A little less than a year ago, I scrounged up some spare parts and built an AMD Sempron 64-based PC running Windows 2000. It used a bare bones case by MSI which was so loud and slouchy that I got sick of it. For the past couple of weeks, I’ve again searched high and low for cheap bits to upgrade. So far, I’ve accumulated a Shuttle all-in-one case with an Intel LGA 775 socket, a Celeron D CPU, some DDR400 Ram, a Gigabyte version of Nvidia’s 7600GS and a 250 gig SATA hard drive. I still need a CD or DVD drive and maybe another stick of Ram. So, to the whys and wherefores:
1. Why Shuttle?
It’s probably a stretch to call Shuttle the Apple of the PC world but they’re at least leaning in that general direction. They seem to give some thought to both form and function. The toaster-size bare bones boxes are easy to set up and include handy features like built-in memory card readers, gigabit ethernet ports and firewire. They’re also typically quite quiet. One challenge is ensuring that internal parts will actually fit, but thanks to forums at Newegg.com and other vendors, you can rely on the advice of others. Shuttle’s boxes are expensive, $350 and up, when they first come out so I bought last year’s model on the cheap, the SB86i, which can run a Celeron D or Pentium D processor.
2. Why the Celeron D aka Prescott chip?
This was mainly a decision guided by cash savings as I am at the absolute cheapest chip that Newegg carried for this Shuttle chassis. Together the Celeron D (model 326 running at 2.53 GHz with only 256 KB of L2 cache) and the Shuttle cost under $200. A similar Shuttle for the cheapest available AMD chip, the SK21G, lacked PCI-e, SATA-300, gigabit ethernet (biggest factor) and had a smaller power supply. Paired with an AMD Sempron 64 Palermo, it also priced out a few bucks higher. If you read reviews from back when these two chips were more current, it’s a close call though favoring the AMD in the end. Perhaps the fact that my current budget box runs on an AMD Sempron 64 swayed me to zigzag and try Intel. The SB86i also supports much higher performing Pentium D’s so when they get a little cheaper, I could upgrade. The low-end 524 model costs about double the Celeron D right now.
3. Why the Gigabyte 7600GS video card?
Most video cards today have big honkin’ fans to chill down their chips. I wanted to avoid that and I needed a card that would fit in the Shuttle case. Thankfully, Anandtech did a massive round-up comparison review of silent cards at the end of August. The Gigabyte card got the “Gold editors’ choice award” for best balance of price and performance. Problem solved.
4. Where did the other commodity internals come from?
Some people like to peruse the real estate listings for fun on a Sunday morning, others prefer the horse racing card or National League box scores. For me, I read the advertising inserts from CompUSA and other tech retailers every Sunday. It’s maybe a waste but I can usually gauge the ebb and flow of “value” for components like hard drives and Ram. For this system, I picked up a Western Digital 250 GB SATA-300 drive and some ram over Labor Day weekend on super sale at CompUSA.
5. Why Windows 2000?
Because it’s good enough. And, although Windows XP looks a little nicer and has far more bells and whistles, it also includes the nasty activation “feature.” Since I am constantly swapping bits in and out of my bare bones box, and periodically replacing it altogether, this becomes a big hassle. Eventually, folks will stop making drivers for W2K and when that happens I’ll have to break down and upgrade. Until then, I’m happily outmoded on the Microsoft OS front.
6. Why have a bare bones Windows box at all, Macboy?
Well, the truth is that I wanted to be able to play the last couple of versions of Civilization when they came out for the PC and not wait the many months later when Mac versions arrived. But there are also web sites that only work with Windows and the occasional other program and I have not had great success running Virtual PC on my Powerbook. My parents, in-laws and 90% of everybody else are also stuck in a Windows world so it helps to be able to fix files or diagnose other oddities.
7. Finally, why use Newegg.com?
They certainly have competitive prices and great selection. The site also has useful searching and filtering features. I also appreciate that the site has so many customers who take the time to write reviews, even short ones, for most of the gear. I’ve been a customer for five years now and never been dissatisfied.
Prices paid (after rebates):
Shuttle SB861 $150
Celeron D 326 $45
Gigabyte 7600GS $97
WD 250 GB drive $50
DDR2 512 MB $30
DVD-RW drive $50
TOTAL so far: $422
(Updated 9/25 with Staples cheap price on Sony DVD rewritable, dual sided DVD drive)Â
Now if I just had a few hours to put it all together…
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