Cheap pentium 4 ubuntu based computer build?

Question

hey, I'm looking to build a cheap ubuntu based computer. I have lots of left over cases from previous builds I'm not familiar to the older parts.I don't mind ordering separate parts off ebay. Will someone help?

Answer 1

What parts do you have?

Finding legacy parts is going to be pricey.

If you're starting with an empty case, you're going to get away a lot cheaper building something more recent than a Pentium 4. You're better off buying something that is actually running or may need some TLC from e-bay or craigs list.



I could put together a spare tower with spare drives/cables and video card that is a 2+ GHz dual core and 2 GB of RAM for under $200. If your budget is under that... Well, I found a Pentium 4 tower complete on the side of the road one day. Booted into safe mode and the drive was 100%.



Edit:

malachi, I gave a few options that are probably much cheaper than 2 GB of DDR 400 new. And the e-bay market can also be a pain...especially since it's so easy to get burned. Maybe you're too good to stop on the side of the road and pick up a tower for parts? I also forgot to mention that one of my twin 19" CRTs was $5 at a garage sale and one of my hard drives I picked up for $4 at a salvation army (it was still sealed in it's anti-static). Point is that I wouldn't trust e-bay for picking up such older components and with shipping, it's not worth it in my opinion if you can deal with someone locally. Or get your parts for free...



If you weren't talking about me (not sure how you couldn't with two other answers and you using the plural...) then I apologize.



Edit 2:

You could always put an ad on Craigs List that you will pick up and recycle old computers for free and remove it (the ad) after a couple of leads. Then go pick up the computers, strip them and recycle what you don't want to keep (I'm not advocating fraud here to save a couple of $$). If you don't get everything you need, put the ad back up...



PS if you're going to be looking at older motherboards, I recommend you visit this site:

http://www.badcaps.org

That site saved my socket 939 motherboard... Which is good since I have 2 processors and it's an obsolete model with no comparable replacement. I was able to successfully replace the capacitors on my motherboard and it's been running great for over a year now, even through some overclocking fun...



_

Answer 2

Hi there,



My suggestion would be to buy a barebones kit like the one below.



It has built-in video and sound plus 10/100 mbps ethernet.



There are PCI X-16, PCI X-1 and PCI slots so you can add a graphics card later if you wish.



Included is:

Case 300 watt power supply 4 Gigabyte RAM Asus motherboard and a Intel Pentium Dual Core E5300 processor with fan and heatsink.



You will only need to add the hard drive, optical drive, keyboard, mouse monitor to have a working computer.



Using the old parts will be an exercise in frustration trying to make the parts fit and totally not worth the trouble.



I would recommet Linux Mint for your operating system ( it's based upon Ubuntu and has all the same apps) but in my opinion has a nicer desktop and included program lineup. However Ubuntu would work also.



Hope this helps,

Al

Answer 3

Yeah I will help. Never mind these guy's and their big budgets. what parts do you already have? all you need for the internals is

Mobo,

Processor,

RAM,

Hard Drive,

Optical (either CD or DVD,

Sound (if no onboard)

Video (again if no onboard)

Nic (again if no onboard or you want to go wireless)



Thats it oh and powersupply. There you go. You now have something that Linux will just eat up. These fanboi's are really not any different than window fanboi's. So here you spend all this money for more parts than you want or need in the first part for what? Bragging rights? I like my bragging rights better ;) The fact that I have mass effect 2 running on an installation of Puppy with an old pentium 4 and an HD2600 pro video card and only 2 gigs of Ram :) Or the fact I have some old optiplex 260's in the bedrooms running XBMC for streaming music and video through out my house :) It all really just depends on what you are doing with the systems. since ou say yo don't know much about older parts makes me think you are wanting to teach yourself linux and a few other things anyway.....happy 'nixing.

Answer 4

My Computer started off life as an ex-corporate IBM Netvista Desktop PC purchased from ebay

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/IBM-NETVISTA-8305-2EG-P4-2-0GHz-DESKTOP-COMPUTER_W0QQitemZ130369051457QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Computing_DesktopPCs?hash=item1e5a99db41



Aside from a 2.4ghz Pentium 4 CPU the original Specs. were



256mb RAM

Onboard Intel Graphics

CD ROM

20gb Hard Drive

Windows XP Pro.



Current specs. after various upgrades are



2gb RAM

256mb GeForce 6200

DVD±RW Writer

2x160gb + 1x80gb Hard Drives

Tower casing

Linux Mint 7

Linux Mint 8

Windows 7 Pro.





LUg.

Answer 5

Geeks.com has a prebuilt $75 server blade running Ubuntu. Connect a mouse and keyboard, along with a monitor, and you have a full working computer for under what your wanted to spend.

Answer 6

You should buy a used desktop then add a cheap $30 graphics card.