After four long years, I finally built a wholly new computer. I prefer to build my own because the major OEMs cut corners and choose cheap parts. Plus, I hate dealing with tech support. Maybe I'm solving a problem I've created myself: I build my own computers, which means no tech support, which means buying more expensive parts, which means building my own computers, so I do more coke. Er. Anyway, I made it out of these parts:

• AMD Athlon64 3000+ (Venice core) Socket 939 CPU - If you're building a desktop PC these days, you need a good reason to go with Intel. Intel's better on the laptops (only if you go Pentium M, though), and the Pentium 4 part is better for a few multimedia applications. For most things, though, the AMD chips are faster. They're certainly cheaper and cooler, which matters a lot. The Venice core differs from previous Athlon64 CPUs in that it is manufactured with 90nm traces (vs. 130nm), which means cooler running (among other things). I bought a socket 939 CPU instead of 754 because that will allow me to drop in a dual-core Athlon64 in a year or two. $146
• MSI Neo4-F motherboard - Based on the NVidia nForce4 chipset, this is a solid, mid-range motherboard from one of the more reliable motherboard manufacturers. I went nForce4 to have SATA and PCI-E for future-proofing my hard drives and video cards respectively. $84
• 2x1GB Corsair Value Select PC3200 DDR DRAM - I'm not overclocking, so I bought the value RAM from Corsair, a generally well-regarded memory manufacturer. 2GB was a must, given that I abuse tabs, the Works application is Java, and I use Eclipse for my Java development. $173 (total)
• NEC ND-3540 DVD burner - Recommended by Anandtech as a decent, inexpensive DVD burner. Supports DVD+R, DVD-R, DVD+RW, and DVD-RW, which is great, since I have no clue what the real difference is between + and -. Also supports dual layer recording, for double the space (once the DL media is at a reasonable price). $44
• Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 250GB SATA hard drive - Seagate has a 5 year warranty compared to 3 year warranties from the other guys. It's also generally said to be a little quieter than the others. Besides that, all the mainstream manufacturers are roughly equivalent for these drives. I bought the SATA version because it only cost $5 more, as the motherboard has 4 SATA connectors but only 2 IDE, and the SATA cables are much smaller and easier to route. $116
• Sapphire PCI Radeon 7000 64MB - The cheapest PCI-E video cards are about $55 and up. I just wanted a decent video card that could handle basic 3-D for Civilization 4 this winter. There are no motherboards with both AGP and PCI-E, so I went with PCI-E for future-proofing. Maybe when Quake4 comes out, I'll upgrade, but for now, I don't need the pixel power. $31
• Antec SLK2650 - Last, but certainly not least is the case. Antec makes a quality case, I tell you what. That matters when you're fiddling with the insides, but it also matters with noise. They also make quality power supplies, which is important for stability. Buying the two components together is gentler on the wallet. $69

Shipping added another $32 or so, for a grand total of $695. Everything came from Newegg, which has a goofy name and stupid slogan, but excellent service and good prices. I had my parts picked out months ago, but I was making myself wait until they dropped below $700. For a couple weeks, the total was in the $705-$715 range, but I made myself wait as an exercise in discipline.

Of course, now I have to find something to do with the old parts. Let me know if you want something. All the parts listed here are in good working order. A couple have minor defects that do not affect their functionality (noted below):

$30 : MSI K7T Turbo Limited with VIA KT-133 Chipset for AMD Socket-A processors
$30 : Abit KT7E with VIA KT-133E Chipset for AMD Socket-A processors

$20 : 2x Micron 128MB PC100 DIMM

$15 : AMD Athlon 900MHz (Thunderbird AFFA) w/ Cooler Master Heatsink/Fan
$15 : AMD Duron 900MHz (Spitfire ANCA) w/ Cooler Master Heatsink/Fan

$25 : Western Digital WD600 hard drive 7200rpm ATA-100 2MB cache 
      manufactured 22 Apr 2002
$15 : Western Digital WD400 hard drive 7200rpm ATA-100 2MB cache 
      manufactured 19 Nov 2002 (refurbished)
$5  : IBM Deskstar DTTA-351010 5400rpm 10GB hard drive manufactured Feb 1999

$20 : Creative Labs 3D Blaster GeForce2 GTS (Model GB0010) AGP - fan broken, but
      works fine anyway
$5  : Trident T9680 PCI Video card

$10 : USDrives 24DT internal 24x CD-ROM drive manufactured Apr 1998
$20 : Plextor PX-W1210TA 12/10/32 ATAPI CD-RW drive manufactured Apr 2001
$15 : Yamaha CRW4416E-NB 4/4/16 ATAPI CD-RW drive manufactured May 1999

$30 : ATX Full tower case In-Win 500 with power supply.  Very large.  Good 
      condition except where I drilled holes into the plastic cover.  Looks 
      ugly; works fine.  Beige.
$20 : ATX Mid tower case with power supply.  Beige
$60 : 2x 2U ATX rackmount server cases with power supplies.  Black.

Free: 1.44 floppy drive: generic

Assorted IDE cables to go with drives as necessary

¶ 1145 Posted at 05.05 PM ⇒ No Comments ( consuming | geek )