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Oct. 28th, 2007 08:55 amYesterday I drove up to Fry's and spent some time looking at computer parts. Fry's doesn't really sell any barebone systems beyond their selection of mini computers. I also didn't see up on their memory board list anything for DDR2 memory above 400mhz but everything I was researching seemed to use 800mhz memory... they probably did have it, I didn't ask. I jjust wanted to be able to glance at prices and do a quick calculation on how much money it would cost me to get a basic system together.
The thing that I kept tripping over was the case. Most of their cases are in the $80 and above range, and when I'm trying to build a computer on the cheap, the thing I least want to spend money on is the case. However, their low end computer cases had 380w power supplies (and no doubt very cheap ones too). I didn't think that would be acceptable. The next cheapest case with a more powerful power supply (450w) was $70.00.
This bugged me because I was looking at $60-90 for a motherboard (more likely the high end range, I was looking for MSI, Asus, or Gigabyte brands, but I mostly was looking at a Gigabyte board that was just under $90.00. The board in my gaming machine is a Gigabyte and I've never had a single issue with it. I've used an Asus once, but all of my other boards have been MSI). The rest is prorobably $50-100 for a processor, and, I don't know, maybe $50-100 for memory, and I still needed a new video card since the one in my current computer is not a PCI-E slot card I'm sure. That's another, I dunno, $100 at least? So we're talking a minimum of say $330.00 but probably much closer to $500.00.
Meanwhile I had a copy of Computer Source with an ad from Computer Citi in Puyallup which offered a barebone system for $235.95, which included an AMD Athlon 64 4200 Dual Core processor and 1 gig 800mhz DDR2 memory. Probably a really cheap motherboard, of course, but at least the power supply was 420w, and another stick of 1 gig memory was only $50. I decided to drive down and check them out.
I don't know much about Puyallup, so I headed over to the freeway and drove South. I took an exit in Fife and wandered East, checking the map in my car. I found my way to Puyallup and stopped at Fred Meyers. The store was at 11910 Meridian E. I thought, oh, Meridian is the road I was on that passes right in front of Fred Meyers here! So I got back on and headed South, but I noticed that I wasn't on Meridian E., I was on North Meridian. Where was Meridian East? Puyallup wasn't big enough to have two different Meridian streets, was it?
I followed the road through downtown and past the Puyallup fairgrounds. North Meridian became South Meridian, and on up a hill until it appeared I was leaving all business development behind. I was confused because not only was I not on Meridian East, but the cross number (counting up from the city center) was very low. I'd have to drive a long, long way to reach the 119th block, so I must be headed in the wrong direction.
I turned around and once I got back into downtown I headed East. By this point I just figured I wasnt' going to find the place, but it was a nice day for a drive. I wandered through the outskirts of Puyallup and then up through Sumner, and eventually found my way to 167 and made my way home. By now it ws after 5pm and I assumed the place would be closed anyway (although actually they are open to 7 pm, but not open on Sunday of course).
In the meantime, my computer still continues to run but there's no sound and it sometimes freezes up on reboot. I can't play music on it, I don't trust using it to write on. I still want to replace it asap. I might just head back to Fry's again.
Anyone want to go to Fry's today? ^_^
The thing that I kept tripping over was the case. Most of their cases are in the $80 and above range, and when I'm trying to build a computer on the cheap, the thing I least want to spend money on is the case. However, their low end computer cases had 380w power supplies (and no doubt very cheap ones too). I didn't think that would be acceptable. The next cheapest case with a more powerful power supply (450w) was $70.00.
This bugged me because I was looking at $60-90 for a motherboard (more likely the high end range, I was looking for MSI, Asus, or Gigabyte brands, but I mostly was looking at a Gigabyte board that was just under $90.00. The board in my gaming machine is a Gigabyte and I've never had a single issue with it. I've used an Asus once, but all of my other boards have been MSI). The rest is prorobably $50-100 for a processor, and, I don't know, maybe $50-100 for memory, and I still needed a new video card since the one in my current computer is not a PCI-E slot card I'm sure. That's another, I dunno, $100 at least? So we're talking a minimum of say $330.00 but probably much closer to $500.00.
Meanwhile I had a copy of Computer Source with an ad from Computer Citi in Puyallup which offered a barebone system for $235.95, which included an AMD Athlon 64 4200 Dual Core processor and 1 gig 800mhz DDR2 memory. Probably a really cheap motherboard, of course, but at least the power supply was 420w, and another stick of 1 gig memory was only $50. I decided to drive down and check them out.
I don't know much about Puyallup, so I headed over to the freeway and drove South. I took an exit in Fife and wandered East, checking the map in my car. I found my way to Puyallup and stopped at Fred Meyers. The store was at 11910 Meridian E. I thought, oh, Meridian is the road I was on that passes right in front of Fred Meyers here! So I got back on and headed South, but I noticed that I wasn't on Meridian E., I was on North Meridian. Where was Meridian East? Puyallup wasn't big enough to have two different Meridian streets, was it?
I followed the road through downtown and past the Puyallup fairgrounds. North Meridian became South Meridian, and on up a hill until it appeared I was leaving all business development behind. I was confused because not only was I not on Meridian East, but the cross number (counting up from the city center) was very low. I'd have to drive a long, long way to reach the 119th block, so I must be headed in the wrong direction.
I turned around and once I got back into downtown I headed East. By this point I just figured I wasnt' going to find the place, but it was a nice day for a drive. I wandered through the outskirts of Puyallup and then up through Sumner, and eventually found my way to 167 and made my way home. By now it ws after 5pm and I assumed the place would be closed anyway (although actually they are open to 7 pm, but not open on Sunday of course).
In the meantime, my computer still continues to run but there's no sound and it sometimes freezes up on reboot. I can't play music on it, I don't trust using it to write on. I still want to replace it asap. I might just head back to Fry's again.
Anyone want to go to Fry's today? ^_^
