DIY Computer Saves a Lot of Money
Posted on November 03, 2006 by Him and tagged computer, finances
Warning: This post has much geek speak. Those who are offended or more likely, bored, can look away.
Our computer at home is dying. Lately we've been getting spontaneous reboots, freezing, and general slowing down. It has trouble with more than 3 tabs open at once in Firefox. Itunes can't play songs without it being choppy. Photoshop takes forever to open.
That's okay though, it is an archaic 8 years old. I'm surprised that it has even last that long. The original computer was a Dell XPS-R450 - it had a Pentium 2 processor (a screaming 450mHz), 64MBRAM, NVIDIA 32MB RIVA Video Card, Turtle Beach SoundCard (are these guys still in business?!?), a DVD-ROM drive, and a 6GB hard drive. And Windows 98. Shiver.
In order to lengthen the lifespan of this computer, here are the modifications that I did to this computer:
- Swapped out the measly 64MB RAM for 512MB. Cost: $100. Go expensive PC133!
- Replaced hard drive (it died anyway) with an 80GB one. Cost: $60. Go rebates!
- Replaced the video card to a Radeon 9500 Pro. Cost: $200. Go keeping up with the geeky joneses!
- Installed Windows XP Home. Cost: $100. Go Upgrade Edition!
- Installed a CD burner. Cost: $50. Go, uh, burning CDs!
- Upgraded the 450 mHz Pentium 2 processor to a Celeron 1.3 mHz. Cost: $150. Go Powerleap for coming up with the technology that allowed this upgrade!
Total cost for keeping an 8 year old computer alive and able to keep up with today's software: $660.
Instead of completely discarding the poor computer, I'm going to gut it for parts - namely all of the ones listed above. I figured out that all I need is to buy a new case, power supply, motherboard, RAM, and processor. We have budgeted around $300 for these new parts, and I'm pretty sure we'll go a little bit under since I'm only going to buy the parts if they go on sale. The best part about building my own computer is that I am going to choose parts that will allow me to easily upgrade it in the future.
I'll also be able to sell the RAM and processor upgrade on eBay - and get around $100 for all of that stuff.
The total amount spent on a "new" computer: $990, spread over 8 years. Not bad considering I know people who have purchased at least two computers in this same time span. I hope to keep this computer for at least 4 more years before I have to upgrade anything else.
Let's just hope the 8 year old clunker can hold out until we get all of the parts.
Comments/Trackbacks
Trackback URL: http://www.makelovenotdebt.com/MT/mlnd-trackbacks.cgi/1020
Lazy Man and Money | Nov 3, 2006
While I could probably do this as well, I figure the margins on computers are so small it's probably not worth the effort. I just went to browse Walmart right now and you can get something fairly equivalent to that config for $350. Some things are worse - the video card, but some are likely better (5 2.0 USB, 5.1 surround sound).
At this price you could probably replace it a couple of times for cheaper. Or perhaps you can use Craigslist and grab a 1-2 year computer for $150 or so.
I bet you could also do better than the $350 that I found. And if you want to try the Black Friday deals you might find that you could do really, really well - if you are lucky.
Joe | Nov 3, 2006
DIY definitely cost you a lot of money. Check salescircular.com and you'll see that Office Depot has a nice PC/monitor/printer bundle for $300 after rebates. But your blog is somewhat interesting. Stay with it.
autologic | Nov 4, 2006
Check out fatwallet for good deals on Dells. Building a computer made a lot of sense 5 years ago but now there is not a lot of advantage (price wise). Also remember that today a very cheap compputer can still run windows/Firefox/itunes just as good as an expensive computer.
Glo | Nov 4, 2006
Very short sighted, methinks.
A whole new machine using a more capable processor, DDR memory (your old memory isn't compatible), Windows Vista "ready" and all that will cost you less than $800USD.
Yes, I'm still running a 1997 vintage P3/500 w/ 512MB RAM, G200 video. It's at the end of its useful life as a Windows desktop box. No more upgrades here. Over time I've put memory, a CD burner, then a DVD burner, several hard drives (damn those IBM Deskstar drives) into it. Time for a new machine.
Thanks all, for the suggestions. A few things:
This computer needs to be able to run Photoshop and other high-level graphics software with some competency.
I'm sure that I can get a great deal on el cheapo computer from Wal-Mart, but will it be able to handle those applications listed above?
I guess to me it is a little silly to just discard all of the stuff that I've purchased in the past. They all still work well, so why create more waste?
For those wondering, I was going to get this motherboard, and this processor. The equivalent specs would cost at least $600. Should I just bite the bullet and just buy new?
I'm all for extending the life of computers with upgrades like extra memory... but then comes the time to get a new computer. I reckon you should extract all the parts you added and put them up for sale on EBay and buy a new computer.
I recently upgraded (8 years old). I found an amazing deal ($400) when the local CompUSA was going out of business. I swapped out quite a few parts including the hard drive and CD burner. It was worth buying new to me because it was newer software than Windows 98. Don't forget to check TigerDirect.com since they have an outlet in Orland Park and Naperville and it's all about instant gratification. There's also www.ibuypower.com if you need that much.
Mr_ex | Nov 6, 2006
To HIM
The motherboard is a little more "el Cheapo" than I would suggest going, but the Intel 805 is great.
For a different board I suggest the Intel D101GGC desktop board. New Egg Link It's in the same price range and intel boards are very good quality.
This is probably the last board they ever build using DDR instead of DDR2, which will cost you less for ram.
For photoshop all you need is a 256mb PCI express 16x card. a good deal is the 6600LE cards from Nvidia. this one is even Dual monitor.
joe | Nov 24, 2006
I built a screamer for almost half that. 2.8ghz/768 ram/dual layer burner/dvd player. got xp home full for 89.00
kept my old floppy drive. had 2-80gb and 1-120 hdd. found a 17 inch lcd screen for 100.00
kept my old vid card
this dude rocks.
only saved cause i did it myself.
oh yeah, forgot; new mobo.
all told, about 400.00 give or take.
got, literally a pile of old hdd. all work. have another unit in the bedroom that works great. helps to have a good store to shop at,though.
good work, though.
Traciatim | Dec 1, 2006
Mr_Ex: Actually for Photoshop you need almost nothing. To figure out what you actually need just multiply your screen resolution by 4. For instance if you run 1024x768 you do 1024 * 768 * 4 = 3145728 bytes = ~3.1MB. So to run Photoshop at 1024x768 at 32bit colour you need 3.1MB of RAM on your video card. It's a common myth that Photoshop uses any of your 3D cards power, but it's completely CPU and Memory bound.
Depending on if you work on large data sets (say a couple of 10x14 300dpi images at once) or if your just working on your digital camera pics you need more or less main PC memory. For example if you routinely have 10 3000 * 4200 * 4 images opened each one will use around 50400000 bytes or around 49MB of memory, so 490MB of RAM just for images to have 10 opened. Plus your OS, and your Layers, Plus Photoshop Itself, Plus anything else you have opened. So 1GB or 2GB of memory is recommended for this scenario.
Now if you have a 3.2MP Camera and only have 1-2 pics open at once you end up with 2048 * 1536 * 4 = ~12MB each so
Tracitaim | Dec 1, 2006
Wow, my post got chopped somehow. The thrid paragraph was supposed to say:
Now if you have a 3.2MP Camera and only have 1-2 pics open at once you end up with 2048 * 1536 * 4 = ~12MB each so less than 50MB for 4 pictures. You may be able to get away with running Windows XP with 256MB of RAM, though 512MB would be better since XP itself uses about 200MB. You would probably notice swapping and performance degradation at 256MB in your machine.
Rook | Nov 3, 2006
I did the same thing with my old computer. Lasted about 7 years, replaced in full about 6 weeks ago. I spent a day mentally beating it into small pieces (very fun!) and bought a new one that afternoon. I got everything I wanted in the last-one-here floor model for $400 and swapped in my 8-month-old hard drive as the slave drive. I'm much happier, have all the toys I wanted, and still managed to pay cash.
Glad to see I'm not the only one that keeps repairing the PC's beyond what most people seem to think is possible.
Reply to this comment