The 1000 Dollar PC 09.22.98
Introduction
Enter a major vendor's site and look up a PC that interests you, then examine its specifications. In most cases, your going to change about 50% of the components you see. Namely the motherboard, 2D card, hard drive and sound card. Now look at the price; a mid-range PC with a monitor will cost about $1300 and be based on a Pentium II CPU.
If you are not sure you can personally assemble a complete PC from its components, it would probably not be a good idea to try. You will be better off getting a pre-built PC from a vendor. The process in this article will leave you with a PC which has most of its components warranty-less, either because the component is bought as OEM, or because it was overclocked.
Fact: If you spent $1000 on a pre-assembled PC, you would probably end up with a PII-266 CPU, 32Mb of RAM, 3.2Gb HD, and a 4Mb 2D-only card. You would also get a bunch of useless OEM software that is just there because its developers couldn't sell it in the real world.
Objective: Get as much as you can, for as little as you can spend.
First step: Check out the price
tags.
2 good online price charts are:
http://www.pricewatch.com/
http://www.bottomdollar.com/
All prices in this article were not the lowest; however, the brand of the product and the integrity of the vendor were a major factor. It is usually better to spend more time and get quality products than to just rush out and buy the cheapest piece of hardware you can get your hands on. Dollar amounts were rounded up for convenience.
Below is a look at the hardware selected:
| 15" Monitor | $135 |
| Abit BH6 | $100 |
| Celeron-300A | $150 |
| 64Mb PC100 SDRAM | $80 |
| Case | $45 |
| 32x CD-ROM | $50 |
| Banshee | $90 |
| Creative AWE64 Value | $40 |
| 5.1Gb HD | $145 |
| 56Kbps Modem | $45 |
| 1.44Mb Floppy Drive | $20 |
| Mouse & Keyboard | $65 |
| Cooling equipment | $35 |
| Total: | $1000 |
As it is, you end up with a PC that will fit almost any home and gaming need. However, if overclocked in the right way, it could be turned into a powerful high-end machine.
Here are the expanded observations of the hardware components:
15" Monitor: Some people will say that 15-inch monitors are on their way out, but those people usually have $450 to spend on a 19-inch behemoth. If you're on a budget, though, you can find a good monitor for around $135. In the right places you might find them for less, but you shouldn't settle for anything poorly built. After all, the monitor is the one piece of hardware that doesn't lose 50% of its value in 1 year.
Abit BH6 Motherboard: This is a no-brainer. If you plan on going overclock-happy this is the number one tool. Ironically, even though the board has 5 PCI slots, this particular sample PC uses none of them. You could opt for a PCI sound card if it matters, but usually it just isn't worth the price difference.
Celeron-300A: Nothing to say. It's a perfect fit. You have to option to go with a Celeron-333 if you don't want to risk overclocking too much, but it usually won't matter, and you'll get the same results for a lower price.
64Mb PC100 SDRAM: If you do not plan to overclock, you can get SDRAM lower than 100MHz for a slightly deflated price, but you should really opt for the PC100 instead of saving about $5, just in case you'll choose to overclock later on.
Case: Though some may think it matters very little, there are a few things you might want to check before getting a case. One of them is the quality of the power supply, and the other is if there's room to install an extra fan at the lower-front opening of the case. If you plan to overclock to 450MHz, this is crucial.
32X CD-ROM: Usually, a 32X CD-ROM can be found for less then $50, but getting stuck with a low quality drive is just too much of a pain. Teac drives are usually cheap and sturdy.
Banshee: This is key. Even weeks before the first Banshees gets into stores, manufacturers are already fighting for the lowest price point. In about a month, there will be 2 brands that sell for as low as $90.00 after mail-in rebate. If you have some cash to spare, and this aspect is important to you, look into purchasing a Riva based TNT card. The jump in price, however, is usually not worth it since you're gaining a few frames-per-second and 32-bit rendering, but losing Glide support.
Creative AWE64: This is the most uncertain component in this system, and it all depends on how important it is to you. If you're wanting high-end performance, you might want to opt for a SoundBlaster Live! Value or one of the latest Diamond offerings. Some may want to just get a SoundBlaster-32PnP for about $25. I think that this card is a good point in the middle.
5.1Gb HD: You get a fresh new hard drive and install Win95/98. Now, you install some of the drivers and software that came with your multimedia hardware. Then you install a bunch of essential freeware and shareware. After that, you move on to install a few programs like Word, Frontpage, Visual Basic, Photoshop or whatever application software you like. Then you go online and download a boat-load of patches and updates. Time for the good stuff: you install about 5 games, their patches, mods, updates, plugins and maybe a total conversion or two. Now, I don't think anyone could do that with less then about 4Gb. The size of the hard drive might be the first variable to upgrade if you have extra cash. Using Win98 and FAT32 may also help here.
56Kbps Modem: Differences from brand to brand are minimal. Almost any 56Kbps V.90 modem should do. Cutting on price by going with a 33.6Kbps modem is usually not worth it.
1.44 Floppy Drive: A must-have, but a cheap one. These things are on their way out, but if you don't already have some other sort of removable storage like a Zip Drive or a SparQ, then they'll do.
Mouse & Keyboard: You might be able to cut a few bucks if you get a simple mouse. Nothing special to be said here.
Cooling equipment: $35 will probably cover a dual fan for the CPU and a stand alone fan to be placed on the lower-front opening of the case. This should be enough to get you up to 400MHz safely, but any higher than that may require a triple fan and maybe more power-supply cooling. Depending on the temperature where the PC will be placed, you may want to give up the extra stand alone fan and just stick to the triple fan and work with the PC case open.
Overall, there are 2 ways to go: You could invest more in cooling and overclock a Celeron 300A to 450, in which case a TNT based card would really shine. On the other hand, you could invest very little in cooling, get a Celeron-333 MHz CPU, and not overclock it at all, which would make the Banshee a better choice since the TNT needs a powerful CPU in exchange for high-end performance.
For those of you who don't want to risk overclocking, Pentium II 333MHz processors can be found for as low as $235. If you have the cash you can also get a 100MHz Front Side Bus CPU, the PII-350, for about $285, but that would mean paying almost $100 more just to keep the CPU warranty, which will probably never be used.
Bottom line: You can get a high-end PC for $1000, if you just know where to cut cost and what hardware you need. If hardware prices keep up this trend, in a few months, you'll be able to get a decent PC for $600.