Here is what I have built just recently, and I believe all the elements are
very popluar and good quality. It's cheap and it's very fast.

Motherboard: Abit BH6 (~$95)
CPU: Intel Pentium Celeron 300a (~$95)
PC100 SDRAM (~$180)
Case: ($50-$80)
Sound card: SoundBlaster Live Value (~$75)
Video card: Creative Graphic Blaster TNT (~$140)
modem: any modem from Supra or Robotic should be fine (~$50-$70)
ATA IDE HD: Any major brand should be fine (e.g., IBM, Maxtor, Quantum...)
(8GB for around $150 - $200)
I use my old keyboard and mouse.

These are mail-order price. Try to get multiple items from one source to
save shipping. The advantage of this setup is it's very popular so that if
you have problems, it's more likely to find help. Secondly, if you like,
you can overclock it to 450mhz easily with soft menu (jumperless). I think
the total cost is way lower than brand name computers (especially if you
compare it to Pentium II 450mhz).

Just my 2 cents,


Changhsu Liu
[log in to unmask]


At 06:05 PM 1/7/99 -0500, you wrote:
>Y'all have convinced me to try and build my own computer. Can you give some
>recommendations for what to read/where to go to decide just *what*
>motherboard, case, sound card, etc. I need to buy? I know nothing about
>what are good components and what are not. I don't mind doing some
>research, I just don't know where to start. I use my computer for word
>processing, lots of email, a few games, not much multimedia stuff,
>checkbook, journal- just simple stuff.

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