I caught a break last August when my employer offered to "loan" some CPU's to employees to build their own system. By the time I signed up the only choice was a batch of Core Duo T2700's, which, at the time, was the top shelf mobile CPU. I grabbed one hoping I could find a good deal on a mainboard to finally realize my dream of building my own PC.
To my dismay, budget limitations and the confounded reliability of our old Dell delayed my much anticipated project. I had two boards in mind and was hoping to find a great sub-$100 deal via Ebay or an out-of-sight deal from an online retailer.
On this limited budget, my first choice was the MSI 945GT Speedster-A4R for the following reasons:
- An S-video output baked into the board. This meant I could connect it to our existing TV set to use as a home theater PC without the expense of a video card.
- Future Upgrade Headroom. Space for 4 hard drives and 4GB of RAM, and a slot for a graphics upgrade later.
- It had a slot for a future graphics upgrade as well, but only space for 2GB of RAM maximum and would need a video card to connect to our TV.
This week I had another breakthrough in my project. The MSI motherboard that had been my top choice, but that retailed at $150+ showed up on Newegg as an open box item for $71! I jumped at the opportunity, and not minute too soon because the board was out of stock again the next day. I had seen this deal before, but it had disappeared for a few months as desktop boards that use my mobile CPU became scarce.
"Open box" meant more work for me because it would not include the driver CD, custom mobile CPU heat sink, or the custom I/O shield for the back of the computer case. I could download the drivers from MSI's website, and the I/O shield was mostly a cosmetic concern. The CPU heat sink would be my biggest obstacle. I will detail my proposed solution later.
My mission now is to get a system up and running for as little out of pocket expense as possible, while still getting outstanding performance. So far, these have been my expenses:
- Core Duo T2700 2.33GHz CPU - Free! Thanks undisclosed employer!
- Windows XP Pro - 1 cent + $2.52 shipping. Special purchase through employee purchase program last year! (When Micosoft was under the illusion that people would buy Vista).
- MSI 945GT Speedster-A4R micro-ATX Motherboard - $79 including shipping from Newegg.com
- 1GB DDR2 667MHz PC2-5400 Memory - $34 including tax and after using two gift cards at Circuit City
- Ultra Micro Fly Computer Case - Great case that includes a quality Ultra power supply at a great price - $40 after rebate from Fry's online.
- CoolerMaster CPU cooler and mounting bracket from Fry's Electronics (in-store) - $16 including tax. No shipping charges to worry about. This is a low end cooler made for the old hot-running 80-115 watt Pentium 4 CPU's, but is a monster of a heat sink for a 31 watt mobile processor. I'm hoping to be able to overclock the processor with this heat sink. My other hope is that I can use it without the fan running most of the time to keep a silent system going. I'll have to make some modifications to the mounting bracket to make this work on my processor.
I will detail my project build with pictures in posts to come! Thanks for visiting. If anyone is building a machine with the MSI 945GT Speedster board I am using, I'd love to hear comments on any tips you have or hear if you found any tips from this blog useful.
1 comment:
Wow, I didn't know you had already spent that much. Thanks for the report.
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