Some of you may have someone among your friends of family that would like to get some computer equipment for Christmas. So i thought that perhaps the forum could recommend some parts or accessories on the cheap that might be a great gift for someone to receive.
My contributions:
Motherboard: Gigabyte G31M S2L - G31 chipset, can take 4GB of memory total. Has ICH7 sound chipset and is probably one of the best motherboards that i have ever used. It's Micro atx, but still sport most of the things you will ever need, including an integrated VGA and LAN. Seen in the US area for less than $50,-
BIOS options are plentiful. I have sold a few computers with this motherboard, and i still would like more of them.
Cons: Not the newest and will probably be replaced pretty quick down the line, but for a cheap upgrade, this is a winner.
Processor: On the cheap, the Intel Core 2 Duo E5200. 2,5Ghz Dual core processor that will run everything you can throw at it. Will run at 3,4Ghz with stock cooling with just a settings change in the BIOS of my former recommendation. Should be a $70,- purchase in the US area these days. If this is too much, i recommend the E2220 a $50,- processor that is just a little slower than the E5200.
Memory: If you know that someone uses DDR-II, any 2x2 GB kits will make a huge difference. It's almost free as well, being seen for about $30,- in many places. Kingston, Apacer and Geil are some brands that you can trust.
Case: Antec three hundred. An excellent case with great cooling that you can get for about $60,- Perhaps even less around Christmas.
Harddisk: This only depends on your budget. Most brands are good these days so it really depends on your budget. You cannot go wrong with either one. Just make sure the disk has 16MB or more of cache, or buffer memory on it. SATA or IDE? Less than 3 year old computer? Get SATA, older than three years, it's probably a safe bet to go with an IDE disk drive. Western Digital are usually a bit faster, while Samsung is a bit quieter and cooler. Check
www.storagereview.com if you want to check the best offerings out there.
