I recently set up a desktop computer to be my development and gaming machine. A few months ago my dad had purchased a barebones 2.8GHz Pentium 4 computer for a project he was working on. Eventually it was abandoned, and so we had a spare case, CPU, and motherboard. I realized it would be perfect for a desktop, so I added a few components and now it’s sitting under my desk happily. :-)
- Processor: Intel Pentium 4 2.8GHz: $100 (Fry’s)
- Motherboard: Elitegroup 848P-A P4 motherboard with built-in 800Mhz front side bus, SATA support, hyperthreading support, USB2.0, AC’97 5.1ch audio, and gigabit LAN: $50 (Fry’s)
- Chassis: ATX with case fan, 2 front USB ports and front mic/speaker, and 300W (albeit a low quality) power supply: $9 (Fry’s)
- Power supply: replaced the one in the case with the Ultra X-Connect 500W PSU: $25 (Fry’s)
- Memory: 512MB single stick RAM: free (leftover part)
- Hard drive: 160GB Hitachi Deskstar 7200rpm hard drive: $30 (Fry’s)
- Graphics card 1: Xmdia NVIDIA GeForce FX5500 256MB RAM, AGP 8x/3.0: $55 (Micro Center)
- Graphics card 2: 3Dlabs Oxygen VX1, 32MB RAM, PCI: free (leftover part)
- Firewire card: IEEE 1394 Firewire PCI card: free (leftover part)
Altogether, the machine wasn’t too expensive: about $270, excluding the 3Dlabs graphics card, Firewire card, and memory. I was able to find those lying around the house. Most of these components were on sale.
You might have noticed that I have two graphics cards. This is a dual monitor-setup; I have a ViewSonic CRT running off of the ancient, 1999 3Dlabs card, and a Planar LCD on the GeForce FX5500. Both are running at 1280×1024, giving me a total resolution of 2560×1024.
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A very nice utility for multi-monitor setups is UltraMon, which adds extra functionality for secondary monitors. For example, it lets me have a taskbar on each monitor, and stretch windows, wallpaper, and screen savers across both screens. If you use more than one monitor, you should definitely check this out.
I name this computer carbon! Here’s a picture of my desk now.
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nice pc