August 6th, 2008
Cheap and cheerful Vista-capable PC for $260 plus change
The other day I received a challenge from a reader. Put together the parts list for a cheap and cheerful PC. The criteria were pretty straightforward:
- Cheap
- Good quality
- Be able to run Vista
Here’s what I came up with …
Parts gallery here
Note: As always I start these builds with a disclaimer. The prices I list here do not take into account the ups (discounts, offers, rebates, bundles …) or downs (taxes, shipping …) of life. I’m also not including a monitor, peripherals or OS in the price list.
Also, I’ve chosen Newegg.com as the price benchmark, but that should not be taken as meaning that I endorse any one outlet over another. You should shop around and find the best deals you can yourself.
CPU
I wanted to build this system around a decent but low-priced CPU. For around $70 you can pick up an Intel Pentium E2180 “Allendale” 2.0GHz dual-core part, which is a very nice piece of silicon. However, I wanted the CPU in this build to be under $50. There aren’t that many Intel processors at this price point, but there are some good AMD CPUs that you can pick up.
I chose the AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ 2.3GHz Socket AM2 dual-core CPU for this build. Sure, it’s going to get thrashed by pretty much every other processor available when it comes to benchmark tests, but it is nonetheless a reliable piece and perfectly capable of delivering excellent results.
Price: $46.99
Motherboard
Because I’d chosen the 4400+ AM2 CPU, I now needed a cheap and cheerful AM2 motherboard.
I had a few requirements for the motherboard:
- Good quality.
- It needed to be Vista-capable - when buying at the low end it’s easy to buy something that’s too cheap, which means that you have to buy twice. Not smart!
- I wanted a semi-decent on-board graphics solution.
The board I finally picked was the ASUS M2A-VM. This is a Micro ATX board equipped with the AMD 690G chipset. In addition to all the features that you’d expect a motherboard to have (gigabit LAN, stacks of USB ports, decent audio), this board is also HDCP compliant and the Radeon X1250 graphics chip will let you play HD-DVD or Blu-ray (if you fit the right drive in the system). This board also features a VGA and DVI-D ports, so supports dual screens out of the box!
Price: $64.99
Alternate reality: A few of you have asked me what motherboard would I have chosen if I’d gone with the E2180 “Allendale” 2.0GHz instead of the AMD CPU. Well, it probably would have to be the ASUS P5N-EM - This board features on-board NVIDIA GeForce 7100, nForce 630i chipset and HDMI output. However, it is $75, so with the CPU this adds some $35 to the final price. You can find cheaper boards but I like this one.
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Adrian is a technology journalist and author who has devoted over a decade to helping users get the most from technology. He also runs a popular blog called The PC Doctor. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations
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| 08/06/08
