Well, I’ve been contemplating getting a second computer to mess around with. Nothing fancy, just something I can install linux on and use to browse the internet on my second monitor while I play Counter-strike:Source on the other. I’ve been meaning to use linux more, and I think a second system would be just the trick. I didn’t want to spend a lot of money, so I turned to my old friend Ebay.

So far, here’s what I’ve got:

C $51.19 Athlon XP 2000+ Palomino AGOGA stepping
C $63.73 MAXTOR 80GB ULTRA ATA 100/133 IDE HARD DRIVE
C $28.91 512mb ECC PC2100 ram INFINEON matched pair
C $38.00 Gigabyte GA7N400 Socket A motherboard.
Current Total: $134.09

My biggest regret is the hard-drive so far. I could have saved about 20 bucks if I had been paying attention. I have a cd-burner that isn’t being used that I’m going to throw in, and an old GForce Ti4200. the board has onboard sound and lan. The only thing I have to get now is a case/psu(Which, oddly enough, will bet the most expensive component).

The funny thing is that the Gigabyte board I got for my “cheapie” computer is better than my main rig’s board (Asus A7N8X). It has 1 more ram-slot, takes SATA.

So now I just have to buy a case/psu and wait for everything to come in the mail. I’m really torn between getting the cheapest case I can find or one that I can use forever that is easy to work inside of.

This post is mirrored on both my wordpress blog and my livejournal blog. The comments aren’t mirrored though, because I’m not that good yet.