over u$s250? it is expensive man...

Living wrote:

over u$s250? it is expensive man...

Then fine cut out the case and build one out of pizza boxes... Can cut out the floppy emulator and fdd cable.

Umm I built k6-3 by buying locally but costs where

Epox mv3c2 $15
K6-3+ 450 $15
Voodoo Banshee $13
2x128mb pc-133 $10
Serial header $3
SoundBlaster AWE64 $10
10gb HD $5
Atx case $5
Psu with -5v 450W $15
Optical $5

$96 total spent

You just need to dig through parts bins

nforce4max wrote:

This thread is to show people that building a decent system doesn't have to be expensive or contain exotic and rare parts on a r […]
Show full quote

This thread is to show people that building a decent system doesn't have to be expensive or contain exotic and rare parts on a restricted budget.

Board, cpu, and ram is limited to $60
Case and power supply with -5 rail for isa is $120 (shipping costs anything left over may supplement other things)
Graphics card is limited to $30
ISA sound cards are limited to $50
PCI sound cards are limited to $25
Storage is limited to $30
CD/DVD is limited to $30

No exotic parts that are only available in some parts of the world but not others or have wildly different prices such was wave table upgrades or any external midi such as a Roland MT-32 ect.

Rules are simple must post a eBay link to the parts and if not for a full build may post links to parts so that others can see and why you posted them.

...................................................................................................................................................................................................................

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Artec-DHM-G48-16x-IDE … UMAAOSwAvJW-BsX $10

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Iwill-KK266-plus-Moth … TYAAOSwNuxXXyXs $24

http://www.ebay.com/itm/512MB-PC133-SDRAM-DIM … gzz4k-KLASzQBjg $6.50

http://www.ebay.com/itm/PNY-nVidia-GeForce4-T … l0AAOSwOVpXTxwN $20

http://www.ebay.com/itm/DELL-P5333-HARD-DRIVE … pwAAMXQKLdRza6C $28

http://www.ebay.com/itm/YAMAHA-ISA-LABWAY-SOU … 7cAAOSwWntXMlC5 $17

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ASUS-18-IDE-HDD-Hard- … 6o8AAOSwJMhXDYr~ $9

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Enermax-EG365P-VE-PC- … VQAAOSwubRXMNmt $23

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rise-ATX-Full-Tower-G … nEAAOSwkZhWTd4Q $90

http://www.ebay.com/itm/SFR1M44-U100K-Black-3 … mQAAOSwG-1WyYSS $24

http://www.ebay.com/itm/IDE-FDD-34-Pin-FDD-Fl … foAAOSwtJZXU-jG $6

That is the hardware as for the software people get creative about that.

Yeah honestly, these prices are what you would pay if you are buying from eBay sellers who cater to selling to collectors/retrogames looking for these specific pieces of hardware. Building a system from scratch like this would be the most expensive way to do it. Your best off finding whole towers locally you can get for cheap and then just filling in the gaps from eBay as you need.

Rhuwyn wrote:

nforce4max wrote:

This thread is to show people that building a decent system doesn't have to be expensive or contain exotic and rare parts on a r […]
Show full quote

This thread is to show people that building a decent system doesn't have to be expensive or contain exotic and rare parts on a restricted budget.

Board, cpu, and ram is limited to $60
Case and power supply with -5 rail for isa is $120 (shipping costs anything left over may supplement other things)
Graphics card is limited to $30
ISA sound cards are limited to $50
PCI sound cards are limited to $25
Storage is limited to $30
CD/DVD is limited to $30

No exotic parts that are only available in some parts of the world but not others or have wildly different prices such was wave table upgrades or any external midi such as a Roland MT-32 ect.

Rules are simple must post a eBay link to the parts and if not for a full build may post links to parts so that others can see and why you posted them.

...................................................................................................................................................................................................................

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Artec-DHM-G48-16x-IDE … UMAAOSwAvJW-BsX $10

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Iwill-KK266-plus-Moth … TYAAOSwNuxXXyXs $24

http://www.ebay.com/itm/512MB-PC133-SDRAM-DIM … gzz4k-KLASzQBjg $6.50

http://www.ebay.com/itm/PNY-nVidia-GeForce4-T … l0AAOSwOVpXTxwN $20

http://www.ebay.com/itm/DELL-P5333-HARD-DRIVE … pwAAMXQKLdRza6C $28

http://www.ebay.com/itm/YAMAHA-ISA-LABWAY-SOU … 7cAAOSwWntXMlC5 $17

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ASUS-18-IDE-HDD-Hard- … 6o8AAOSwJMhXDYr~ $9

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Enermax-EG365P-VE-PC- … VQAAOSwubRXMNmt $23

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rise-ATX-Full-Tower-G … nEAAOSwkZhWTd4Q $90

http://www.ebay.com/itm/SFR1M44-U100K-Black-3 … mQAAOSwG-1WyYSS $24

http://www.ebay.com/itm/IDE-FDD-34-Pin-FDD-Fl … foAAOSwtJZXU-jG $6

That is the hardware as for the software people get creative about that.

Yeah honestly, these prices are what you would pay if you are buying from eBay sellers who cater to selling to collectors/retrogames looking for these specific pieces of hardware. Building a system from scratch like this would be the most expensive way to do it. Your best off finding whole towers locally you can get for cheap and then just filling in the gaps from eBay as you need.

Could you justify what some here spend on sound cards alone, some here got systems with multiple sounds cards that would easily be worth over $500 together with some builds pushing $1000. Local sources have dried up because of Goodwill being the black hole that it is. The stuff that has gone through their doors off to the metal scrap out of just one store over the years, talking several million dollars worth of hardware over a decade much of it would be worth a good bit of money now days. They even scraped a working DNA sequencing machine that could have easily got them between $5,000 and $10,000.

Would be lucky to find the worst oem pentium 4s let alone anything worthy of restoring.

The most I have spent on a complete retro rig with all bell and whistles was 4000 RUR. That's $62, I can never justify these prices...

Upd:
Here's my 5x86. Parts sourced mainly from Russia (I wouldn't call this locally, our country is very big)

Acer AP43 $7.64
Am5x86 $0
2x32MB FPM $9.17
Matrox Mystique $2.29
Terratec Gold 16/96 $4.58
AWE32 $6.11
Transcend 1GB DOM $3.06
XR385 $0 (Rob, thank you once again)

Case $0
CD-ROM $0
FDD $0
Zip100ATAPI $0
BusMaster $1.53
Titan TTC-004 (slot cooler) $4.58
40x40 CPU cooler $2

Mouse $0
Keyboard $0
Monitor $0

Spray paint $7.98
Covox $0.38
Cable coating $1.62

I think the most I've paid for a retro rig within the last few years was about $50 total for my 486DX-33 off of eBay. Not exactly a scratch build, but still... I later stuck in an SB Pro 2 (free - dump find), a Cirrus Logic GD5429 1MB ISA VGA card (eBay purchase from well before I acquired that system, can't remember how much I paid), a 540MB Western Digital HDD (ditto), a 1.2MB 5.25" FDD (something I found in a closet in my house one day), and upgraded the RAM to 16MB that I had laying around unused. I've considered doing scratch builds from time to time, but, considering I live in an area where parts aren't that easy to source locally (rural Tennessee in case you're wondering - and I mean rural), eBay prices are restrictive, and my closest Goodwill is a non-starter most of the time*, those thoughts die quickly.

*I actually have found a couple of interesting computing-related items at my local Goodwill, such as a Q6600-based Gateway system for all of $17.99! It needed a new PSU, some RAM, and an HDD, and it was set. This wound up becoming my dad's main system! Only other (actually retro this time) computer related thing I've found was a 386 motherboard and some parts stuck in a box. However, I didn't take a chance on it because the battery had already leaked most of its substance onto the board, and I didn't want to spend... however much they were wanting for the whole lot just to turn around and find that motherboard dead.

EDIT: Just remembered my Pentium 133-based system a.k.a. "Oleander", which is probably the closest I've come to a scratch build. Only thing I really paid money for was the case, I think about $40 total off of eBay, all other parts I used in that build were either dump finds or stuff I had laying around prior.

I got all my DOS / 9x stuff years ago.

These days prices are very extreme. I think I would just go for a ready-to-go system, likely an OEM machine that is easily overlooked. Then just add the sound cards.

Finding all the nice parts these days can be quite costly or you got to wait for a good price.

PhilsComputerLab wrote:

I got all my DOS / 9x stuff years ago.

These days prices are very extreme. I think I would just go for a ready-to-go system, likely an OEM machine that is easily overlooked. Then just add the sound cards.

Finding all the nice parts these days can be quite costly or you got to wait for a good price.

That is what a lot of people here just don't get hardware cost money these days rather than having it good like it was in the last decade where there was no problem finding 486 and pentium era hardware for almost nothing. I miss the days when one can get super 7 systems out of dumpsters on a almost regular bases and that no one payed too much attention to thrift shops before Goodwill sucked it all up by the ton. Before they shutdown their computer works store in my town I would see people bring in everything from 386 era hardware on up on a almost daily bases including stuff from the 80s even Amiga which would get scraped then sent off to the smelter. At least I managed to save what little I could, even bagged a IBM socket 4 system for $5 before a customer brought it in.

Craigslist went dry almost two years ago except for the occasional boomer or older gen x wanting $500 for a commodore 64 ect. Two colleges, a university (a rich one), and several other things have already been cleaned out 😢

Also there is a lot competition in my area.

Oh yeah, I remember a decade ago you could find Pentiums, 486s, K6-2s etc. pretty easily at the dump. At least, my local dump, usually every other week or so. Managed to snag a lot of stuff from my local dumps over the years - some Pentiums including a socket 4 Packard Bell, a 386 on at least one occasion (that Gateway 2000 386 system I've talked about in a few other posts here), even a PS/2 model 30 and a complete Apple IIgs! I think it's safe to say that the supply of retro goodies has largely dried up in my area by this point... Nowadays, it's just P4s, P4s, and more P4s, most of which aren't even worth saving IMO. Heck, more often than not by this point, I find absolutely nothing of interest at the dump.

I guess it's a combination of the supply drying up and people realizing that "hey, I can actually get money off of this <insert retro rig here>!".

Sutekh94 wrote:

Oh yeah, I remember a decade ago you could find Pentiums, 486s, K6-2s etc. pretty easily at the dump. At least, my local dump, usually every other week or so. Managed to snag a lot of stuff from my local dumps over the years - some Pentiums including a socket 4 Packard Bell, a 386 on at least one occasion (that Gateway 2000 386 system I've talked about in a few other posts here), even a PS/2 model 30 and a complete Apple IIgs! I think it's safe to say that the supply of retro goodies has largely dried up in my area by this point... Nowadays, it's just P4s, P4s, and more P4s, most of which aren't even worth saving IMO. Heck, more often than not by this point, I find absolutely nothing of interest at the dump.

I guess it's a combination of the supply drying up and people realizing that "hey, I can actually get money off of this <insert retro rig here>!".

aint that the truth, a local person near me had a Pentium 1 100 based system with 32mb of ram and a Texas Instruments 1mb VGA. They where asking 400 for it because it was retro and thus cool. Not sure if anyone ever bought it, but it stopped showing up on Craiglist after 6 months.

My most recent build.

Ausu cux4x 30$
512mb ram 7$
savage 4 video card 3$
via 1200mhz c3 and heat sink 10$
case+psu+fans 60$
isa yamaha opl2 sound card 5$
HDD 25$
cd drive 10$
LS-120 drive 18$
Keyboard 45$
Mouse 5$
CRT Free

That brings me to a grand toddle off about 150$ And this is one of my more pricy systems believe it or not.

However I have been upgrading it, I got a better psu 25$ and a savage 2k 25$

Jade Falcon wrote:

My most recent build. […]
Show full quote

My most recent build.

Ausu cux4x 30$
512mb ram 7$
savage 4 video card 3$
via 1200mhz c3 and heat sink 10$
case+psu+fans 60$
isa yamaha opl2 sound card 5$
HDD 25$
cd drive 10$
LS-120 drive 18$
Keyboard 45$
Mouse 5$
CRT Free

That brings me to a grand toddle off about 150$ And this is one of my more pricy systems believe it or not.

However I have been upgrading it, I got a better psu 25$ and a savage 2k 25$

Once again low prices of a thing of the past and many can no longer depend on local sources as they have dried up but not nice build anyway.

*shrugs* maybe your just really unlucky or live in a rural area but in the past decade I've lived in both Pittsburgh area and Phoenix area and I consistently can find parts and systems locally for next to nothing. Yhea your right about morons trying to sell C64 's for $500 and Goodwill sucking but I find stuff every month on Craigslist, Offerup and lots of parts at Goodwill.

there are thrifts other then goodwill as well that are good sources and swap meets. In the past month alone I've found several AT socket 7 machines, 486/386 working motherboards, various sound/video cards an Amiga 1000 and a Coleco Adam for very low prices. I can see paying $100 or more for a specific setup you have your heart set on, I've done it before but paying $200 for a "generic" setup seems crazy to me.

soviet conscript wrote:

*shrugs* maybe your just really unlucky or live in a rural area but in the past decade I've lived in both Pittsburgh area and Phoenix area and I consistently can find parts and systems locally for next to nothing. Yhea your right about morons trying to sell C64 's for $500 and Goodwill sucking but I find stuff every month on Craigslist, Offerup and lots of parts at Goodwill.

there are thrifts other then goodwill as well that are good sources and swap meets. In the past month alone I've found several AT socket 7 machines, 486/386 working motherboards, various sound/video cards an Amiga 1000 and a Coleco Adam for very low prices. I can see paying $100 or more for a specific setup you have your heart set on, I've done it before but paying $200 for a "generic" setup seems crazy to me.

You just don't get it all there are areas that are nothing more than dead zones and this does include small cities, to get "local" deals now I would have to drive down to Austin or Dallas for a maybe. Goodwill sucked up everything as people were getting a small tax incentive for "donations" when they dropped off machines. Craigslist went dry and the yard sales nobody has anything.

Those outside the US get what I am saying about dead zones where there is nothing left.

$250 is what resellers ask for custom built retro rigs and they do it for profit, therefore it's too high. You can definitely find all bunch of cheaper parts if you are patient.
I just saw this system a week ago, but had no need for it and is already sold. Anyway here it is
http://www.ebay.com/itm/ASUS-CUSL2-MOTHERBOAR … cvip=true&rt=nc

This seller has all bunch of old computers for reasonable prices.

If you're patient, vigilant, and plan your attack, it is cheaper to build a legacy PC nowadays. Many of my systems with semi-exotic parts were procured when those items were still somewhat current. As such, they were expensive and I used nice cases, PSUs, etc. I also had Chris at BadCaps.net rebuild the motherboards on them. Add in AWE64 Gold cards, Voodoo 5 cards, Voodoo 2 cards, etc, and these systems start costing many hundreds of dollars.

One of my favorite, best, and most stable legacy PCs is also the cheapest one I've ever built:

Dell Dimension 4100 - $10, craigslist
-----384mb PC133 RAM
-----20gb HDD
-----CDRW - Sony
-----DVD-ROM - Samsung
-----NetGear FA311v2 PCI Ethernet NIC
USB 2.0 NEC PCI Card - $6 ebay
SBLive CT4620 - $6 ebay
P3 Coppermine 1000 - $5 ebay
Front USB Port - $5 ebay
Fan Controller & Fan (For Voodoo 3) - $6
Voodoo 3 3500 AGP non-TV - $22 ebay
Misc Parts - $10
Total - $70

... and this PC kicks! It is fast, stable, has excellent SB16 emulation, SBLive EAX support, hardware GLIDE support, and runs cool and quiet while using less power than an Athlon. Very nice!

I'll admit that it took some time, patiently watching craigslist in a huge metropolitan area (Chicago) to find this system. It can be challenging to find a nice P3 system for really cheap. However, P4 systems are still plentiful and work just as well with Win98SE. You just need to plan on using a stronger PSU and better cooling. In the end, a P4 system may be cheaper overall since you probably won't need to add in a USB 2.0 card, NIC, or front USB ports.

With the P4 system, you can also get better D3D performance while reducing costs by going with a GF4 ($15) and using a wrapper for GLIDE. You don't even need a super powerful P4; about 1.7ghz or faster is sufficient.

Anyways, this hobby can still be enjoyed with very little cash if you're willing to do your homework and shop carefully.

nforce4max wrote:

soviet conscript wrote:

*shrugs* maybe your just really unlucky or live in a rural area but in the past decade I've lived in both Pittsburgh area and Phoenix area and I consistently can find parts and systems locally for next to nothing. Yhea your right about morons trying to sell C64 's for $500 and Goodwill sucking but I find stuff every month on Craigslist, Offerup and lots of parts at Goodwill.

there are thrifts other then goodwill as well that are good sources and swap meets. In the past month alone I've found several AT socket 7 machines, 486/386 working motherboards, various sound/video cards an Amiga 1000 and a Coleco Adam for very low prices. I can see paying $100 or more for a specific setup you have your heart set on, I've done it before but paying $200 for a "generic" setup seems crazy to me.

You just don't get it all there are areas that are nothing more than dead zones and this does include small cities, to get "local" deals now I would have to drive down to Austin or Dallas for a maybe. Goodwill sucked up everything as people were getting a small tax incentive for "donations" when they dropped off machines. Craigslist went dry and the yard sales nobody has anything.

Those outside the US get what I am saying about dead zones where there is nothing left.

obviously if you live in the middle of nowhere or a place where the population density is pretty low its going to be hard but still. When I did live in Pittsburgh area, I was well outside the city and its still not exactly a huge city but I still found stuff. It takes a lot of searching and asking around. I'm not denying dead zones exist but I'm still not sure someone would need to spend that much. there's also forums where people tend to sell machines and parts for far cheaper then eBay. I guess I live in the land of milk and honey over here.....

I can see spending $250 or more, but at this price range I'm picky about each particular part and get exactly what I want. Rushing a build costs a lot more money.