Buy two before the price goes up!
Roll out the red carpet and blast the trumps, I’m posting for a record second time in 2007 and with a whole 34 days to spare! Today, I’m going to talk about the magic of the homebuilt sub $500 computer!
This may bounce down well worn ground and could likely be viewed as partly pointless as most computer geeks worth their salt already know what I’m about to write, but I’m going to do it anyway. Why? Because it’s been a while since I’ve flexed the old techernickel muscles, and TV’s Patrick Norton inspired me after viewing the latest episode of Tekzilla courtesy of the fine TechTV orphans of Revision3 and the video management and playback prowess of Miro. (ZOMG! YES! I’m one of those a-holes WHO ARE KILLING THE INTERNETS!!!
Anyway, good old Patrick Norton has started a project dubbed The Return of the Revenge of the $500 PC, which is a throwback to earlier days when $500 computers weren’t so commonplace. Granted, his tack on the use of the machine has a decidedly more HTPC vibe to it, but between the project and the latest Ars System Guide, I was finally inspired to come up with a similar project. My guidelines, however, are significantly different:
- This should be a budget box with teeth. Powerful enough to allow people to dabble and play in multimedia creation if they want.
- My definition of a complete computer is significantly broader than most others due to peripheral recommendations like uninterruptable power supplies to help protect the components and the data held within.
- The parts must be higher quality than your average cheap-ass bargain box for longevity and stability. No cheap boards with capacitors that’ll blow out in 18 months, no feather light power supplies that leave the +12V power rail anemic and flaky, and no cheap hard drives.
- Components must be Linux friendly and should work out of the box with minimal fuss, as we’ll be using OSS titles to help save money, and there’s a lot of really nice and mature applications now that make the platform appealing for more than just e-mail, web, and word processing.
- Include everything mentioned plus add all the nuts, bolts, bells and whistles for under $700 from one location before shipping and handling, additionally be configurable as a vanilla system with everything that a Mom and Pop basics machine would need for under $500, and the core tower with nothing else for under $300 as a pure upgrade system for frugal people out there who don’t want a fully pimped out setup or want to reuse their monitor, keyboard, mouse and whatnot.
This is a steep order, especially with the mighty American Peso’s current buying power, but I like a good challenge… so I fired up the old web browser and wandered myself over to NewEgg. Let’s take a look at what I found, shall we?
Read the rest of this RANT! »
