I got $20 in my pocket ...

[Ykcud]

This is my first post on here, so hiya! I have built a system and tinkered around quite a bit. This does not make me an expert by any means, and I would rate my computer skills and knowledge a solid "intermediate" at best. This "new" build I have going has a story.

There is an as-is Goodwill store near where I work. I had some extra time one day and I decided to spend some of it there, which I do sometimes. As I was dodging people and digging through the bins of mostly junk, I found an unassuming box just before I was about to leave. 99 out of 100, I would have just left the store, buying what I already had in my hands. But then "CRASH" someone dropped a glass lamp near the entrance (there is only customer entrance to this store). Gosh darn it! I wanted to leave, I don't like being around loads of people. Well, that's going to take a few minutes to get squared away. Guess I will look around some more.

 

I took myself to one of the bins where I had already been to a few times. I already looked through everything except for this one box. Boxes almost always have either nothing in them, or something completely broken. But, might as well. I open it and . . . HOLY COW! Its a motherboard, some memory and a graphics card! Now I knew just looking at it this was not something produced in 2018, but hey! I gladly took that box to the register and thought to myself "I hope they don't charge me a lot for this". The cashier lady looked at the inside of the box plus the item I had outside it as well (which for this story is unrelated). She asked for $5. GLADLY!

 

I told my friends about it. Most were surprised. I talked about my plans for this system. One of my friends suggested I post this on here. So here I am.

 

Now, this is not a system that is going to blow any minds away (already got a good system I built last month, first one to but $5? Why not! Below is what I have:

 

An Intel Intel D975XBX motherboard.

 

2x 2 GB DDR2 UDIMM RAM modules.

 

A 256MB Geforce 7300GS Video Card

 

Again, this was for $5. And yes, I am aware there is no guarantee any of this hardware will work. $5 though . . . Literately if a single one of those items works, its worth more than that (I think).

 

Side note, I got a bunch of hard drives lying around, so I am going to throw one in.

 

Here's the plan. I am going to build this system with these parts and spend no more than $20. This will not be easy, but its going to get done. I am of course going to need a processor, a power supply, a heat sink, a case and a lot of luck. Some of my friends are going to give me some old parts that they don't want anymore, like a 250 watt PSU. I am also going to put Ubuntu as the OS for this build. I use Windows for most of systems, but I have always held a strong respect for Linux (which I would use more often if more worked for the OS).

 

 

 

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Sorry for such a late update, but I am lazy. Anywho, I got a processor and a heat sink for the system. Basically I found a list of ALL the processors I could find that would fit the motherboard and found which ones were under $5 on Ebay and/or Amazon (including shipping). Then I compared all of those on CPUbenchmark to find which one was the highest rated of those and came out with . . . Intel Core 2 Duo E8400. Also, I scored a free PSU from a friend. As for the case, well, I am sort of going to make my own out of card board.

 

Also, maybe some of you may find this entertaining, I have a few boxes I have been meaning to recycle and found this one that seems to perfectly match the size of that motherboard. I figured I would turn it into an "open box" case. I cut a few spots for some wires to go and to let the PSU breath as well as set the HDD and threw in some tp rolls to make it stand so it is not sitting on the PSU, then I figured out where that box came from . . . its the (internal) one that came with my current system when I built it three months ago. No wonder it was the perfect size! I hope that Gigabyte does not require it if I have to RMA my motherboard in the future. Shows just how much experience I have building systems. Oh well. Maybe if I paint some red, green and blue flames it will be RGB and go faster at the same time.

[imreloadin]

Honestly you should have just kept the $20.

[Ykcud]

I still have the $20 and only spend $5 on that hardware.

[Razor Blade]

Best of luck with the build. The old socket 775 systems are a good way to get a retro-ish system (windows 9X and XP era) that will run pretty much any 90's and early to mid 2000's game. If you haven't heard of it, check out a youtube channel called "Budget-Builds Official" the guy buys older tech all the time (sometimes doing full builds) for very cheap prices then reviews them.

[Windows7ge]

You could install DOS on a thumb drive and load it with arcade games. Turn it into a overkill DOS box.

[LIENUS SEBASTIAN]

7 hours ago, Ykcud said:

I still have the $20 and only spend $5 on that hardware.

Your system is based on lga 775. And it was a pretty good board back in day.

I'd recommend you to get something like a core2quad q6600. They go around fr about $8-9. Get an old CPU cooler. You can easily find them at hardware recycling stores for pretty cheap.

You can do the tape trick and overclock that CPU beyond 3ghz. 

It was a good find, be happy with it. Add in a decent graphics card like a 750ti and u'll have a good gaming PC .

[Ykcud]

So I added some updates for this build as it is almost complete. I just need to get off of lazy butt and put it together put it together and finish my "case". Sorry for the month late response.

[dgsddfgdfhgs]

can you sell it for $10?

[Ykcud]

Just now, dgsddfgdfhgs said:

can you sell it for $10?

Granted everything works and it is up and running, I am sure I could turn it around for a bit more in my area.

[UncleMax]

In the last two months I've managed to get two "gems" from the local thrift store, one dell t3400 for 20$ and a thrown togeather 771 build minus a power supply for 15$. If your interested i will just give you a e6850.

[Ykcud]

8 hours ago, UncleMax said:

In the last two months I've managed to get two "gems" from the local thrift store, one dell t3400 for 20$ and a thrown togeather 771 build minus a power supply for 15$. If your interested i will just give you a e6850.

While I already have a processor for the build, I am not against getting free usable hardware.

[UncleMax]

I misspoke it is an e8400 but my offer still stands you can have it as long as you use it for something or pass it on to someone who will. So just send me your address and I’ll drop it in the mail