In another thread someone was possibly lookings at parts to get their computer + pci Sat Card upto date and use it for PVR / tivo type usage.
I used same parts in june last year to upgrade and thought it might be usefull for someone upgrading on a limited budget.
I found 2 very good contenders and they fit the budget I then had = lowest cost + most bang for my bucks.
Prices is approxm. as close to real as I found while typing this.
ASRock Motherboard - Product - 775Dual-VSTA - Overview
Very good transition board and it is rock solid = no problems.
I found this motherboard when searching to upgrade on a limited budget and found that it can use both old parts from a P3/P4/Amd box or new parts as time goes by and one's budget grows by adding parts at a later stage as money permitted.
Video card slot:
It has both AGP old school video cards and PCI-express for new cards.
Nice reasonable graphics cards XFX 6800xtreme or Sapphire X850 $130
No onboard/inbuild video/display card.
Memory:
It can use either 168pin 266mhz - 400mhz DDR or DDR2 400mhz to 667mhz 240pin
Processor / CPU :
Anything from a Intel Celeron D 2.66ghz 64bit single core/engine $45 to core 2 duo $350+
Basically the $58 for this board + $45 for the+cpu fan and all your old parts = happy camper + shipping free - $15
If you can install a satellit dish / motorized dish you can build a PC / rebuild a PC.
Recomended CPU / Processor Socket 775:
"Little Monster CPU"
Pentium D 805 $79 dual core/engine 64bit 2.66ghz ( or about 4 times P4 2.66ghz in performance )
If you have a bit more budget and is willing to go new on all parts + want a good deal / very good performance.
ECS nforce 570 slit-a (v5.1) $89.99 and $15 rebate
ECS Web Site
This has all the basic parts even I would need for the next 2 years and can again accept the same Processor / cpu as the Asrock and is also rock solid but run's like a stubborn donkey with turpentine where the sun don't shine.
Very very fast and without issues + Motherboard can be tortured to death and still run like new , donkey not
Budget about 89.99 + CPU $45 or $79 + video/graphics card about $45 to $130 + memory 240pin $40 for 512mb ddr2 400mhz or $84 for 1gb / 1000mb ddr2 pc5300 667mhz .
667mhz recommended as 1 or 2 sticks (1x 1gb or 2x 512mb)
Rest can be old parts for cd/dvd , hard drive fan's maybe use old power supply if minm. 450w or higher power rating old box , old pci cards etc.
Might want to get a bigger hard drive for storage looking at $94 for a 7200rpm 320gb
using old cable's IDE/ATA or SATA for 80gb 7200rpm $43 or SATA 320gb $90.
As both SATA "prefered" and ATA/IDE works on both these boards.
As a approxm. guide for hard drive speed / performance:
ATA/ide runs at 100/133mb/s or about 33mb/s to maybe if it is very lucky 57mb/s sustained.
Sata runs at 3gb/s or 3000mb/s or 67+mb/s upto 300mb/s sustained / burst speeds / sprinting.
Going from a 5400rpm drive to a 7200rpm drive of same technology the difference is very noticable / much more responsive = less waiting time to load and gets the jobs done faster.
Standard size for a dvd = about 4.7gb or 4700mb as guide.
Old reffers to the ones you own or that can be used on older computers.
Dell $700+ get's about equivalent to this in performance + you get a dell screen $80 for $250 extra .
PS> Amd cpu's = no clue used to love them but had to switch to Intel to get most bang for my bucks.
Hope this helps.
I might have to get my old pc that I want to use with my new
Twinhan 1025 sat express up to date as well.
Some places has a barebones deal or box + cpu + motherboard + psu so shop around
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