home made computer

[franksolich]

I contacted a guy who runs a computer repair service, to see if he had any old units (tower, hard-drive; the big rectangular box) for sale, as I'm starting to get weary of this old library computer with Windows98 (I am however grateful to have it).

He got back to me, telling me he doesn't have any old units gathering dust (although he'll look around), but then suggested he "builds" computers, and thought I might be interested.

Well, I sort of am, and sort of amn't.

I just want (as he knows) a simple basic fundamental computer, without all the bells and whistles and bright flashing lights and sounds.  I don't do music, I don't do movies, I don't do radio, I don't do television, I don't do video games.

So I don't need any of that crap.

I'm looking for a Model T, not a DeLorean.

I haven't gotten back to him yet, and I know others can only speculate, but does one suppose he'll charge big bucks, medium bucks, or small bucks, for building such a thing?

Damn, I hate being incompetent.

[Chris]

A home-built computer is a fraction of the cost of a new one.  You already have the case, power supply, disks, and a screen... all you need to replace is the "engine".  My current computer has parts from 1998 and older.  In 2001, I spent $400 on a motherboard, CPU, and memory that was top-of-the-line at the time (Athlon 1.5ghz and 1GB RAM) and I'm still using that computer today. 

See if your friend can't shoehorn a new motherboard into the box you already have.  It doesn't cost much at all.

[The Village Idiot]

I always wondered why someone can't develope an audio-only computer for the blind. Without all that extra stuff it might be as small as a tiny Ipod.

Just wondering.

Does anyone else have 4 browsers?

Sorry Frank. I would think without needing much in the way of RAM and harddrive space and all that you should be able to get something pretty darn inexpensive.

[zeitgeist]

A home-built computer is a fraction of the cost of a new one.  You already have the case, power supply, disks, and a screen... all you need to replace is the "engine".  My current computer has parts from 1998 and older.  In 2001, I spent $400 on a motherboard, CPU, and memory that was top-of-the-line at the time (Athlon 1.5ghz and 1GB RAM) and I'm still using that computer today.  

See if your friend can't shoehorn a new motherboard into the box you already have.  It doesn't cost much at all.

I have built several using barebone kitsTigerDirect :

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_tlc.asp?CatId=31&name=Barebone-Kits

I usually try to buy when they are offering free shipping (an advantage of being on their email list I guess).  

They also have re-furb deals cheap with many coming with an operating system installed which you don't get if you do a build it yourself kit.

[Chris]

I liked T-D's mail order catalog.  They opened an outlet store in Raleigh, NC, but I wasn't impressed with what I saw.  You could probably get the same deals from NewEgg and PriceWatch.com now.

I remember the first computer I built from a mail-order catalog.  I spent $15 for one of those enormous Sear-Roebuck books from Computer Shopper and spent $300 for a 33-Mhz 486 with 16 Mb RAM, an enormous amount of memory at the time.  That damn thing took forever to deliver, but it was magnificent and ran like a rocket when it showed up.

[Doc]

I contacted a guy who runs a computer repair service, to see if he had any old units (tower, hard-drive; the big rectangular box) for sale, as I'm starting to get weary of this old library computer with Windows98 (I am however grateful to have it).

He got back to me, telling me he doesn't have any old units gathering dust (although he'll look around), but then suggested he "builds" computers, and thought I might be interested.

Well, I sort of am, and sort of amn't.

I just want (as he knows) a simple basic fundamental computer, without all the bells and whistles and bright flashing lights and sounds.  I don't do music, I don't do movies, I don't do radio, I don't do television, I don't do video games.

So I don't need any of that crap.

I'm looking for a Model T, not a DeLorean.

I haven't gotten back to him yet, and I know others can only speculate, but does one suppose he'll charge big bucks, medium bucks, or small bucks, for building such a thing?

Damn, I hate being incompetent.

I've built several myself, and as long as you have a monitor and the other incidental stuff, you can build a basic box that performs pretty well for about $250, or maybe a bit less, running Win XP.

1 - Box and power supply (refurbished)  $30
1 - Asus motherboard with processor (2 G processor, 1 G SDram) $105 (refurbished)
1 - 20 G hard drive (rebuilt) $25
1 - Generic video card $35
1 - WinXP  OS  $59

I can buy good used components at local computer flea markets for somewhat less.....the above prices are from my local supplier.

doc

[zeitgeist]

I liked T-D's mail order catalog.  They opened an outlet store in Raleigh, NC, but I wasn't impressed with what I saw.  You could probably get the same deals from NewEgg and PriceWatch.com now.

Agreed.  Computer parts are pretty much a commodity now.   I almost never buy stuff off the retail shop shelf unless I am desperate for a quick fix.


ETA

Last computer I bought built was a "Wells American" 286-16mhz with a 10meg HD, 1.2 5 1/ 4 AND 720 3 1/4, 1meg of ram, and an EGA monitor.   I had to upgrade my credit card limit to get it!!   I later upgraded it ( the box) with a Cyrix 386 which ran forever.

[Chris]

Cyrix eventually became AMD after a few buyouts and bankruptcies.  I was so excited when I first heard about their 100-Mhz CPU's.  My first 286 was made by Hyundai and had 1Mb of memory and a 40Mb HDD.  I upgraded the EGA to a VGA video and was so excited to have 256-color games at 360x200.  It was a whole new world.

[The Village Idiot]

Cyrix eventually became AMD after a few buyouts and bankruptcies.  I was so excited when I first heard about their 100-Mhz CPU's.  My first 286 was made by Hyundai and had 1Mb of memory and a 40Mb HDD.  I upgraded the EGA to a VGA video and was so excited to have 256-color games at 360x200.  It was a whole new world.

did Cyrix name change have anything to do with the name of the company that built SkyNet in the Terminator movie?

[Thor]

A relatively new company that I've found some really decent prices is 3bTech  http://3btech.net  They compete with Newegg and their return policies are just as good. Latelyu, I buy half of my stuff from 3bTech and half from Newegg.

[LC EFA]

Cyrix eventually became AMD after a few buyouts and bankruptcies.  I was so excited when I first heard about their 100-Mhz CPU's.  My first 286 was made by Hyundai and had 1Mb of memory and a 40Mb HDD.  I upgraded the EGA to a VGA video and was so excited to have 256-color games at 360x200.  It was a whole new world.

Wasn't that 320*200*256 ?

(Mode 13h) 



Yes , I am a formerreformed assembly programmer.

[Wineslob]

I contacted a guy who runs a computer repair service, to see if he had any old units (tower, hard-drive; the big rectangular box) for sale, as I'm starting to get weary of this old library computer with Windows98 (I am however grateful to have it).

He got back to me, telling me he doesn't have any old units gathering dust (although he'll look around), but then suggested he "builds" computers, and thought I might be interested.

Well, I sort of am, and sort of amn't.

I just want (as he knows) a simple basic fundamental computer, without all the bells and whistles and bright flashing lights and sounds.  I don't do music, I don't do movies, I don't do radio, I don't do television, I don't do video games.

So I don't need any of that crap.

I'm looking for a Model T, not a DeLorean.

I haven't gotten back to him yet, and I know others can only speculate, but does one suppose he'll charge big bucks, medium bucks, or small bucks, for building such a thing?

Damn, I hate being incompetent.

Frank, I'd see if he will use a motherboard that has everything "onboard" that is, the soundcard, and video is built into the motherboard, not individual "cards". Usually it's the cheapest way to go if you don't care about the latest/greatest.

[Woodhick]

I always wondered why someone can't develope an audio-only computer for the blind. Without all that extra stuff it might be as small as a tiny Ipod.

Just wondering.

I have a brother that is blind, actually two brothers are blind but one who is always online with his pc.
He uses a program called JAWS ( job acess with speach). It is a screen reader type program. It obviously won't read graphics but does quiet well reading text.
To  have audio only wouldn't work on many programs.

[The Village Idiot]

He uses a program called JAWS ( job acess with speach). It is a screen reader type program. It obviously won't read graphics but does quiet well reading text.
To  have audio only wouldn't work on many programs.

But can there be screen readers without screens?

[Woodhick]

But can there be screen readers without screens?

Yes it has speech so it reads the text. He doesn't need a monitor to work.

[Thor]

Back in 1996, I was working with a Cable TV company that also had some computer stuff going on within the medical field. I set up several computers to work without a monitor.