# Creating an extremely low cost Value PC



## gxsaurav (May 17, 2008)

My last article about *How to make an  inexpensive & efficient Computer* was praised by many readers. Now  that PC was meant to be a one stop solution for everything you can think of. It  was a gaming machine, music device, HTPC, all in one. But I was thinking, how  low can you go? 

 In the market there are many people who want to buy a cheap PC for their home  for kids or to get online once in a while or for the kids to study for school  stuff like some HTML or C++ or to use in the office for Office suites. They  don’t even open there computer every day, so they won’t require the previous  configuration of PC I mentioned. This is another PC configuration for such use,  office & cyber cafes where compatibility is required but high end components  are not required & no one plays games on these PCs but still there is a  small upgrade path. One thing for sure, this PC is going to be a looker in  sleekness & style.

*CPU* = Intel  Pentium Dual Core E2180 or AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+. These CPU will not win  any benchmarks or contest for number crunching but still at a very low price you  will get a Dual Core CPU from Intel & AMD with enough horse power for your  day to day tasks.

*Motherboard* = My personal preference is Asus P5N MX for intel or Asus M2N-CM  DVI for AMD*www.asus.com/products.aspx?modelmenu=2&model=1841&l1=3&l2=101&l3=567&l4=0. These are very low cost yet stable motherboards based on nVidia 7050 chipset. They have  most of the component ever required on board already like on board LAN, sound  & graphics & people don’t even need to go beyond this. Whatever you need  this small & cost effective PC to do, this motherboard will help you.

Another option if the above Asus motherboard are not available is Intel DG31PR motherboard. 

*CPU fan* = No need to spend extra money, the Stock CPU fan from Intel  & AMD are good enough. If you still want to spend some money on a good &  silent CPU Cooler than simply get Cooler Master  Hyper L3.

*RAM* = 2X1 GB DDR2 667 MHz RAM. Any cheap brand like Dynet, Simmtronics  or Kingston Value RAM would do the job. It should cost you a maximum of Rs 1,600  for 2 GB RAM.

 Cyber Cafe owners should just go for 1 GB DDR2 667 RAM.

*Cabinet & SMPS* = iBall  Baby 306 is my preferred CPU Cabinet for this PC. Not only it is very small  in size but also sufficient for this PC. Just get any 500W SMPS like one from  Frontech or ColorSit. These SMPS aren’t very powerful but then you don’t require  powerful SMPS and these provide adequate electricity for this PC.  Install a 80 MM fan on the side & rear exhaust & keep the cabinet in  horizontal position not vertical.

*UPS* = Get an APC 650VA UPS which can easily provide up to 10 minutes  backup.

 Cyber cafe owners should skip this & use a unified inverter.

*Hard Disk* = It depends on the user but 160 GB should be enough for  such PCs to start with. Get a Western Digital  WD1600AAJA SATA 2 Hard disk with 8 MB buffer, it should cost around Rs  2,000.

 Cyber Cafe owners should look for old 40 GB or 80 GB hard disk which they can  buy 2nd hand for Rs 800.

*Optical Drive* = There are many optical drives in the market right now  but one Drive which is enough for this computer’s needs would be Samsung  SH-S203D DVD Writer at Rs 1,200.

 Cyber cafe owners need not to install any optical drive on the nodes. Just  one at the server is sufficient.

*Audio & Video = *The onboard Audio & Video of this motherboard  is all anyone will ever require in an office or home where computer is used once  in a while only. The onboard graphics on Intel DG31PR which  Intel  GMA X3100 & on the Asus motherboards are nVidia GeForce 7050 which are enough to run Windows Vista with Aero.

If you still  want to buy a graphics card for home use then a low profile Sapphire  ATI Radeon HD 3450 based graphics card with 256 MB RAM should be  adequate.
 Onboard Audio is Realtek 5.1 channel which again is sufficient because most  users will either use a headphone or 2.1 channel speaker setup with such  computer.

*TV Tuner Card = *Buy it if you need it else leave it. I would recommend  Leadtek  Winfast TV2000XP Global Media Center with my eyes closed as this TV Tuner is  by far the best analog TV Tuner card I have seen. It is compatible with Windows  Media Center & even comes with a Media Center Remote. If you can find the  PCI Express X1 based WinFast  PxTV1200 Media Center Edition then buy that instead to use that idle PCI  Express X1 slot to some good use. You can also use these TV Tuners with the DTH  service such as Tata Sky or Dish TV

*Speakers & Headphones* = This is a completely personal choice &  I would advise you to go to the market & check yourself after listening to  some available models. Since you are looking for a Value PC then buying a 5.1  channel speaker system doesn’t make sense. Entry level Altec Lansing &  Creative Models are what you should look for. My personal choice although is Creative  Gigaworks T20 or Creative  I-Trigue T3000 for Stereo Sound but they will cost you about Rs 4,000  easily.

*Webcam* = Buy it if you need it. These days webcam start for as low as  Rs 500 in the market. Considering the state of Indian broadband, a Microsoft  LiveCam VX-1000 should suffice or Frontek Webcam which are surprisingly good  for the price at Rs 500.

*Keyboard & Mouse* = Again, this is a personal preference. Look  yourself to judge which keyboard & mouse you find comfortable with your  hands & posture. A good & low cost yet effective keyboard is Zebronics  Desktop Commander Keyboard which has laptop like keys & is easy on the  hands. iBall  Laser Precise Speedster mouse is a good low cost laser mouse which works  surprisingly well within Rs 1,000.

 Cyber cafe owners should go for Logitech Internet Desktop wired edition. A  very cheap combination of wired keyboard & Mouse.

*Monitor* = Despite of this PC being a Value PC I will not recommend a  CRT Monitor due to their sheer size & power requirements. LCD Monitors are  dirt cheap now so it makes perfect sense to invest in a LCD Monitor instead of a  CRT now as monitors easily last for many years & is generally the last  hardware component to upgrade. 

For Home use buy the LG L206WTQ  Monitor. It is 20” TN Panel based but HDCP compliant. You can easily upgrade to  a Blu-ray Drive later & still enjoy all your HD Movies as Blu-Ray requires a  monitor with HDCP connection. It has a native resolution of 1650X1080 pixels  which is more than enough for whatever you want to throw at it, even 720p HD  Videos play flawless on this monitor as 1080p will look different from 720p only  when seen on a 32″ or higher LCD Display. You can also connect your gaming  console such as XBOX 360 or Playstation 3 to this monitor to play games on a  wide screen LCD with real HD resolution. 

 Cyber cafe owners should go for 17" LCD from Samsung or LG with 4:3 aspect  ratio. They won't need a widescreen monitor in a cyber cafe. CRT monitors are  also an option if you want to go dirt cheap but I seriously don't recommend  buying CRT anymore.

*Operating System =* For home use 32bit Windows Vista Home premium is  adequate for this computer. Once installed & configured for which you can  have a look at my article “Using Windows  Vista: The MVP Way” & your setup will be like Set it & forget it.  Just start the system, work on it & do whatever you want. 

 For Cyber Cafe, Windows XP SP3 is advised.

 We all know that people in Cyber cafe or casual home users in home pirate the  OS anyway so instead of going with Linux & a new environment they would  rather prefer going with Windows XP.

 About other software, most of the basic home related work can be done these  days with free software available for Windows. Some of them are Open Source  applications like OpenOffice which will do the work just fine instead of Office  2007. This will further cut software cost & you don't even have to pirate  stuff.


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## Pathik (May 17, 2008)

Nicely written.


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## MetalheadGautham (May 17, 2008)

the problem with the motherboard you chose is that it does not support overclocking at all, specially in a situation like this when the processor is one of the best overclockers.

And I would recomend spending the Rs. 400 extra and going for 800 mhz ram.

Also, it wouldn't hurt to get a better looking cabinet in the same price range.


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## gxsaurav (May 17, 2008)

Overclocking is not something those people will do for which this PC is supposed to be. They are mostly people who call IT Tech support when they are unable to install a driver. How can you expect them to over clock.?

Save Rs 400, this is a Value PC & for this PCs work requirements DDR2 800 won't give any noticeable performance boost over DDR2 667.

Cabinet is a personal choice of the customer so they can even go for a Mid-Tower if they want. I just wrote this cabinet as I find it small & sleek for this PCs need.


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## MetalheadGautham (May 17, 2008)

gx_saurav said:


> Overclocking is not something those people will do for whome this PC is supposed to be. They are mostly people who call IT Tech support when they are unable to install a driver. You expect them to over clock.
> 
> Save Rs 400, this is a Value PC & for this PCs work requirements DDR2 800 won't give any noticeable performance boost over DDR2 667.
> 
> Cabinet is a personal choice of the customer so they can even go for a Mid-Tower if they want. I just wrote this cabinet as I find it small & sleek for this PCs need.


overclocking is something that if done properly, needs to be done just once. Any non geek running after a value PC can find a helpful friend to help OC the PC. And here, the 800 MHz ram helps a lot.


PS: remember that silver multi holed cabinet you had showed a pic of a long time back ? got its pic and link ?


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## gxsaurav (May 17, 2008)

Well, I don't recommend over clocking in this PC as this will be used in offices, homes, schools etc & down time due to a bad over clock is not acceptable. People usually get scared when there computer malfunctions at home or office who only know how to check orkut or work on MS word. 

I don't remember that cabinet.


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## gary4gar (May 17, 2008)

Why not use Amd Cpu instead of Intel?

Amd is more value for money.


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## MetalheadGautham (May 17, 2008)

and one more thing: if you use a mobo which supports EFI, then you can also install Macintosh, if you prefer an alternative to windows, linux, solaris and BSD.

PS: legality is upto the supreme court to decide, not me.


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## gxsaurav (May 17, 2008)

I didn't chose AMD because a combination of Athlon 64 X2 BE + Gigabyte 780G will cost more then the Intel setup. Cost was a major factor while creating this article. If you exclude the LCD Monitor & Gigaworks Speakers then you can have this PC for Rs 18k easily.

Intel DG31PR is known to be the best motherboard to Install Mac OS X 10.5.2 hackintosh. This is why I recommended it.


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## gary4gar (May 17, 2008)

What about the cost of OS?

is there any low cost windows edition available?


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## MetalheadGautham (May 17, 2008)

gx_saurav said:


> Intel DG31PR is known to be the best motherboard to Install Mac OS X 10.5.2 hackintosh. This is why I recommended it.


don't use the term hackintosh. Its hackintosh only if you force the OS to run on unsupported hardware. This hardware is natively supported by Macintosh, so you NEED NOT hack mac os x to get it to install here.


gary4gar said:


> What about the cost of OS?
> 
> is there any low cost windows edition available?


pay 4.7k minimum if you want legal microsoft software.
pay 3.7k minimum if you want legal apple software.
pay nothing for FOSS based software.
(assuming latest versions of all software)


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## gxsaurav (May 17, 2008)

We all know that people in Cyber cafes or Homes usually pirate the OS, so it is free for them anyway. In that case it wouldn't matter what will be the cost of the OS & they would prefer going with a familier Windows Enviroment then going with a new linux enviroment.

Ideally i would recommend using Linux with this PC because the OS & every software is free. However, not everyone is comfortable with Linux & let's face it, Linux still lacks many applications equivalent to Windows Applications. Like in Linux I have yet to see an alternative to Adobe Lightroom or ACDSee or even Nero. K3B is good but not as close to the full Nero Suite. If the user is comfortable using Linux, then it makes full sense to use Linux Mint on it which I have already mentioned on the article. 

If someone wants to use this PC in a cyber cafe then Windows XP Home is good enough. In a cyber cafe you only need 

1) A browser which you have in the form of Firefox or Opera or IE 8. 

2) Chat client in form of Yahoo, Windows Live messenger & Google Talk.

3) Office Suite in form of OpenOffice. Like I have already mentioned previously, OpenOffice is good if you are a casual user.

4) Music Player or Video player which you have in the form of Windows Media Player 11 & FFDShow.

Chatting is an important thing in a Cyber Cafe & trust me, Pidgin is no where close to the familierity of Yahoo or Windows Live Messenger for casual users.

For home use, again...Linux might be good but it is still geeky & breaks easily if mishandled. Linux is not for those people who don't want to learn & casual home users don't want to learn, they just want to Check there mail, or do orkutting. For these people I still find Windows Vista Home premium at Rs 4,000 a very good deal.  If you follow my guide of using Vista then you can easily make it very very solid by using free tools only.

*I do not recommend using MS Office 2007 on this PC*. It costs a lot & is of no use for someone like the user for which this PC is meant to be. However, if the user is willing to pay then obviously there is nothing better then MS Office 2007.


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## MetalheadGautham (May 17, 2008)

gx_saurav said:


> We all know that people in Cyber cafes or Homes usually pirate the OS, so it is free for them anyway. In that case it wouldn't matter what will be the cost of the OS & they would prefer going with a familier Windows Enviroment then going with a new linux enviroment.
> 
> Ideally i would recommend using Linux with this PC because the OS & every software is free. However, not everyone is comfortable with Linux & let's face it, Linux still lacks many applications equivalent to Windows Applications. Like in Linux I have yet to see an alternative to Adobe Lightroom or ACDSee or even Nero. K3B is good but not as close to the full Nero Suite. If the user is comfortable using Linux, then it makes full sense to use Linux Mint on it which I have already mentioned on the article.
> 
> ...


as far as home users are concerned, esp ones who are t*oo stupid to use linux*,* BSD or Solaris* and *too broke to buy the dozen or so of essential windows software*, *too law abiding to pirate software* and *too dumb to handle the infinite security holes associated with windows*, I recomend Macintosh OSX.


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## gary4gar (May 17, 2008)

@gx_saurav
i disagree on Ms office 2007, as it has lot of problems.
Better go with office 2003.

but then in legal terms it would be a cheap pc anymore.
but not many like to pay for software in india.
They then figure out their own ways


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## legolas (May 17, 2008)

MetalheadGautham said:


> as far as home users are concerned, esp ones who are t*oo stupid to use linux*,* BSD or Solaris* and *too broke to buy the dozen or so of essential windows software*, *too law abiding to pirate software* and *too dumb to handle the infinite security holes associated with windows*, I recomend Macintosh OSX.


I like your advertising style!


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## gxsaurav (May 17, 2008)

> as far as home users are concerned, esp ones who are t*oo stupid to use linux*,* BSD or Solaris* and *too broke to buy the dozen or so of essential windows software*, *too law abiding to pirate software* and *too dumb to handle the infinite security holes associated with windows*, I recommend Macintosh OSX.



Installing Mac OS X on a PC is termed illegal so I cannot include that. Besides, do you mean that Arya, goobi, Andy & Grudge are so stupid as mentioned above that they are using Mac OS X? 

Even if the user pirates Windows, he doesn't need to buy essential Windows application. Either as usual he will pirate it, or there are free alternatives available as well like mentioned in my other guide.

It's not about being stupid to use Linux, it just that Linux won't fit for my father or Sister, will it.



> @gx_saurav
> i disagree on Ms office 2007, as it has lot of problems.
> Better go with office 2003.



Office 2007 is a must have upgrade over Office 2003. If they want to buy then Office 2007 is a must. If they want to Pirate, then again they will either go for Office 2003 or 2007.

However since in this case people need something cheap & in most cases OpenOffice would suffice for the people at which this computer is targeted. They are mostly home users, or those who will use MS Word to make a Resume or letter won't need anything more then OpenOffice at a single user position.


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## axxo (May 17, 2008)

Since its a low cost pc..amd x2 4**** would offer better value for money. If overclock will not be done then the addon cooler would be rendered useless. Myself had some bad experience with a system running Intel G31 based mobo...not stable as i expected..... a gigabyte nforce 7050 based would have been a better option...which does allow overclocking to some extent.


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## Cool G5 (May 17, 2008)

I appreciate your work. Nice article gx_saurav.
But since you have wrote an article with home or business use, it's mostly obvious they will get stucked in linux.

I have a personal experience here, my sis just uses pc for orkut & multimedia.
At one time I made her to sit on Linux Mint & she was like lost.

So my point is most of the people will get a pirated XP or vista with the above config, than to put linux.


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## gxsaurav (May 17, 2008)

axxo said:


> Since its a low cost pc..amd x2 4**** would offer better value for money.


 
But core 2 Duo E2180 gives better performance per watt & has low temprature then AMD Athlon 64 X2 4xxx.



> If overclock will not be done then the addon cooler would be rendered useless.


 I know, that's why I wrote to use stock Intel cooler.



> Myself had some bad experience with a system running Intel G31 based mobo...not stable as i expected..... a gigabyte nforce 7050 based would have been a better option...which does allow overclocking to some extent.


 
This isn't an over clockers PC, please keep that in mind. I m using Intel DG31PR motherboard myself which is pretty stable here. What is the cost of this Gigabyte motherboard? DG31PR costs Rs 3,400.



> So my point is most of the people will get a pirated XP or vista with the above config, than to put linux.


 
i know, & for noobs at home or cafe who will pirate the OS & application anyway, using Windows XP or Vista is a better option then Linux


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## axxo (May 17, 2008)

gx_saurav said:


> But core 2 Duo E2180 gives better performance per watt & has low temprature then AMD Athlon 64 X2 4xxx.
> 
> This isn't an over clockers PC, please keep that in mind. I m using Intel DG31PR motherboard myself which is pretty stable here. What is the cost of this Gigabyte motherboard? DG31PR costs Rs 3,400.


..at stock speeds AMD X2 4600 will score better than E2180. 
I had display setting problem with DG31 and viewsonic 1912wb. btw gigabyte motherboard would cost around 2.5k 1k less for sure.


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## gxsaurav (May 17, 2008)

Yes, but then the cost of motherboard + CPU in AMD config will cost more then the Intel Config.

The Intel Configs costs Rs 5,700 in Lucknow. Can you find out the cost of AMD Athlon64 X2 4600+ & the Gigabyte motherboard u were telling about


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## axxo (May 17, 2008)

nope..the one(motherboard) i suggested is for intel.

now for amd *Gigabyte Technology GA-M68SM-S2 - 2900
AMD 4600+  -3100 that makes a total of 6k for the config
*


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## amit_at_stg (May 17, 2008)

plz give cost detail of each item so that we can compute the total cost of the pc


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## gxsaurav (May 17, 2008)

You can check the prices on theitwares.com


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## saqib_khan (May 17, 2008)

gx_saurav again a rocking article from u.
U r the best man.
But, y r u calling it Core 2 Duo E2180, it is called Intel Dual Core E2180.
And, there is a vast difference between C2D & Dual Core.


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## gxsaurav (May 17, 2008)

^^^ Name fixed


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## axxo (May 17, 2008)

actually speaking both dual core and core2duo are based on same architecture ...with the exception being the former comes with less size cache...correct me if its wrong


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## gary4gar (May 17, 2008)

why do recommend APC 650VA UPS?

why not a cheap local brand like Microtech?


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## axxo (May 17, 2008)

is that microtek? or microtech?
btw microtek sucks bigtime...their backup time is poor so as their battery life.


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## gxsaurav (May 17, 2008)

I recommended APC because cost difference between APC 500 VA or 650 VA & local brand UPS isn't much but a clean power supply is a must for any computer.


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## phuchungbhutia (May 17, 2008)

Nice work . . . I pity myself being in such a backward place now . . . 1 gb Ram costs more than 1200 here . . .


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## gary4gar (May 18, 2008)

gx_saurav said:


> I recommended APC because cost difference between APC 500 VA or 650 VA & local brand UPS isn't much but a clean power supply is a must for any computer.


As per theitwares 
APC 650           3300/-
APC 500VA  	2550/-
and surprisingly
PowerSafe  600VA is available for 1950/-

Does Apc really worth to spend those hard earned extra money on a extremely low cost Value PC?


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## gxsaurav (May 18, 2008)

I prefer APC that's why I selected. A user can go for whatever he likes. The main factor when buying a UPS is stable voltage & good backup of at least 5 mins (to shut down properly)


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## dOm1naTOr (May 18, 2008)

Hykon Beta 600 UPS for 1750/- is gud one for its price. Ive selected it for some of my friends whove been using it for 2 years now. Just the backup was reduced from 16~18 min to 8~10 min. 
Me too have one, but i cant blame it for not supporting the total load of my PC [a power hungry X2 older 939 socket, a 17" flat CRT, a 5.1, 7600GT and two HDDs].
And Hykon has 2yr warranty too.


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## gxsaurav (May 18, 2008)

Not all brands are available everywhere equally. APC is same  everywhere, Powersafe, Frontech etc are also good but again not equally available everywhere.


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## dOm1naTOr (May 18, 2008)

gud tute dude. 
But its not a lowest vfm config.
@gx_saurav
cud u add more than one choices for eacg catogory with prices?

like Asus M2N MX SE mobo @ 2.3k for Am2 platform and
Biostar or EVGA 630i Ultra mobo for Intel?

And HCL 15" CRT for 3k with 3yr warranty wud be a gud enuf for real extremely low cost PC.
Zebronics MM deskset has real vfm at 450/-.


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## gary4gar (May 18, 2008)

gx_saurav said:


> Not all brands are available everywhere equally. APC is same  everywhere, Powersafe, Frontech etc are also good but again not equally available everywhere.


is frontech good?


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## gxsaurav (May 18, 2008)

Frontech is good enough.


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