Cheapskate Computer Project - April update

I outlined my Cheapskate Computer Project last month.     This is my first update on the project and my status so far.

My shopping list with base prices for the project is :

CPU ~ $48
Motherboard $43
Chassis $46
Memory 4GB $30
120GB HDD Drive $20
OS = $100
TOTAL = $287

I had a goal of getting under $100 w/o the OS.

So far I've only bought two items with one decent price success and a minor blunder.

I bought a chassis for $10 after rebate.   It was a $35 chassis with a $25 rebate.
The chassis does not come with a power supply so I'll have to keep an eye out for a good price on a decent PSU.    Tigerdirect has a HEC model for $20 which is OK but I'd like to get one cheaper.     I actually have a spare PSU that should work, so I might end up cheating on this item.  

I also got a $20 DVD read/write drive for free after rebate. Score!    Except then after I bought it I realized its the old PATA interface instead of SATA.   doh!   PATA is so old I didn't even think to check to make sure its SATA before I bought it.  Oh well, its free so I guess it wasn't that big of a mistake.   Anyone want a PATA DVD writer?

The two rebate forms I did took me a total of 25 minutes to fill out and I had to spend another $1 on the 2 stamps.  

I will also make 2% cash back from my Fidelity Amex which should amount to about $1.10 and I made 35¢ cash back from Ebates on the chassis purchase.    I think I forgot to use Ebates with the DVD purchase.

I passed up on a deal to get a 8GB DIMM + McAfee software bundle for free because it required signing up for McAfee auto-renewal and I just didn't wanna bother with it.   TigerDirect also has a similar deal for Windows 7 + Mcafee for $60 after rebate.    I'm passing on that too.   But those Mcafee rebate deals can be a good way to get a fairly high value part for free.   It does however require you to sign up for McAfee and then cancel auto-renewal at the right time.   So its a bit more hassle than just mailing in a rebate form.

All together I haven't made much progress and I haven't seen any good deals on most of the key parts I need.   A single $10 chassis isn't that much of a bargain.


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Standard Ebates blurb:To get the cash back you need to be signed up with Ebates.  Then simply go to Ebates to get the referral to the the store before you do your shopping.  I also get a referral bonus if you use my links to sign up with Ebates.  

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