Pricing from November 2005

The $1000 is by far the hardest computer to build. For this price range you can get many excellent used, refurbished or bare bone machines. Here we try and get the most bang for the buck. This system can be a standard office machine or home unit.

The heart of any PC is the processor. The AMD Athlon64 gives the best price / performance ratio so we’re going with that this month. The 3500+ is plenty fast and a fantastic value right now.

A MSI RX482M4-ILD motherboard with the Radeon 200 chipset gives the best new features and a solid upgrade path to all current AMD processors. It supports DDR RAM, ATA133 and SATA hard drives and is very speedy. MSI boards provide great features for a low price point.

Prices are up for system memory. Our system can utilize 200MHz DDR DRAM, so we chose from a quality manufacturer.

Storage is another area where falling prices and advancing technology have favoured the consumer. The price difference between 40 GB and 80 GB hard drives is now about $20, so we’ve moved up to a Samsung 80 GB 7200 RPM drive with 8 MB cache. A LG DVD rewriter is a fantastic storage option for the home user. Plus a Mitsumi memory card reader and 3.5” floppy drive combo round out our storage needs. Lots of higher end components.

Video is handled within the chipset, with system RAM used. Nothing spectacular, but 2D is done well. Output is handled by the Envision EFT720 17” flat screen monitor.

Sound is handled within the chipset as well, but with integrated 3D sound accompanying the AC97. Went a little upscale with the speaker choice, the Logitech X-530 5.1 Speakers. Great surround sound for a minimal investment.

Almost every system needs a modem, so a U.S. Robotics 56K PCI model is included. The keyboard and mouse are ergonomic Microsoft ergonomic models; very nice indeed.

The case chosen to house it all is the Antec SLK3800AMB ATX. A mid size form factor and footprint, yet handles our components with aplomb.

The operating system was another difficult decision. While Linux is free, most people don’t know their way around it. You can get cheap copies of Windows 95, 98 or Me, all of which will get the job done. Windows XP Home Edition is the latest and greatest. Include eBabble’s free software bundle.

$2000 Home System