Cheap and cheerful Vista-capable PC for $260 plus change
![adrian-kingsley-hughes](https://www.zdnet.com/a/img/resize/6f9ac99abaa541291e393a8b765bdffb2fa11559/2022/08/05/11c625de-cb18-4e3f-8614-5010553831f2/adrian-kingsley-hughes.jpg?auto=webp&fit=crop&frame=1&height=192&width=192)
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 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
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.
Next -->
RAMEven for a cheap build I'm steering clear of cheap, no-name RAM.
Price: $25.99
Hard drive
- SATA support
- Cost under $50
- Have a capacity of 160GB or greater
The drive I chose - the 160GB Western Digital Caviar SE WD1600AAJS - was perfect for this build.
Price: $43.99
Optical drive
A cheap LG Black combo burner fits the bill here nicely.
Price: $19.99
Power Supply Unit (PSU)
I've chosen an Antec EarthWatts EA380 380W PSU for this build. This PSU is a high-quality, quiet and efficient (certified 80 Plus design). It also offers plenty of spare power in care of future upgrades.
Price: $29.99
Case
I hate choosing a PC case, so for this build I picked a cheap Linkworld MicroATX Mini Tower that's cheap, but ideal for this kind of build.
Price: $21.99
CPU cooler
The MASSCOOL 5T568S1H3 is a ideal cheap and cheerful cooler and perfect for the CPU chosen.
Sure, there are better coolers, but for the price this one is hard to beat (especially since I couldn't find a retail CPU part).
Price: $7.99
Bottom line ...
Total system cost: $261.92
Thoughts?
<< Home >>