$300 AMD
Part
|
Model
|
Price
|
Case
|
CPU
|
AMD Sempron 3200+ |
38
|
|
Motherboard
|
Gigabyte M61SME-S2 |
58
|
RAM
|
1GB Corsair DDR2-667 kit |
35
|
Hard Drive
|
160GB Maxtor DiamondMax SATA HDD |
58
|
Optical Drive
|
LG GSA-H62N 18x SATA DVDRW |
35
|
Graphics Card
|
Onboard from motherboard |
-
|
Sound Card
|
Onboard from motherboard |
-
|
Case
|
Asus TA-881 |
58
|
Power Supply
|
Included with Case |
-
|
Cooling
|
- |
-
|
Additional
|
- |
-
|
Total Cost
|
- |
282 + Postage
|
Some people are on a limited budget, and want a nice basic desktop for Internet use and the like. This machine should be fine for basic tasks. This system, a cheap keyboard/mouse, a copy of Vista Basic or XP Home and a secondhand 17" CRT would provide a nice basic machine for just under $500.
$350 Intel
Part
|
Model
|
Price
|
Case
|
CPU
|
Intel Celeron 420 |
44
|
|
Motherboard
|
Asus P5S-MX-SE |
58
|
RAM
|
1GB Corsair DDR2-667 kit |
35
|
Hard Drive
|
160GB Maxtor DiamondMax SATA HDD |
58
|
Optical Drive
|
LG GSA-H62N 18x SATA DVDRW |
35
|
Graphics Card
|
Onboard from motherboard |
-
|
Sound Card
|
Onboard from motherboard |
-
|
Case
|
Asus TA-881 |
58
|
Power Supply
|
Included with Case |
-
|
Cooling
|
- |
-
|
Additional
|
- |
-
|
Total Cost
|
- |
288 + Postage
|
Here is an Intel version of the workstation, for those who prefer Intel's products.
$500 AMD
Part
|
Model
|
Price
|
Case
|
CPU
|
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ |
135
|
|
Motherboard
|
Gigabyte MA69VM-S2 |
70
|
RAM
|
2GB Kingston DDR2-667 |
60
|
Hard Drive
|
250GB Samsung SP2504C |
70
|
Optical Drive
|
LG GSA-H62N 18x SATA DVDRW |
35
|
Graphics Card
|
Onboard from motherboard |
-
|
Sound Card
|
Onboard from motherboard |
-
|
Case
|
Asus TA-881 |
58
|
Power Supply
|
Included with Case |
-
|
Cooling
|
- |
-
|
Additional
|
- |
-
|
Total Cost
|
- |
425 + Postage
|
This is a fairly good base system. The AMD chipset means it has reasonable ATi X1200 video. The case isn't too bad, its cheap but not sore on the eyes.
$500 Intel
$750 Intel
With a quad core CPU and 2GB of RAM, this machine is a lightning fast workstation.
This machine can handle some serious numbercrunching. Could easily be upgraded with a discrete video card (such as those found in the following recommendations) to be a very good CAD machine. This machine would be very adequate for research purposes, where numbercrunching power is the key. If the budget allows, another 2GB of RAM wouldn't hurt, though.
$1000 Intel, CAD Machine
$1250 Intel, CAD Machine