June 13th, 2007
Build the biggest bang per dollar PCs: June 2007 Edition
It’s Father’s day coming up and what better way to put a smile on Dad’s face than a new computer. The timing couldn’t be better with the arrival of the newest 3-Series motherboards from Intel and the somewhat new 690G AMD motherboards which I reviewed yesterday so it’s time to build a new PC with the biggest bang per dollar. For this edition I’ll include 4 build lists from a basic but powerful PC in the $700 range up to an enthusiast PC in the $3200 range. If you’re not sure how to build a PC but you’re willing to give it a shot, I have this step-by-step tutorial with photos. Even if you have no interest in building your own PC, you can still use this list to educate yourself what constitutes a good computer so that you can make better informed shopping decisions or you can take one of these build lists and have a local computer store build it for you.
Note: I like to include the price of shipping for every component since I realize not all of my readers can buy things locally. If you can buy some things locally and discounted, you’ll be able to save on shipping and get an even better price on at least some of the components. Realistically, the local prices will typically reflect the lowest online price plus shipping plus a little margin because it’s more expensive to keep things in stock.
I won’t try to go for any arbitrary boundaries like the $500 (shipping not included) mark since my fellow blogger Adrian Kingsley-Hughes has already done that. I’m also not a fan of these stripped down computers with sub-standard components like low-efficiency noisy power supplies, cheap chassis, lousy keyboard and mice, and small 17″ monitors. I’m not saying that there’s no place for those types of computers and Adrian has done those people a service by giving them that option. The goal of the “biggest bang per dollar PC” is to offer a computer that you will love whether it’s $700 or $3200.
In this day in age, I will never recommend a computer with analog-only VGA output. The minimum configuration will be a 2 GB PC with a dual-core energy efficient processor, Gigabit Ethernet, 19″ LCD display with digital DVI, precision keyboard and mouse which should make Windows Vista - or any other OS - scream. Just by using a cheaper mouse, case, and power supply I can bring the price down close to $600 and technically call it a $500 computer without accounting for shipping costs but I don’t think that results in a computer you want to use. The recommended Operating System to take advantage of all this hardware is Windows Vista Home Premium Edition which costs $117 for an OEM version. If you’re a Linux user or you’re going to migrate an existing copy of Windows XP, then you won’t need to buy that.
<Next page - Two $700 to $850 Value PCs with 19″ LCD>
George Ou is Technical Director of ZDNet. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
