Alright, I know I often talked about current cutting-edge technology, which is fun to read, but not to get. It basically left anyone who read it dreaming to buy something they might not ever need.

Yes, there are people who actually don’t need any of those. I’m surprised as well.

Which brings us to the topic, second-hand computing. Please note that I will simplify things throughout this post, so don’t mind about the details.
Apparently, there are a lot of people who only use their computers to do office works, basically as a digital typewriter. Office work is a very light task for modern computers, even for older ones. You don’t need the processing power of a Core 2 Duo processor if all you’re going to do is using Microsoft Word or Excel. So, if you are planning to buy a PC to do a typewriter’s job, you might as well buy a used one.

Note: This will be a long post, so feel free to skip to the last part to see my recommendations.

There are a lot of used PC vendors, so you won’t have any trouble finding one. Finding the right components for your new-ish PC, though, could be a problem.

There are a lot of categorization for modern PCs: Intel desktop platform, AMD desktop platform, Intel server platform, AMD server platform, VIA low-power platform, High-end, mainstream, entry, SLI, Crossfire, AGP, PCI-express, DDR, DDR2, DDR3, GDDR, 64-bit, Superman, Batman, The Dark Knight, Knights of the Old Republic, Meet Dave, You don’t mess with the Zohan, and so on. Wait, I think I went out of line somewhere.

Don’t worry if you don’t understand that last paragraph, it was intended to confuse you.

Anyway, It is not easy picking components for modern PC, and it is even worse in buying second-hand PC. There are a lot of generations to pick, and in every generation there are at least a couple of options. Like I said, confusing.

That’s why I’m writing this post. To confuse you help you sort out the mess.

Let’s start with the processor. There are a lot of types of processors to choose, ranging from the very first Pentium to Pentium 4. To run Windows XP, you need at least a Pentium 2, but it won’t run nicely. You’ll need at least a Pentium 3. Now, There are two kinds of Pentium 3, the ones that comes as a card that plugs into a slot (known as Slot1), and the ones that plugs into a socket (known as Socket 370). Don’t take the slot 1 ones, they’re older technology than the socket 370 ones, and socket 370 processors are not much more expensive than their Slot1 brethren. For example, a 633MHz slot1 processor will cost you IDR 90.000, while a 700MHz socket370 one will set you back IDR 120.000 (price taken from here, you’ll likely to find them actually cheaper). That’s a third more price for less than ten percent clock increase, but since we’re talking low price point here, the percentage difference can be ignored. To make it easy, I’ll just recommend a 933MHz Socket 370 Pentium 3 processor, which can be had for IDR 150.000, it has the same price-per-clockspeed ratio as the 700MHz ones, but is much better. A motherboard to plug it in will cost you around IDR170.000.

Note that I’m not talking about any AMD processor because they’re rather hard to come by, but if you do find any of them, they’re good options to consider. I also don’t talk about Pentium 4 ones, mainly because I don’t have any price information about them.

Next up is the memory, though this is a basic, typewriter PC, I still recommend a least 512 Megabytes of memory. 256 MB should and will run Windows XP and basic office tasks, but 512 MB will make it smoother and more enjoyable. For Pentium 3s, SDRAM is the only way to go. A couple of 256 MB ones will cost you IDR 380.000. I think it might be cheaper if you can find a single 512 MB one, but be careful, not every motherboard will happy receiving 512 MB memory sticks.

Now, for the storage department. There’s a 10GB hard drive on the list for IDR 150.000, but I don’t really recommend them. Buying second-hand hard drives is like gambling. If the drive once belonged to an old lady who use her computer two hours a week, then the drive is in a pretty good condition and should last long. But if the previous owner is a geek who spend his time flogging his drive, either by downloading things or making rips, well, like me, then you’re buying a dying hard drive which will soon die with all your data in it. Therefore, I recommend a brand-new 80GB hard drive which will cost you around IDR 400.000, three times the price, eight times the capacity. I wouldn’t recommend any capacity higher than 80 GB, though they are certainly cheaper per gigabyte. A drive bigger than 32GB might confuse some motherboards, but the chances are slim, so if you are confident that your motherboard will receive it, then go ahead and get a bigger drive. If, you actually encounter a problem, you can limit the capacity of the drive to 32 GB and avoid the problem, and maybe a bios update will fix it.

The same theory applies for optical drives, I’ll recommend at least getting a DVD combo drive, so you can backup your data and use DVD media in your PC. A brand new combo drive costs around IDR 250.000.

We arrived in the graphics department. Frankly, if you only use your PC for office works, you don’t need any separate graphics card. But if you actually wants to play some games, I recommend getting a nice discrete graphics card. you can find an old 64 MB AGP card for around IDR 125.000. If you want something fancier, try finding a Radeon X1050, I remember it performs on par with the old Radeon 9800 series, yet sold around IDR 350.000. The radeon X1050 might be overpowered for this PC, but it is cheap enough to be considered here, and it should be backward compatible with AGP 4x and 2x.

To put everything together, you’ll need a case. This is a matter of taste, really. If you can stand looking at old beige cases, a used one will only cost around IDR 100.000, add a power supply for another IDR 100.000. A cheap new case, however, will cost you around 300.000, complete with a no-brand power supply which should be enough for your low-power PC. It’s your choice now.

A nice package of new keyboard and mouse is sold around IDR 80.000 for a Simbadda to IDR 160.000 for a Logitech. Avoid anything cheaper than 80.000, they’ll make your computing life miserable.

If you need a monitor, a used 15-incher will cost around IDR 400.000, while a 17-incher cost around 480.000. Get the bigger one. And you can find nice new speakers for around 150.000. You can find cheaper ones, but the sound quality is so bad that you’d buy the more expensive one afterward.

To sum it up, or if you’re too lazy to read all of the above, I’ll put the specification here:

  • A socket 370 Motherboard - IDR 170.000
  • A Pentium 3 933MHz - IDR 120.000
  • 512MB of RAM - IDR 380.000
  • 80GB Hard drive - IDR 400.000
  • DVD combo drive - IDR 250.000
  • Radeon X1050 Graphics card - IDR 350.000
  • New Case + PSU - IDR 300.000
  • Keyboard and mouse - IDR 80.000
  • Speaker - IDR 150.000
  • 17″ Monitor - IDR 480.000

    • To a total cost of IDR 2.680.000.

    It might seem expensive, but this PC will do any task you throw at it, and do it well enough, including some light 3D games. Not to mention that it has quite a large storage capacity, so you can keep more data in it.

    Note that there is a PC package that comes for IDR 2.400.000, but it combines the power of P4 with only 256 MB of RAM, not to mention it only has 40GB hard drive, CDROM drive, old 32MB graphics card, and a 15 inch monitor. So my configuration above still wins.

    Well, that’s it for the cheap computer that performs well. You can wake up now.

    EDIT: I did say that this PC is capable of light gaming, but I must emphasize that this is intended to be an office productivity PC, not a gaming one. It should run older games like the first call of duty and Legacy of Kain series nicely (or, of course, Peggle), but if you want to play recent games, you’ll need to cough up some more money.