[Taima]

Yeah I got a friend at work who wants me to build him a computer so there's two things:

1. What parts should he buy
2. How much should I charge him to put it together?

He says he's just mainly going to be using it for music, music programs and things like that. I really don't have a broad idea for parts but this is what I was thinking:

Not sure what kind of motherboard, so I'd need some help there

A couple of gigs of RAM, to keep up with the times

Newegg.com - XFX PVT84JUAL3 GeForce 8600 GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

Newegg.com - Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3160815AS 160GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - Internal Hard Drives

Newegg.com - APEVIA ATX-CW500WP4 500W ATX Power Supply 115/ 230 V UL, CSA, TUV, CE - Power Supplies

Newegg.com - Patriot 2GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Desktop Memory - Desktop Memory

Newegg.com - AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ Windsor 2.4GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2 65W Dual-Core Processor - CPUs / Processors

Newegg.com - ASUS Black 20X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 20X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 14X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe - CD / DVD Burners


Also remember, I have like no experience in choosing parts for a computer. If I made a stupid choice or missed something, help me out lol.

Also not sure whether or not he should get XP or Vista...I might edit this a couple times if I remember things...

EDIT: Now that I think about it, I'm probably going to have to get somewhat cheaper parts because he's on a bit of a budget. I added those parts together along with windows upgrade and stuff and got like $570....it's a bit out of his budget especially if I'm gonna be charging him to put it together.

[samjohnson]

Ok well for one thing bad choice on the PSU. Here is a list of good and bad PSUs Unofficial PSU Ranking List (What's the best PSU to buy?) - Hardware Discussions - FiringSquad Forums
For a budget good choice in processor. I have the same one, works great, decent speed. I also bought it for a friend that I built a computer for. Also the graphics choice is fine. I think that was the one I bought for my friend also. As for the RAM, you will need to decide that once you pick out a motherboard. CD drive is fine. Hard drive is fine also. Actually you know what I will do, I will post all the parts that I built for my friends computer for you. You can change parts if you want and everything. But its probably right in the price range that he wants. And it was a decent computer to.

*EDIT* Ok here are all the parts.

Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER Centurion 590 RC-590-KKN1-GP Black SECC / ABS ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Computer Cases

Newegg.com - BIOSTAR NF61S-M2 TE AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 6100 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - AMD Motherboards

Newegg.com - EVGA 256-P2-N751-TR GeForce 8600 GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 SLI Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

Newegg.com - Rosewill Stallion Series Dual Ball Bearing Fan RD500-2-DB ATX V2.2 500W Power Supply 115V/230V CSA, UL, TUV, FCC - Power Supplies

Newegg.com - OCZ Platinum 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Desktop Memory

Newegg.com - Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250410AS 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - Internal Hard Drives

Newegg.com - Pioneer Black 20X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 10X DVD+R DL 20X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 40X CD-R 32X CD-RW 40X CD-ROM 2MB Cache IDE 20X DVD±R DVD Burner - CD / DVD Burners

So there ya go. Feel free to change parts out. Though these parts make a nice little computer. About the Power Supply. In that PSU list I gave above, it says that Rosewills are not recommended. Yet that is the second I have bought and they both have worked great! I have had mine for about a year now with no problems. So really I think they are decent lower end PSUs. By no means if you are building a $1000 computer should you get a Rosewill, but for a lower end computer I think they are fine. Oh and also, that case is really really nice. Great air flow, and allows for like six fans or so.

[Albert Lionheart]

Or you could make it really simple and buy a box from Acer.
have a scrute at Cheap Home PC, Vista PC, Gaming PC, Media PC at Ebuyer - I know ebuyer have US sales so you should have an equivalent to this.

[samjohnson]

Does he need to buy a monitor and all that? Or are you just building him the computer and he is using an old monitor and stuff?

[Taima]

As it turns out, he's buying a sort of barebones thing. He's got everything he needs to run it, he just wants upgrades, so I'll do that. He's supposed to call me sometime around Monday, and he'll give me the money to buy him whatever.

[AYTRIX Technologies]

wot barebones is he using?

As for the OS personally i would recomment XP with SP3 but VISTA is much better now especially with the new improved RC1 SP1 for it.
VISTA used to have driver issues but these can normally be corrected by downloading the correct ones from the manufacturers website and most things now are turning VISTA anway.

The only problem i get with VISTA is when i am programming and i get issues when coding for DX7.

[Taima]

Sorry for not noticing that post you made here like 10 days ago...I'm not exactly sure how this is gonna go down...the way things have been going for him, it'll be months before this actually gets going. I wouldn't worry about it now