Recently I managed to build a diskless PC for a mere $159 and I could have did it for less if I was not so picky about components. This budget PC consist of a AMD sempron 140 cpu, Biostar A785GE motherboard, OCZ 2GB of ram, Rosewill tower with a 350 watt PSU and Rosewill card reader. What makes this deal so special is the sempron cpu. The sempron 140 cpu can be unlocked to a dual-core cpu with the right motherboard. In my case the right motherboard(Biostar A785GE) was bundled with the sempron cpu. This bundled deal can be frequently found at newegg.com for around $70.
Breakdown of components
1. Biostar A785GE Motherboard - Price: Bundled with cpu and case for $99.97 + $9.99 shipping
The biostar A785GE had the best specs I could get on a motherboard with a bundle cpu deal at newegg for under $100. The case was just a bonus. What sold me on this motherboard was it's ability to play HD video and DVI port. The downsides of this motherboard are it's lack of HDMI port and only 6 audio channels.
2. Sempron 140 CPU - Price: Bundled with motherboard and case for $99.97 + $9.99 shipping
Currently the cheapest CPU on the market at around $33 and it has a lot of power. With the right motherboard and bios update, this sempron 140 single core cpu can be unlocked to a dual-core cpu. It shows up as an X2 4400E in the bios.
3. OCZ 2GB RAM 5400 667MHz - Price: $38.99 + $1.99 shipping
Worked for around 8 days, then had serious problems. Ram stick caused problems with onboard video and segmentation faults with software. Will have to RMA.
4. Rosewill Case / 350 Watt PSU - Price: Bundled with motherboard and cpu for $99.97 + $9.99 shipping
Not very fond of the large tower cases, but it was part of a bundled cpu and motherboard deal, so I really can't argue about it's size. This large case gave me an opportunity to use a ATSC tuner card I had laying around that would not fit in my low profile HTPC case.
5. Rosewill 40 in 1 card reader - Price $7.99
Really didn't need this component, but got it just in case I came across a cheap memory card that I could use for storage.
What about the hard drive and optical drive?
Choosing not to buy a hard drive and optical drive saved me at least $70. Because there is no hard drive or optical drive I am left with only three options for booting a operating system. The three options include booting from flash memory, booting from my old external hard drive or net booting over the Ethernet port. Booting from the Ethernet port is the best and preferred method, but is also the hardest.
In Part 2, I will follow up on how this budget PC performed and what method I chose to boot the operating system.
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