local pc deals

[FoulDragon at aol.com]

In a message dated 12/22/2005 2:24:00 PM US Mountain Standard Time, 
josh_coffman at yahoo.com writes:

>It's also got a 32 mg Geforce2 MX which sucks. Also, I
>lost a hard drive earlier this year and am down to
>one. I prefer to keep two in the box: one for
>system(s), one for data.

If you upgrade the whole box, you might end up getting integrated video.  
Most cheap systems are based on integrated-video boards.  Only a handful of 
integrated-video parts even beat a GF2MX.  I think the nForce-with-integrated video 
does, but it's still a poor substitute for a real video card, since it will 
eat system memory.

For video:

$75 budget:  6200, 128Mb, not the TurboCache version (which steals system 
memory)  Beware "Supports 128Mb" "effective size 128Mb" or "6200TC"
$100 budget:  X1300 series, avoid anything that says HyperMemory/HM (same 
story)
$150 budget:  6600GT or if you can find one a 6800LE or 6800XT.

The x1300 is an ATi card; you might review its driver support.  I know 
nVidia's at least known for trying to offer Linux drivers.

For mainboard, a good choice is the ASRock 939Dual-SATA2.  It allows you to 
pick PCI-Express or AGP video cards.    $72 delivered at Newegg.  I'm quoting 
their prices because they're known to be generally pretty cheap and reliable.

For processor, the least expensive Socket 939 Athlon 64 you can find.  At 
Newegg today, that's the 3200+, at $165 delivered.  Apparently the lower-end A64s 
are being discontinued so the price has shot up a bit.

Finally, get 1Gb of DDR400; a "dual-channel set" (preferrable for guaranteed 
compatibility) will cost about $80.  I liked the Corsair Value-Select stuff I 
got for my A64 build, just over $81 delivered.

About $325 plus your choice of video card.  Just under four hundred with a 
$61 delivered AGP 6200, and you can probably squeeze a hard disc in with a $450 
to 500 budget   It has the advantadges (over an OEM box) of greater 
upgradeability (I specced a Socket 939 board and chip.  Socket 754 is cheaper, and 
allows you to use Semprons, but you can't put an X2 on it later, and nobody makes a 
dual-video-option Socket 754 board.  The board I reccomend also allows you to 
swap the AGP video card for a PCI-Express one later), more memory (many 
bottom-end boards feature 256M or 512M), no integrated video stealing system memory.