Lesson 21: The Grand Total

Grand Total:

Here's the total for our entire build:

Our total before S&H: $430.14

I went ahead and calculated shipping and handling for UPS Guaranteed 3 Day Service

Total S&H: $32.54

Grand Total: $462.68

Our budget was set at $500 so we did extremely well! We could add another 1GB ram and upgrade to a larger hard drive and still be under our $500 spending limit.

What we could have saved more money on

Building a full computer with 19" Widescreen monitor, speakers, keyboard and mouse for under $500 is pretty impressive by any means. Here's what we could have done to save even more money:

Purchased a cheaper processor instead of the Athlon 64 X2 - $5 - 15 saved

Used an older CD/DVD drive - $24.99 saved

Used an older Monitor - $99.99 saved

Used older Speakers - $13.99 saved

Used an older Keyboard & Mouse - $12.24

Purchased an OS through a college bookstore for $15 or less - $69.99 saved

Theoretically, we could have saved approximately $236! Unfortunately we can't reuse everything from an older computer. Sometimes the older computer is so old, it's best to replace the parts and it would slow us down if we tried to use them.

If we recycle older parts listed above, look for specials and/or good combo deals, we can easily build a brand new PC for less than $250, if we can recycle and get better deals as mentioned above, we could technically build a brand new PC for under $200!