Well, what you already have may not be compatible with what you can now buy.

Keyboard/Mouse would have to be at least PS/2 (5mm round plug), or USB (flat, 1cm wide, 2.5mm high)

Monitor should be OK, it'd be pretty hard not to have got a compatible monitor in the last 5 years. VGA (15 pin plug with a vague "D" shape), or DVI (for flat panel LCD) is fine

Go to the computer markets computer markets or nearest local equivalent.

For BASIC CD authoring, sound processing and normal front-office stuff (WP, spreadsheet etc), probably an AMD Duron would do the job, though personally I'd go the AMD Athlon if you could afford it.

Razor Prices are a great way to find the approximate cost of bits.

This is /way/ off topic for this forum though, so if you want more advice, chat to me over email/ICQ/MSN.

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I'm running! I'm running! I'm running! ... I'm naked!

I'd say you'll get a system that will suit your purpose for about $900...

quote:

Originally posted by Mikrop I'd say you'll get a system that will suit your purpose for about $900...

or alternatively you could get
new case - $90
new motherboard - $150
Pentium 4 Processor - $300 or so
Pissweak "sparkles" graphics card - $99
New Hard Disk - $120
CD - RW - $95

and on top of that if you want to do a lot with audio, get a new Creative Sound Card... not sure how much they roughly cost, but it will be worth it over a pissy on board sound card

all up youre looking at maybe under $1000, and thats from a computer shop and would probably include software etc... if you can get a mate to set it all up you could probably get the equipment from swap meets, but that can be pretty dodgy stuff as i found out with a faulty motherboard and floppy drive... so be wary, and check out www.comtrader.com.au if you want it cheap and without warranty

My recommendations:
Of course you could go and buy parts and build your own computer according to the budged you have but as it sounds you don't look like someone on the know ( no offence) so your best option is to find a local dealer and purchase it from there of course you could go and shop around for best prices.
to give you some ideas i'll write some PC packages that are available in Melbourne...

1-Duron system: AMD Duron 1.2 Ghz, Asus Mb, 256 SDRAM, 40gB HDD etc. $530
2-Intel P4 2.4 Ghz 533Mhz front side bus (FSB), Gigabyte m/b, 40gb hdd, 512 MB DDR RAM, 17" Digital Monitor, 300W poer supply, 52X speed CD Writer, Yamaha Sound (possibly on-board!), KB, Mouse, Juster Speakers, 56K internal Modem $1095
3-Intel P4 2.67 GHz, 512 MB DDR RAM, 80 GB HDD, 64MB graphics card, 19" Flat screen monitor
DVD-RW- Burner K/B, Mouse $1499

Some AMD Athlon-XP systems offer similar capabilities with little less pricing but I'd go with Pentiums. Computers never been this cheap with such performance increase. Its time to buy a new one

Heh...40gig hard-drive!! hahahahahha, i dont think i could ever go back from havin 160+

quote:

Originally posted by Pointy Heh...40gig hard-drive!! hahahahahha, i dont think i could ever go back from havin 160+

So true, but don't put all your eggs in the same basket! It's better having multiple HDD's (I do have 4, 40 Gig each) If one fails and its unrecoverable u don't loose everything!!!

Well I've chucked all my eggs in half the basket needed to hold em 2x80gig Seagates, under a RAID 0 config. So I got double the chance of losing all my data

get a decent video card if your going to get a fast processor, otherwise you'll find that it lags quite a bit if you get a shitty arsed video card...and oh yeah get ddr ram instead of sdram, sdram is more getting more expensive due to less supply and demand for it, plus ddr ram is better quality and faster

yea good time to buy a computer now due to nice exchange rate of aussie dollar

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Down under is great, oh so is Australia

If you want to do alot of audio stuff, then get as grunty a cpu as possible. Stay away from durons or celerons, they just dont have enough grunt. As it was also stated, get DDR Ram. Here is a system spec rundown with approximate prices:

CPU:AMD Athlon XP 2500+ w/Barton Core oem cooler - $180

Mobo: ASUS A7V8X VIA KT400, AGP8X ATA133 w/10/100 Lan, S-ATA & IEEE1394 - $180

Memory: Kingmax 512MB PC3200 Double Data Rate(DDR) RAM CAS-2.5-400MHz Rated - $155 *dont scrimp and buy cheap ram, remember you get what you pay for!*

Video: Leadtek A180T Geforce 4 MX440-8XAGP-8X 64MB DDR w/TV - $115

HDD: Seagate Barracuda VI 120.0GBHDD IDE, 8MB Cache, 8.9ms, 7200rpm , ATA-100, w/ G-Force Protection - $266

Sound: Creative SoundBlaster Audigy Digital Entertainment Special Edition support DVD Audio, Dolby Digital EX 6.1, THX THX-Certified ( No Games bundled ) - $140

Total: $1036.

But if you can build it yourself and dont know anyone that will do it for a bottle of something you may need to include a buliding fee. Ranges depending on where you go. These prices are from perth so it maybe different depending on your location. They are wholesale + gst + 10% markup. Im pretty sure 10-15% is average on hardware. Anway, $1000 should get you a nice beefy machine. That sort of system will hold all your mp3's and run your photoshop and your MS word at the same time no worries

Hope it helps.

wow, cheers for the advice everyone, it's appreciated as I really know sfa about this kind of stuff. I'll probably bump it up when I get some packages for you guys to analyse.

Some people are saying to steer away from Soundblaster sound cards? any opinion's on this?

They aren't too bad, but I'd go the SB Audigy 2 Platinum with the Live Drive thing. A mate picked one up about a week ago at a computer fair for $350, though they probably retail for $400ish. They have front panel connectivity for most stuff. Razor prices is pretty good for price comparisons if you know what you're looking for. I'd suggest finding out which of your mates is the techno-geek dude (maybe ya little / older bro's gaming friends ...), and getting them to take you along to the computer fair with a list of things to buy.

My suggestions would be:
CPU: AMD Athlon > 1800+ (these drop in price all the time, so if you're on a budget go cheap and buy a better one later, just make sure you get a decent mobo that supports higher rated chips)
Ram: 512Mb DDR (leet's advice is spot on here, though if you can find / afford corsair RAM go for it)
Hard disk: these are cheap, so get as large as you can afford. Recent prices of around $200 for 120Gb @ comp fair.
Mobo: I don't know enough about the current breed of mobos, but see advice above, get one that is future proof, and supports more than what you want to put in it today.
Case: get one that is easy to work in, rather than one that looks swanky (hopefully these can be combined)

If you let us know your budget, we can work out exactly what you will be able to get

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"Against stupidity the very Gods themselves contend in vain" -- Friedrich von Schiller