One of our older PC desktops at was a 166 MHz OEM. This was an older AT-style system, midtower, with antiquated SIMM memory. Affectionately considered as the Manny PC, it has had most of its parts changed over the years; eventually it couldn’t keep up with the latest, more demanding software needs. So I had to pull out its guts, and used the floppy, network adapter, video card, and CD-ROM on the file/print server I built for home. Thankfully, the parts were Windows 2000 supportive. These components cut down the price of the server to about $200

Followings are the tips while shopping for components:

• To evade any issues regarding compatibility, buy a combination CPU and motherboard from a trusted source.

• The 1 GHz AMD Duron and Athlon processors are very good deals less than $50. They are also favorable with the biggest number of slot A motherboards.

• Do not build an entire server from parts pulled out of junk machines. If you use those to build a single workstation, that’s fine. If it goes down, you only have one
person down. If a server goes down, it affects everybody in the company, so seriously consider the risk factor.

• There are many places online where you can find bargains, and the computer shows are always a great resource. Never stop looking!

• Stick with PCI expansion cards and/or an AGP card for your video adapter (if not already available onboard