Brewin' Up a Second PC

Well, I did a little PC work for my mother's boss (he's a chiropractor) and I ended up getting a free PC and $100 out of the deal. Only prob was that the free PC was a piece of junk. Initial testing showed that the PSU was dead and I would at least have to replace that in order to do further testing. So, I found this great deal for a brand new case (case was crap anyway) and 300W PSU included for $27, then shipping was only another $5.
After I got the parts, I hooked everything up and all I got was some whirring out of the PSU fan and the HSF. There was no video output and the provided hard drive was taking out entire IDE channels when hooked up. So, I guess that scratches two of the other pieces of hardware. Then, I realized that half of the other hardware was crap and the CPU was only a PII 266mhz with a totaly unnamed motherboard.
Finally, I just decided out of the blue, since I got this brand new case and PSU, why not finish it off with a full system? After shopping around, I think I probably got one of the best deals you could ever find as far as a PC goes:

$27 - Case and 300W PSU
$91 - Mobo with Integrated Video, Sound, and LAN w/ AMD Athlon XP 1700+
$28 - 512MB PC133 RAM
$38 - Sony 16X DVDROM Drive
$90 - Maxtor 7200RPM 60GB Hard Drive
FREE - Floppy from original PC
$40 - KVM Switch (no need for extra monitors/keyboards/mice)
$314 - TOTAL


I say that's not bad to have an extra machine of that kind of power sitting around and not a bad price either.

[Ninjaa]

Heh. Not too shabby at all. Hope it works out well for you.

[Strider]

>$91 - Mobo with Integrated Video, Sound, and LAN w/ AMD Athlon XP 1700+

man, where the hell didja find this deal?

Sounds like a great second system ShADoWFLaRe85 and at the price you paid for it, you practically stole it. Enjoy your great deal.
sincerely,
sx/amiga

[RF]

no kidding, that mobo was a good score

[Esturk]

Excellent ShadowFlare! It's always good to have a second Rig! I use my second rig for DOS stuff and to play multiplayer with friend.

[RF]

I wish I had a second rig to host a server on. Maybe when im out on my own.

[Esturk]

The only parts I bought for my second rig were the K62, the RAM and the Motherboard. All for under $100. The other parts are leftover from upgrades to my main rig.

Originally posted by Strider
>$91 - Mobo with Integrated Video, Sound, and LAN w/ AMD Athlon XP 1700+

man, where the hell didja find this deal?

It was at Accubyte.com, I think.

[Player-X]

Sweet deal ShADoWFLaRe85,That was a good move

[Particleman]

lol did anything in the free PC work? It sounds like you replaced everything.

[Strider]

the floppy drive still worked

[vivrantpig]

cant be rite... accubyte prices r higher den dat...

Originally posted by vivrantpig
cant be rite... accubyte prices r higher den dat...

Nope...I'm pretty sure it was Accubyte. I just checked the email:

Thank you for your order. We appreciate your business. Your order confirmation number is 81226

To track your order, just log in to your account at: https://www.accubyte.com/secure/account-login.asp?ck=n

For security reason, our representative may call you to confirm credit card information.Pricing and availability are subject to change. We reserve the right to cancel any order before it is shipped.

************************************************** ***********************
* ORDER INFORMATION *
************************************************** ***********************

Order Number: 81226
Order Date : 11/28/2002 9:37:44 PM
--------------------------------------------
Bill To:
[BLANKED ]

shadowflare@flaredomain.net

Payment Method:
Visa
XXXXXXX
--------------------------------------------
Ship To:
[BLANKED ]


--------------------------------------------
Shipping Method: Standard Ground 5-7 Days - Insured
--------------------------------------------
================================================== ======================
Item No. >> Description >> Qty >> Price >> Ext. Price
================================================== ======================

MBC-BSM17X >> MB-CPU COMBO BIOSTAR M7VKQ ATHLON XP 1700+ CPU AND FAN >> 1 >> $91.99 >> $91.99

[vivrantpig]

hmmm u probably got it on sale huh??

http://accubyte.com/applications/sea...sku=MBC-BSM17X

Originally posted by vivrantpig
hmmm u probably got it on sale huh??

http://accubyte.com/applications/sea...sku=MBC-BSM17X

Yeah...it probably was at the time. I guess I just happened to notice the price on pricewatch.com at exactly the right time

[vivrantpig]

heres a deal :

http://www.partspc.com/store/mbcomboxp1700.htm

You're right. Quite a few of those aren't bad at all

[Strider]

umm, they ship to canada?

[Gamer1]

i had problems b4 with integrated video. its a really bad idea. unless you have a mobo with agp support as well.

(assuming that that mobo doesn't have an agp slot)

First of all, upgrading is a pain in the butt.

second, some integrated video are a pain in the butt to get out once you do upgade to a pci solution.

third, integrated video is one of the slowest forms of video cards, and would severly limit the games that you could play.

(unless you buy an nForce 2 mobo, which has the capabilties of a GF4MX, and has an AGP slot)

Also.... 512MB PC133 will be a huge bottleneck towards your new system!!! Believe me, you don't want SDRAM on an Athlon, Its too good for SDRRAM , you'll most likely encounter huge slowdowns, even though your proc is ready to rock.