This is my worklog that I've dumped into notepad++ while buying and building. My sister was running a 500mhz celeron and was that since 2000. Its been used primarily for web browsing, word processing, and photo editing. She'd love to be able to get rid of some old VHS tapes and burn them to DVDs. I set out to make a bottom dollar PC. She obviously doesn't need anything past an old P4 setup but I don't want to build some out-of-date & power hungry box. So I'm aiming at a socket 754 setup.
----few days later----
Eh, a 754 setup is not much cheaper than a 939 or even a AM2 setup. I see the CPUs and boards all go for the same price. This would atleast make the system more future proof. DDR2, PCI-E, etc. Not by much and the entire computer will probably be replaced before its upgraded anyways... Resale value will be a tad better though
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----Part list and notes I made as I bought each----
- Athlon64 3200+ - 29.00(budget-30)
- Lucky auction. I've seen a few Sempron's go for cheaper but never a normal Athlon64. Just happened to catch this right after I won the motherboard.
- Lenovo uATX AM2 6100 board - 32.50(budget-30)
- It is Lenovo part#87H4658-26U. From a ThinkCentre A60 (type 8979). Time will tell if this was a good deal or not. I need to buy part#41N8053 from Lenovo/IBM for the I/O Shield. Bios support looks good. There is an ISO bootable image bios update dl from 04/05/2007 here: http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-65761. I'll manufacturer a heatsink for the CPU since this is a budget build and the board does not come with the AM2 bracket.
- lol. Called up Lenovo. For P/N 41N8053 they wanted $19 + shipping. Its a fucking I/O shield. Lenovo, you sir can eat it. Why would I be so rude? Because I'll just make one...
- ---notes after receiving the item---
- Mobo works great. Flashed it from the above link.
- 1GB ddr2 - 26.98(budget-20)
- I've missed a few auctions for sticks. ECC ram seems to go for cheaper and since athlon64's support ECC I might pick some sticks up. And hope the mobo plays nicely.
- Getting 1GB of ram is killing me. Lost almost 10 auctions this weekend. Course thats partly my fault and not all idiots paying too much for used items...
- Finally... Got some no name brand 1GB stick(would have preferred 2x512)
- Dell x1300 LP PCI-E - 19.70(budget-20)
- Another luck auction. The seller didn't know it was a x1300. Just listed it as the Dell P/N HJ513. Again, time will tell. Its listed as a working pull but I'll have to test it to be sure.
- ---notes after receiving the item---
- Got it, tested, works fine
- 80GB+ SATA drive - 29.00(budget-20)
- Got a WD800JD for $29 w/ shipping. Running low on time so just bit the bullet.
- 250GB SATA drive - 21.00(budget-20)
- The hardest to find. I'm biased, won't get Maxtor. Heard too many bad stories and this PC isn't for me. I'd prefer to use WD and/or Seagate due to past experience with their support. Unfortunately so would everyone else on eBay. Finding even two 80GB drives for $40 is proving difficult.
- Ugh. Please don't let anyone be on eBay for a few hours. Found a 250GB Seagate thats power connector was snapped off. I'm obviously a tinkerer so if it goes for <$20 I'm taking the gamble.
- Got it for $21 delivered. ::Crosses fingers::
- ---notes after receiving the item---
- It was delivered, JB-welded the piece back on and re-soldered the leads. Was too impatient to wait for the JBweld to cure and plugged it in and it worked great! Passed all of the Seagate diagnostic tools.
- case + PSU - 45(budget-40)
- Requirements: Micro-ATX, Powersupply 200w+, halfway decent looking.
- Its not hard to find a mATX case with a powersupply for $40 but it is find to hard one that I find decent looking...
- I've been watching auctions for Antec Aria and Minuets. but they go for $70+. I found out that Antec doesn't make the actual steel case parts. Foxconn uses the same internals but a different bezel. Their model is the DH-153C. Same internals, different power-supply, and a less attractive bezel. Cheaper though. Minuet is $79 & the Foxconn is $49 at Newegg.
- Got a recommendation from MikeC over at spcr about stock-b direct buys from Antec. $45 for the minuet, plus shipping though. Comes to $65.
- Got a Foxconn DH-153C on ebay for $5 over my budget, can't waste any more time and its a good deal. Same case goes for $49 on newegg + shipping. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811153068
- Ontop of that the lister listed it as a 200w PSU. He sent me a shot of the label and its the same from this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811153066 250w
- DVD-Burner - 27.50(budget-20)
- Possible's: (DW16*,dvr-11*,dvd-1128,SH-S183*,GSA-H2*,GSAH2*,GSA-H4*,GSAH4*,GSA-H5*,GSAH5*,DRW-1612bl,SH-S18*,SHS18*,LH-20A*,LH20A*,AD-7170*,AD7170*,PX-760*,PX760*)
- Got an older Samsung WriterMaster SH-S182.
- Total - 230.68 (budget-200)
Also noticed the case is much smaller than I thought it would be. no clue how Im going to isolate two 3.5" drives in there. Not going to worry about that until after I test the main components though.
Tested the Mobo, CPU, x1300, and PSU and all is well! PSU is loud though. Planning to take it off its crappy temp comtroller and hardwire it to 5v and shroud the CPU fan/heatsink to blow into the PSU so all exhausts out the back... Pics to come.
I've got everything except the gig of ram and the burner. Both of which are in the mail. I took a stick out of a current PC to test this new one. PSU fan defintely ramped up when having a load. CPU runs cool, not as cool as I'd like. While HD tests were running(0 CPU load) the heatsink I made was 30c with a loud 92mm fan on it. The VRMs got very hot, 50-52c. Again, no load. So I cut up some heatsinks and attached them with double-sided thermal tape. I'm sure the board will run fine without them since it was running in a poorly ventilated Thinkcenter for who knows how long. This case won't be ventilated any better though.
I did have to do one very small mod to the case. The drive cage is made to hold one 3.5" HD, one 5.25" cd drive, and one 3.5" floppy. The mounting holes for the floppy slot don't fit a 3.5" drive. Just had to drill a couple of holes about a half an inch from the current ontes. I'm skimping out on silencing the case. If I didn't want to hurry up and give it to my Sis I'd sit down and figure out a way around the stupid 5.25" + 2 x 3.5" bay thing. I'd probably get rid of it all together. Make a new, much slimer, detaching mount for the 5.25", and cram in some suspending mounts for two 3.5" HDDs.
For now I just put the two drives in the two 3.5" slots. The only problem is one is made for a floppy which is supposed to protrude out through the front bezel. The bay has screw holes that only allow that configuration. So I had to drill another hole, thats it.
Now the powersupply I'm going to hack up. Currently the airflow from the PSU goes from rear to front. There are vents at the opposite end of the fan as well as the adjacent side by the cables. I'm going to cover the opposite end vent remake the "cover" of the PSU which consists of three adjacent sides to the fan side.
Pics in the next post...