Off To School Custom Computer Project

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With all that in mind, here are my tentative specs.

The last step is to evaluate her existing computer system and figure out what I can salvage. Her system: (stuff I will reuse is in red)   

Subtracting from the above list leaves the following:

Off to the Internet I go to do some shopping! I am looking for the most "bang for the buck." Here is what I came up with and why:

Pentium 4 1.6a - Fast, cheap, 512k cache. Great overclocker if she needs it and will sit down long enough for me to show her how!

Asus P4S533 mobo - It's what I currently use. It's fast and stable. Overclocks well up to a FSB of around 150Mhz (reviews are mixed after that as it does not have a PCI lock). Has onboard LAN (and sound but I don't do onboard sound).

Corsair XMS 2700 - Quality, stable, fast, overclocks well (found a great deal).

Antec 330 watt power supply - (more on this later)

Maxtor 20GB ATA 133 & Western Digital 80GB hard drives - Speed and space.

Maxtor ATA 100 PCI Card - Was very cheap, allows me to install all devices on their own channel.

ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon 7500 - 64MB DDR, TV & video in and out.

Sound Blaster Live! Platinum w/ live! drive - Because there should be a constitutional amendment making it a federal crime to force you to reach behind the computer for any reason after you set it up. (I yanked it out of my multimedia computer to put in hers because I am too cheap to spend the money to buy a new one.)

Skyhawk Midtower w/Window, Model PSR-4650WN - Cause it's cool! Literally and figuratively!

Lite-On DVD - DVD + a faster CD player.

Altec Lansing 621 Speakers - 200 watts! Good, loud sound.

NIC - onboard, saves $.

Windows XP Home & MS Office 2000 - found a great deal on both.

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