Built my parents a new puter for christmas today

[ket]

Yep thats right! Had a lot of spare parts kicking about so bought what I didn't have and made them a nice compy! Heres what I put together;

Mobo: Asus M3N78 (upgraded BIOS to 0504)
CPU: A64 3500+
RAM: 2x1GB PC8500
Graphics: On-board GF8200 (will be OC'd)
HDD: 60GB Seagate
Opticals \ Storage: 16x DVD, Floppy Drive!
PSU: 500w

Their coming from a antiquated Duron 900 system that doesn't even have support for DDR memory I made this post largely as a little input for anyone thinking about building a cheap system, the Asus M3N78 is a fantastic mobo, its not meant for hardcore OCing, but it is capable of getting the job done quite well, featuring the ability to even OC its on-board GF8200, both the GPU and shader frequencies. With the latest BIOS you can share up to 512MB of system memory as dedicated graphics memory, given the class of the GF8200, theres no point in letting it have anymore than 256MB. Regarding voltages the board offers +.15v over default VID for the chipset, CPU, and other things. vDIMM is adjustable to over 2.1v, I think it topped at 2.3v, can't remember exactly.

The great thing about the Asus M3N78 is its layout, theres a few niggling issues but nothing that can't be worked around, If anyone decides the M3N78 is for them, remember if you plan to OC, strapping a small 40mm fan to the chipset HS is ESSENTIAL! Also remember, the GF8200 is low grade, suitable for everything, even light gaming, but don't expect amazing performance. That said, with the CPU, RAM, GPU and shaders all OC'd, the on-board GF8200 turns into a nice speedy little chip, I'd wager it can play stalker with max setting @ 1024*768 quite nicely, and probably score 3.5-4k in 3Dmark06. Still not spectacular, but great for an on-board solution.

I spent A LOT of time researching a reasonable price, versatile mobo, so can confidently say if your looking for a full-scale cheap PC the M3N78 is the best board out there for £60, without question. Its features, board layout, upgradability and build quality are unmatched.

[Nightwatch]

That's a good thread. We all speak about high end top gaming Pcs but, it's also very useful having ideas and information on value-for-money PC building, particularly important in these economic circumstances. Even those who have a top end gaming PC can be better off with having a second PC that can be built as cheaply as possible while offering good capabilities to the user. So those expensive high end PCs do not get worn out daily routine PC works.

[ket]

Indeed. The current crysis is very bad, I'm out of work because of it and the only way that looks to get me back into work is to start my own business. Having a nightmare with the new build atm though, it won't let me install XP, all the files get copied and so on, but it just sits there at the "installing windows" step... must be some kind of BIOS setting, just gotta figure it out

[Nightwatch]

Yeah, could be a BIOS setting thing. And the (economic not the game ) crysis is really bad, I know. (Are you thinking starting a PC business? In these current times there still be market for making budget value-for-money things.)

[ket]

As a matter of fact, yes I am