Here's what I'm looking at now, at a total of $839. When funding is approved (soon hopefully), I'll do more than cursory comparison shopping on prices. Great tip on looking for deals in looking at circulars for some items (HD, etc.) perry!
Case: Antec SLK3700BQE (I like black better than beige) with 2 120mm fans and a 350 Watt PS, $98 total
MoBo: Abit NF7-S
v2, $90
CPU: Athlon XP 2500+ Barton, $85
CPU fan: Volcano 9, $22 (overclocking is a possibility eventually and I like the variable fan speed)
RAM: 2x 512 MB PC3200 (Kingston), $160HD: a Hitachi 80MB, $67 (I'll prolly buy the HD in person during a sale)
3.5 drive: $8 (cheapest black one I saw)
CD/DVD: Lite-on 48/24/48/16 CD-RW/DVD-ROM, $51 (burning DVDs is a luxury I can live without for now)
Vid card: Gainward GeForce FX 5200, 128MB DDR, 8x AGP, $74Speakers: $20 (el cheapo for now)
Kybd: $15 (el cheapo for now)
Monitor: $150 budget for a 17" CRT
There you have it ... 1.8 GHz Athlon XP, 333 FSB, 512 MB cache, 1024 MB DDR400 RAM (in two identical sticks), CD-RW/DVD-ROM, 4 USB 2.0 ports (MoBo supports 2 more), 2 IEEE1394 ports, 10/100 LAN, with decent video support and decent audio support (5.1 Dubly AND Digital out on the MoBo). Along with room for upgrades and tinkering for about $900 all told.
I looked at Dell ... people that build computers make me buy too many things I don't want to get the things I do. That's why I want to build it myself.
The last three items I can upgrade later if I want (and can afford), especially the monitor. The one I buy now can be handed down to my gf's computer when I'm done with it. I got a cordless Logitech mouse for Xmas, so that moves up and this POS gets the old one back when it turns into a Linux file/print server.
I found a student upgrade copy of XP Pro for $82.
Student Office 2003 is $150 if I feel I can't live with Office 2000 anymore (and that $150 gets me 3 licenses). AV - I can use AVG free for now, spend money later. Most of the stuff my current PC chokes on is C++ compilation (set the hourglass for big programs), Oracle 8i (haven't confirmed that it actually works on this PC yet, I barely had room to install it), and other Comp Sci dealies that are CPU and memory dependant - but thay are all free or already owned.
Two questions:
1) RAM. Gotta go with a top tier manufacturer, which pretty much leaves Kingston and Crucial as far as I can tell. I read the Kingstons tend to get hot (but are a bit cheaper). RAM heatspreaders are recommended - anyone want to comment on RAM cooling? The heatspreaders I saw looked pretty flimsy; I suppose they work to cool a few degrees. I'm not sure if active RAM cooling is appropriate for my setup ... don't want to go overboard.
2) Vid card. I don't see spending $100 for a high end - I just want middle of the line. How are the GeForce FX 5200 cards? Gainward looks to be a reputable brand, and that card is priced well for what it has. I definitely want something that is 8x AGP capable.
