Cheapest PC Money can Buy

We looked in nooks and crannies of IT markets and came up with components that you can use to assemble the cheapest PC. In fact, we built one ourselves, and it cost us under Rs 10 K. We tell you about these components and also give a step-by-step guide on building your own PC with them 

Saturday, May 08, 2004

Consider a scenario where your organization needs to buy PCs, but the configuration suggested by your assembler doesn't fit your budget. You could do what we did-scout around for some of the cheapest possible standard PC components and then build a PC yourself. Or, if you're not one to get your hands dirty, you could always get the computer assembled from one of the many assemblers. The PC that we built cost us a little under Rs 10,000. 

First, we'll let you in on the cheapest components that we found. We did a lot of survey and came up with a list of components that you can find in your city's infamous computer market. We used: AMD Duron 1.6GHz processor, Mercury M825 VIA chipset motherboard, 128 MB Symtronics RAM, 40 GB Seagate HDD, Samsung FDD, Sony CD-ROM driveand Intex's mouse, keyboard and cabinet.

Obviously, these components won't help you in any rocket-science calculations, but they will make sure that your basic computer requirements are met. As these components will be new, they will come with a warranty ensuring hassle-free exchange in case of any malfunctioning. You won't get this facility if you opt for a secondhand machine. Making a cost-effective machine requires spending some time surveying the market. You might come across vendors wanting to sell components that they have in bulk, but have been discontinued by the company. These components aren't bad in performance and are available at a much-lower price as the vendor would want to dispose them, providing you bargain. Another crucial factor in cost cutting depends on the choice of the OS. For instance, using an open-source OS, such as PCQLinux 2004, would save you almost Rs 3,000 that you would have spent otherwise if you had bought a Win XP Home Edition.

Comparing  performance
The PC that we built was one that would meet your basic computing needs. So, we decided to check what performance gains we would get if we changed some of its components by spending some more. 

Plugging components

1. Start with plugging in the processor, which should be inserted in the correct direction. The direction can be confirmed by checking the notches 2. Next, insert the RAM module in its slot, again keeping in mind the correct direction

We changed two components: from a Duron to a Celeron processor and from 128 MB RAM to 256 MB RAM. Since the Duron may not be easily available, the Celeron (slightly more expensive than the Duron) would be the next best option.We tested our PC with both to find the difference in performance. 

3. Now connect the IDE cable and the power cable to the hard disk one-by-one 4. Then connect the ATX power cable coming from the SMPS to the motherboard

Since this was a basic PC meant to run regular productivity applications, we ran Business Winstone 2003 benchmark on it. We also got a little adventurous and ran Quake 3 Arena, the gaming benchmark, just to see what would happen. We first tested the processors with 128 MB and 256 MB RAM. 

5. One of the important steps is the connecting of the fan over the processor. The fans helps in cooling the  processor, which, if not done, can harm it  6. The result of all the hard work done is this PC

The Duron 1.6 managed to outperform the Celeron 1.7 by a margin of 14 percent in Business Winstone. With 256 MB RAM, it scored over the Celeron by about 13 percent. To our surprise, the Celeron slightly outperformed the Duron in Quake 3 Arena. 

You can also get better performance if you can spend a little more and get more RAM. By increasing RAM from 128 MB to 256 MB, the Duron managed to boost its performance by 13 percent, while the Celeron showed an increase of 14 percent. Since increasing RAM would cost only Rs 800 more, it might be worth the extra expenditure. (See box titled What our tests showed)

Bottomline: If you can get the Duron, we suggest you use it for building your PC, as it performs better and costs less too. 
Building your own PC

Building a PC is not very difficult and we will now take you through the steps of building one. First, fix the motherboard to the cabinet panel using spacers. Now, place the Duron 1.6 GHz socket A processor on the motherboard's ZIF socket in one direction. The direction is identified by the two cuts on the processor and the ZIF socket. Then place the CPU fan properly. Putting the fan is important as the processor generates a lot of heat and, if not cooled, it's heat can damage either itself or any other component. Now open the SIMM connector's lock in the motherboard and push the RAM in the slot firmly. Keep an eye on the notches on the motherboard and the SIMM or you could damage them. Now, find the Primary IDE port on the board and fix the IDE cable in it. Just like other components, it will also fit in one direction. Now fix the other end of the cable in the HDD. Now, connect the power connector that is coming out from the SMPS to the HDD. Finally, connect the ATX power connectors coming out from your SMPS to the motherboard as shown in image 4 and you will be done. Just connect one end of the power cable to the wall power jack and the other to the SMPS and power on the machine.

Anindya Roy, Ankit Kawatra and Pallavi Sharda

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