Just a few final thoughts. see my last post in addition to this..

- I added all the newegg items into my cart to check shipping cost (except the $5 mouse because it's out of stock), and the cheapest shipping was $28.34 to New York. Wouldn't you have to pay some kind of tax as well? So the price is $378.34 + tax, not $350.
- He chose a dvd reader instead of a dvd writer in order to save $3.
- that case includes no fans, and no case fans are budgeted in this build.
- That 80gb harddrive is laughable for any modern PC, especially when considering many games take up 4gb+ each.

Why would you need a different video card if you don't have a HDtv?

It isn't me who is nitpicky.
It is the OP. He even says you should use old parts to make it cheaper! How is this even a challenge? How is this thread worth anyone's time?? I can build a computer that runs fallout3 as well! And I can do it for 0$!!!! I just don't upgrade anything.
This thread is a joke.

To address your questions:
It has no case fans, the processor does not say it is boxed which is what I mean by heatsink. A different card would be needed or a converter cord would be needed, which costs more anyhow. Regardless, there needs to be something extra to watch it on SDTV, irrelevant of how you spin it. And shipping costs for a ps3? really? you want to use that in your argument?

EDIT: @nabraham, either a different video card or converter cables which would be an additional cost.

Look my whole point is that the title says 350$ pc ..yada yada, and it's not. It's more like a 350$ PC for people who really really know what they are doing and have parts lying around, and it's closer to 400$+ for people who have at least built a computer before, less experience than that and you're not really guaranteed a price

omg, what a horrible, outdated psucalc. Try http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

Using that I see:

Feel free to prove that the 420W is still not enough to OC.

The challenge wasn't to find a PC for anyone that is cheaper than a PS3(or <$350) and runs Fallout 3 better. Anyone actually considering getting to meet this challenge themselves is certainly capable of building the PC and installing Linux, and thanks to that can most definetly do so thanks to the OP's suggested hardware. The removal of Windows gives plenty of room for extra cables&fans.

Oh and the CPU does have a heatsink, hence the "boxed." Or are you looking at a different http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?threadid=1267467 than me where it doesn't say 2. Get boxed Intel CPU E5200"

The processor is boxed, click the link he gives. Thus it comes with a heatsink and fan.

Again how is a differenct card needed? Do you even know how video cards work?

feel free to refute my points instead of picking on theprof, lol. i've made 3 replies excluding this one, nobody has responded to any of them.

nabraham tell me how I am going to plug this into my tv. Try to explain it.

@lnkzman
good to know. I dunno what to say, I've had psu's explode on me before when using less than 400watt. Why did you lower the cpu usage? I didn't think about gimping the parts...

1) There are stores or "trade shows" where you can pick up the parts for similar prices to newegg/tigerdirect etc. as well as states which do not include tax. And if you don't have access to one of these, drop Windows and it covers the shipping cost. Also since tax is applied after $400 for a PS3 the challenge is more to meet $350 before tax.

2&4) Those are obviously just cuts made to meet the challenge. Anyone seriously considering building a rig along these lines would most likely splurge for a better optical and hard drive.

3) That is a valid point, but cutting corners elsewhere(OS for example since it's been brought up a number of times) allows room for fans in the budget.

@theprof

That's from the calculater. I even bumped it up to 100% as well as system load, and OCed to 4GHz at 1.35 V and the result is 318W. Your exploding PSU's would definitely depend on the brand of the PSU as well as the parts in your rig. What do you mean by gimping parts?

This is going to be my final post in this joke thread because I am tired of reiterating myself to a hundered different people
I am goin by standards in this final assessment because I think that once you start talking about using old pc parts and linux then you aren

This is going to be my final post in this joke thread because I am tired of reiterating myself to a hundered different people
I am goin by standards in this final assessment because I think that once you start talking about using old pc parts and linux then you aren't really talking about a pc anymore you're talking about a frankenstein slapped together.

Also, because this OP doesn't ever mention any PS3 price comparison, I will leave it to you to understand that tax and shipping will be included as we are not comparing the price to the ps3 but rather we are comparing it to the original deal of 350$.

Yes we can argue all day about where to trim costs, but we need to at least set some kind of standard. I will allow 50$ of reused parts:

Rig-50$ 300$

At least 2 case fans 10$
At least a legitimate copy of xp (we will use the ebay one, as a concession to you) 0$
At least a cable to go to the tv 5$
Shipping 30$
Tax @ an average of 7% 22$

total cost: 367

If we do not make the concessions of a resold windows and used parts then we are looking at a price more in the range of:

rig 350

plus fans and cable 15$
plus actual windows (+20$ or so on top of the ebay price)
shipping 30$
tax 27$

rig=442

Yes he beat 500$ in both scenarios, but did not beat 350$.