New Budget System for Poor geek.

[oauggieo]

Hello All!

So, I've been really interested in setting up a LinuxMCE Hybrid but my funds are low, so I'm going to try for a budget system. I wanted to know peoples opinions on what I have chose before I purchase. If you know of any issues, or something I should upgrade or downgrade, please let me know. I've searched all the forums and FAQs high and low, and as far as I know this all should work. I can pick it up from newegg.com for under $250

Here it is:

BIOSTAR TFORCE TF520-A2 Socket AM2 NVIDIA nForce 520 MCP ATX AMD Motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Orleans 1.8GHz Socket AM2 Processor
1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667
Maxtor 160GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
MSI GeForce 7300LE 128MB 64-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 Video Card


I picked the motherboard because it has 3 PCI, 2 PCI express 1X and 1 PCI express 16X and the AM2 socket. This seemed logical so in the future, I could upgrade the processor and also add PVR-x50 cards and other add ons. It also has 4 SATA connectors so I can add hard drives as I fill them up.

The Video card is a GeForce 7x00 and from what I could tell, it would support UI2 with the Alpha. Is this correct?

Thanks in advance!

[Clint07]

You should really try E-bay. My Newegg setup for a media director cost about $250, but I was able to bring it down to $100 (except ram for some reason.. 512 MB) on E-bay. Of course I've now taken a different approach to the MD..

I know you're trying to build a hybrid, but hey I've I can take away $150 from my cost, you can probably take off $100..

Your setup looks fine but the only thing I would upgrade would be the Hard Drive.. but it really depends if you're going to record a lot of shows, have a lot of music, rip DVDs, etc...

Any Geforce 6, 7, 8 card should support Alpha Blending. Some cards may have driver problems, but you can get that fixed in no time =).

[GoManutd]

Ebay isn't always the cheapest...  For instance, I've been looking at getting a Nokia 770 and I've seen them sold on Ebay for more than you get from some ecommerce sites..

Check out pricewatch.com and pricegrabber.com then compare this to Ebay.

[oauggieo]

I Checked Ebay for everything, and the prices are higher than on NewEgg as GoManutd stated. Also, I would rather have everything shipped together than wait for 4 or 5 different sellers to ship the items.

I've actually stopped trusting pricewatch. I've bought a few items from various companies on pricewatch, and about 50% of them arrive defective.


I'm planning on purchasing this stuff sometime next week. I'll make sure to post on how the install goes with all of these Items.

Have a great Labor Day weekend!

[DeadPenguin]

Tech shopping is the only shopping I can stand.

I rely mostly on pricewatch - pricegrabber and google.
I use pricewatch to figure out my best price. I use pricegrabber to see if I can find a retailer I trust at the "best price". (I have had times pricegrabber didn't find the "best price".)

I use Newegg mostly since I normally get the best price and their shipping is FAST if it comes out of the NJ warehouse a little slower if its out of CA for me. I got a great open box deal on my mobo.

Amazon is normally pretty competitive, and it works out that its based out of my state.

I just got my Nokia 770 from Buy.com for $133.99. Shipping and price were both good.

I have had bad experiences with Zipzoomfly and Tigerdirect.

I have found some good deals on Ebay, but it is a lot of work. I just got a gyration remote that is similar to the fiire one for a lot cheaper than $149.
Ebay would be a good place to get a case - video card - older hardware - X-10 devices etc. Don't forget to read the auction a bunch of times so you are clear exactly what you are getting. Double check the sellers rating and recent feedback and payment types available.

Good Luck.

Regards,
Blair