Alright, here's my soon-to-be PC

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Progger

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From WWW.GEEKS.COM

MOBO: Biostar M7VIP VIA KT333 Socket A ATX MB w/Snd, LAN ($50)
CPU: AMD Athlon XP 2400+ 266MHz 256KB Socket A CPU ($76.50)
POWER SUPPLY: Vio Power 420-Watt ATX Power Supply ($20)

From WWW.SAMEDAYMUSIC.COM

Sound Card: M-Audio Audiophile 2496 ($150)

From WWW.DIRECTRON.COM

RAM: Micron DDR 333MHz 512MB (PC 2700) 184Pin Memory, OEM ($72)
HD: WD800JB SE, Western Digital (WD) 80GB 7200RPM Special Edition IDE Hard Drives, 8MB Cache, OEM ($70)
CD-RW: Samsung 52x32x52 CD-Rewritable (beige, $35)

From WWW.NEWEGG.COM

SPEAKERS: Logitech Z-340 2.1 Speakers



Comments, anyone? I want to reduce costs as much as I can, so is there anything there that I can trim down, like CPU speed or HD space? Also, how's the latency on the Audiophile?
 
Best Buy is has a 120GB Seagate 8MB Cache 7200RPM hard-drive special.

It's I think $139 or $149 list- then you get a $10 instant rebate, and a $70 mail-in rebate. So- after the mail-in rebate the drive is only $59-$69

so it'll total at most what you'll be paying for the 80GB drive, but you'll get 40 additional gigs.

Also, I don't see a case on the list to hold everything, or do you already have that?
 
Yeah, I've got a couple old cases lying around not being used. Thanks for the heads-up about the hard drive, I may just take that up. Thing is, I'm a litte wary of mail-in rebates, 'cause they sit on them for a month, when they become void, and screw you over. That's been my experience with those things, anyway.
 
Wow, I've been lucky with mail-in rebates then so far- never been screwed out on them, I just hate waiting for that check to come in the mail- viewsonic (for a PC monitor) was pretty fast I had mine within the month of purchase- nice!

Everything on your list though seems about right in cost, I usually use www.pricewatch.com and froogle.com (enter lowest price I find on price watch, see if froogle comes up with anything even lower)
 
I waited 3 hours at 4 in the morning the day after thanksgiving to get 2 Maxtor 120's for 50 bucks at best buy :D
 
Progger said:
Thing is, I'm a litte wary of mail-in rebates, 'cause they sit on them for a month, when they become void, and screw you over. That's been my experience with those things, anyway.
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Send it certified mail. Make 'em sign for it!
Doesn't cost much at all.
 
The Mobo you choose ???
I dont know....A good mobo is critical and usually run $100 and up, like an ASUS.
And the speakers ? ok for PC use but recording ? I would think about monitors.
 
Stealthtech said:
The Mobo you choose ???
I dont know....A good mobo is critical and usually run $100 and up, like an ASUS.
And the speakers ? ok for PC use but recording ? I would think about monitors.
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Yeah, I don't know about that motherboard either.
You can get good current MoBos for about $70, the better guarentee ones run about $100

and I didn't see a $ sign next to those speakers- so I assumed they were free- I'm sure real monitors are in his soon to be plans- just following the PC

I was going to recommend Skip the CD-RW drive and get a DVD-RW/+RW drive can get some pretty good ones now these days for $100, but then I saw the trying to cut corners/save money portion at the bottom of the initial post /:
 
Yeah I would strongly advise you do a google search on that MB and try to find some reveiws/comparisons with other boards. That was the mistake I made with my last machine, I didn't pay enough attention to the MB and ende up with an AMD/VIA combination that's not to hot for recording
 
Are you going to use the PC for recording?
Then don't waste your money on Logitech speakers but get a pair of decent nearfield monitors instead.
 
People keep telling me around here that monitors are worthless unless they're $400 and up, and I don't have the money for it. It was recommended to me to just use normal speakers and use reference CDs extensively to get a decent mix. So, I chose the Logitechs ($43, by the way) because they get fantastic reviews just about everywhere. I simply cannot afford good monitors at all, since I have no consistent source of income.

I'll check on the mobo, though. I was a little wary of it too, but I'm desperately looking for ways to save money. I know nothing about which motherboards are good for recording, I didn't think it made a huge diference. Is it all about the FSB, or what?

Edit: Found a review of the Biostar board, it looks very encouraging. The only real cons are of no concern to me, as I don't plan to overclock. Here's the link, if you're interested: http://www.digital-daily.com/motherboard/biostar-m7vip/index04.htm
 
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Bulls Hit said:
Yeah I would strongly advise you do a google search on that MB and try to find some reveiws/comparisons with other boards. That was the mistake I made with my last machine, I didn't pay enough attention to the MB and ende up with an AMD/VIA combination that's not to hot for recording
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What chipset would you suggest?
 
a tip

a tip. make sure the sound card you intend to use is compatible with the chipset. AMD;s are great imho, PROVIDING you choose the right chipset. check with your sound card manufacturer before buying a particular amd motherboard. a lot of people i know are happy with the cheap ecs motherboards. but there are many other good ones. i would maybe look at sis chipsets. I have not had a problem but you might.
maybe i was lucky.
 
Well my research has led me to the ASUS p4p800 board which is a socket 478 motherboard and runs the new(ish) intel i865 chipset. It supports 800Mhz FSB, hyperthreading P4, and dual channel ddr400 ram. By all accounts it performs very well in comparison to other similar boards
 
Bulls Hit said:
By all accounts it performs very well in comparison to other similar boards
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Agreed ! Thats what Im currently running with a P4 at 800 FSB and 3200 hyper ram sticks
Very Sweet Indeed ;)
 
I would urge you to spend a few extra bucks and get a decent NForce2-based motherboard. My recommendations would be either the Abit NF7 series (the base non "S" version is 82.99 at NewEgg) or an Asus A7N8X/A7N8X Deluxe. The more feature-rich variants are going to cost a bit over $100, but even the non-S NF7 is a great board.

You won't get the dual-channel capability unless you either go with 2 256MB DIMMs or just wait until you've saved a few more pennies and get another 512MB DIMM (which would be my preference for your situation).
 
OK, I'm sold on the NF7, I think I'll replace the Biostar with that.

What's the benefit of this "dual-channel capability" thing?
 
I agree on the MoBo. Avoid the VIA chipset like the plauge. Pretty much anything with nForce2 will do, ASUS boards usually get the top marks. I got an MSI and been happy w/it.
 
I'm looking at Athlon XP processors right now, and there's two cores: Thorton and Thoroughbred. Does it matter which one I go with?
 
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