building

[BobSeager]

I was going to build a captastic, low-power consuming desktop for ubuntu but even when I add up the cost of the cheapest components, I could still just go to Best Buy and get something better for less....and these include the OS expenses...what gives?

$37 Sempron all the way, $45 mobo, $30 opt drive, $10 internal card reader bay, $40 case & power supply, $20 ram...scrounge a HD. I mean that sucks but it'd be fine for ubuntu. Then I go to 'Computer site USA' websites for shits n giggles and they've got dual core processor systems w/monitors and printers for $300

And the 'egg wants $30 s/h...

It's not like the good old days when building and oc'ing could save you tons and tons. Although, you could save a lot if you were building a massive rig...as for some reason those are rediculously overpriced at places like best buy when you do simple math on the components being used.

[CoFree]

cheap labor man

that all there is to that.

[Sesshomaru]

It's true that OEM PC's are getting pretty good for cheap, but if you want a system that is highly OCable, customizable, and future proof, you still have to build it yourself.

[BobSeager]

UPDATE: Ok so I figured another route to go, total cost estimated ~ $125

The build will essentially be a mobo, cpu and power supply/case...thats it. The OS will be combined with the hdd via a 4gb flash drive. I've used it before and it runs remarkably stable booting and using Ubuntu off of a memory stick. So now it's a mobile, keychain-computer with drive encryption in case I lose it.

What's pretty sweet is that when I boot off the stick, all my other HDDs on my big ass computer show up and are navigable, video streams at appropriate speeds w/sound synched fine. Plus the OS comes pre-installed with office/gimp and firefox (vlc through a quick install)...i mean really, what more is there?

I COULD theoretically use a pico-itx mobo and use it as a macbook air, all i would need is to buy a proprietary optical drive to lug around

I love these pico boards, they're just considerably pricier than micro atx
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[CoFree]

yea man
that sounds cool