesome. Don't get discouraged by that price, because you could build a pretty good one for like $600 from them.

Here kid. Faster than the one above and for the same price: $706 + S&H
parts from newegg.com

CASE:
RAIDMAX Black 10-bay Case with 420W Power Supply, Model "ATX-868WBP" -RETAIL

OPTICAL DRIVES:
Samsung Black 52X32X52X16 DVD/CD-RW Combo Drive, Model TS-H492A/WBGH, OEM
Samsung Black 52X CD-ROM, Model SH-152AEBUB, OEM

XTRA FANS FOR CASE:
2x Speeze 80mm DC Case fan, Model "FD08025S1M4"

FLOPPY DRIVE:
Samsung Black 1.44MB 3.5inch Floppy Disk Drive, Model SFD321B/LBL1, OEM Drive Only

HARD DRIVE:
Western Digital 80GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model WD800JD, OEM Drive Only

MEMORY (RAM)
Corsair Value Select (Dual Pack) 184 Pin 512MBx2 (1GB) DDR PC-3200 - OEM

MODEM:
Encore 56K Internal PCI Fax Modem, Model ENF656-EHW-INPR - Retail

MOTHERBOARD:
EPoX "EP-8KDA3J" nForce3-250Gb Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket 754 CPU -RETAIL

PROCESSOR (CPU):
AMD Athlon 64 3000+, 512KB L2 Cache 64-bit Processor - Retail

VIDEO CARD:
POWERCOLOR ATI RADEON 9600XT Video Card, 128MB DDR, 128-Bit, DVI/TV-Out, 8X AGP, Model "R96E-TC3" -RETAIL

[Edited on 13-11-2004 by Ocelot]

if you want a good cheap easley upgraded computer buy an E-machine

crapMachines are NOT easily upgraded. They use proprietary parts, and they lock their mobos and CPUs so you cant overclock or replace them with another. None of the mass produced computers are easily upgraded at all.

BS dreamland do you own one

As a matter of fact I have owned one, about 2 years ago. And its not BS, you cant do much at all upgrade wise. You cant upgrade the CPU unless you upgrade the mobo, since the multipliers and FSB are locked into the BIOS. The most you can do is change the HDDs and Optical Drives, and add cards.

E-Machine = The #tiest computers you could ever buy. They're right up there with compaq and HP desktops as complete and total PIECE of Crap computers.

At least I was able to overclock my iMac from 800 MHz to 1 GHz. But that doesn't mean that it was easy, either. It's one of those with a flat-panel screen that moves around on a silver bar, and has a rounded white base, which makes it hard to even get inside.

Don't buy anything from Apple.

I got my dell dimension 3000 with speakers and the whole nine yards for 600+ and dells a good company aswell i would i have no problems with it either check out dells site they have sales now cause of christmas season but i got mine before christmas for around 600..

Dell's Site Check out home and home office..because im guessing thats what you need..

[edit on 28-12-2004 by ShadowMan]

Dell's computers are pretty good and they give excellent customer service. But I still rather build my own machines. Way faster than anything I could buy anywhere.