$350 AMD
| Part
|
Model
|
Price
|
Case
|
| CPU
|
AMD Sempron 3400+ |
46
|
|
| Motherboard
|
Asus M2N-MX SE |
59
|
| RAM
|
1GB Corsair DDR2-667 kit |
49
|
| Hard Drive
|
80GB SATA HDD |
46
|
| Optical Drive
|
LG GSA-H62N 18x SATA DVDRW |
34
|
| Graphics Card
|
Onboard from motherboard |
-
|
| Sound Card
|
Onboard from motherboard |
-
|
| Case
|
Asus TA-881 |
58
|
| Power Supply
|
Included with Case |
-
|
| Cooling
|
- |
-
|
| Additional
|
- |
-
|
| Total Cost
|
- |
292 + 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 over $500.
$350 Intel
| Part
|
Model
|
Price
|
Case
|
| CPU
|
Intel Celeron 420 |
48
|
|
| Motherboard
|
Asus P5S-MX-SE |
58
|
| RAM
|
1GB Corsair DDR2-667 kit |
49
|
| Hard Drive
|
80GB SATA HDD |
46
|
| Optical Drive
|
LG GSA-H62N 18x SATA DVDRW |
34
|
| Graphics Card
|
Onboard from motherboard |
-
|
| Sound Card
|
Onboard from motherboard |
-
|
| Case
|
Asus TA-881 |
58
|
| Power Supply
|
Included with Case |
-
|
| Cooling
|
- |
-
|
| Additional
|
- |
-
|
| Total Cost
|
- |
293 + 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 4000+ |
84
|
|
| Motherboard
|
Gigabyte MA69VM-S2 |
83
|
| RAM
|
2GB Corsair DDR2-667 |
87
|
| Hard Drive
|
250GB Samsung SP2504C |
75
|
| Optical Drive
|
LG GSA-H62N 18x SATA DVDRW |
34
|
| Graphics Card
|
Onboard from motherboard |
-
|
| Sound Card
|
Onboard from motherboard |
-
|
| Case
|
Asus TA-881 |
58
|
| Power Supply
|
Included with Case |
-
|
| Cooling
|
- |
-
|
| Additional
|
- |
-
|
| Total Cost
|
- |
418 + 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 Core 2 Duo CPU and 2GB of RAM, this machine is a very quick workstation. Now this system uses an Intel DG33BU motherboard, which uses an Intel G33 chipset, which has superior performance to the 945G chipset (including video, uses the GMA X3100 chipset). This system now runs the 1333FSB Core 2 Duo, which provides increased performance :)
$1000 Intel, Powerhouse
Similar to the above, but taking the RAM up to 4gb and going to a Quadcore processor, 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.
$1000 Intel, CAD Machine
$1500 Intel, CAD Machine
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