Short-Media challenged our enthusiasts to dream up the cheapest PC around and one that only Howard Hughes would own. They did just that and told us, in their words, what they did to get there.
In case anyone misses it, here's the 92" beast in all her $18,000 USD glory:
Great article MediaMan! I'm a little suprised that only a few people submitted though.
Seems like both high-end systems (Geeky's and mine) are similarly configured... well.... minus a few of the external SCSI enclosures
Cue 2001: A Space Odyssey music. The world is about to witness the dawn of surround video displays. The L-Technologies Grand Canyon 92” Digital LCD is a remarkable piece of technology that has been designed for one sole purpose: to provide the computer enthusiast with as much viewable desktop space as possible in the lightest form factor possible. With the coupling of 4 23” LCDs and the integration of a proprietary quad DVI-I cross-bar video input controller, this behemoth of a display gives the user the ability to see up to 4 full-size, maximized windows at one time. Powered by the PNY Quadro4 NVS 400, this display can have 4 independent desktops running at any one time, or give the NView software a click and you can stretch your favorite movie across this technological wonder. With a 1600x1200 native resolution on each LCD panel (a combined resolution of 6400x1200) and a response time of 13ms, the Grand Canyon will completely change the way you work with your PC. At a price of $17,499.99 and a weight of 108 lbs, this display device is only for the computing elite that desire to reach the summit of PC perfection.
buck, it depends on what you mean by 'computer'. Do you mean the concept, including analog math machines that were programable, or do you just mean digital computers? Mechanical digitals or electronic digitals? Only solid state? http://www.computerhistory.org/ and http://lecture.eingang.org/ are decent sources.
I love the reveiw MM. I didn't submit because I could easily get to ~$800, but getting lower required me to make decisions that I couldn't support. At least now I have input on this from some other people. I have already started building.
I'd like to see those three nice budget systems put head-to-head in a little benchmarking competition...
Sever: are all your prices from Newegg? I've been looking at my options for 2.1 channel speakers, and those altec lansings look GOOD!
SimGuy and Geeky: I am absolutely floored at what you guys put in your systems. Get 'em built and get 'em folding!!! Of course, the performance equivalent to those systems will cost about what our budget systems run, in 10 years...
//edit: Thanks, TheBaron! I was programmed from a very young age to hunt those bargains!
Although, the total in the article is a little low, because these are before-shipping prices. And no case fans (or useless floppy drive) are included in the price. And the CPU should be $6 more because I put in the Retail version, since I didn't include an HSF otherwise... for the "OC" bit I referred to at the end, I'd of course recommend an SK-7 or better with a 53CFM Mechatronics fan on it... which is exactly what I've got running on my secondary rig, with a 33MHz OC on the FSB, to run at 13x166, for 2.16 GHz (XP2700+ stock speed).
Regardless of how many submitted I think those that did showed they took time to really think this through. None of the submissions were "just the cheapest price they could find".
I want the readers to get into their thinking process rather than just price shopping. So many people have it backwards. They look in the papers and see a price point and ask me if I can build one better and cheaper. They shop by price alone and then end up with something that stinks.
Prices change but I follow the rule "give a person a fish and they'll eat for a day...teach them to fish and they'll eat for life".
That's what should be taken out of this article and submissions.
I want to thank all the contributors for putting so much effort into their submissions. I was really pleased by how much effort went into each.
Comments
In case anyone misses it, here's the 92" beast in all her $18,000 USD glory:
Great article MediaMan! I'm a little suprised that only a few people submitted though.
Seems like both high-end systems (Geeky's and mine) are similarly configured... well.... minus a few of the external SCSI enclosures
Cue 2001: A Space Odyssey music. The world is about to witness the dawn of surround video displays. The L-Technologies Grand Canyon 92” Digital LCD is a remarkable piece of technology that has been designed for one sole purpose: to provide the computer enthusiast with as much viewable desktop space as possible in the lightest form factor possible. With the coupling of 4 23” LCDs and the integration of a proprietary quad DVI-I cross-bar video input controller, this behemoth of a display gives the user the ability to see up to 4 full-size, maximized windows at one time. Powered by the PNY Quadro4 NVS 400, this display can have 4 independent desktops running at any one time, or give the NView software a click and you can stretch your favorite movie across this technological wonder. With a 1600x1200 native resolution on each LCD panel (a combined resolution of 6400x1200) and a response time of 13ms, the Grand Canyon will completely change the way you work with your PC. At a price of $17,499.99 and a weight of 108 lbs, this display device is only for the computing elite that desire to reach the summit of PC perfection.
http://www.computerhistory.org/ and
http://lecture.eingang.org/ are decent sources.
I love the reveiw MM. I didn't submit because I could easily get to ~$800, but getting lower required me to make decisions that I couldn't support. At least now I have input on this from some other people. I have already started building.
I'd like to see those three nice budget systems put head-to-head in a little benchmarking competition...
Sever: are all your prices from Newegg? I've been looking at my options for 2.1 channel speakers, and those altec lansings look GOOD!
SimGuy and Geeky: I am absolutely floored at what you guys put in your systems. Get 'em built and get 'em folding!!! Of course, the performance equivalent to those systems will cost about what our budget systems run, in 10 years...
//edit: Thanks, TheBaron! I was programmed from a very young age to hunt those bargains!
Although, the total in the article is a little low, because these are before-shipping prices. And no case fans (or useless floppy drive) are included in the price.
Great article. The budget PCs were great reading. It tells me how long its been since I've seriously looked at building/buying a new PC.
I want the readers to get into their thinking process rather than just price shopping. So many people have it backwards. They look in the papers and see a price point and ask me if I can build one better and cheaper. They shop by price alone and then end up with something that stinks.
Prices change but I follow the rule "give a person a fish and they'll eat for a day...teach them to fish and they'll eat for life".
That's what should be taken out of this article and submissions.
I want to thank all the contributors for putting so much effort into their submissions. I was really pleased by how much effort went into each.