As Cheap As You Can!

[jzsang]

Long story short, my sister's computer is finished and she needs a new one. She's already got a monitor, keyboard, mouse and speakers, but needs the tower and all of its necessary components. She also does not want to spend much money. We are talking cheap, as in $250-$450.

What do you suggest? Should we go the OEM route or build a new computer? Obviously we are not expecting anything great, but something that would allow for basic computer usage and future upgrades (ex - ram, low end graphics card), would be nice.

Thanks.

 

[emp]

Instead of piecing together an El-cheapo configuration that doesn't have performance in mind only price, I put together a list of quality stuff that you should be very satisfied with their performance, especially since it's within your budget.

Intel Pentium E5200 Wolfdale 2.5GHz 2MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116072

MSI R4670-2D512 Radeon HD 4670 512MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127383

Western Digital Caviar SE WD5000AAJS 500GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136178

GIGABYTE GA-EP35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128337

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231112

Antec earthwatts EA430 430W ATX12V v2.0 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371006

And reuse your old case. I think if you go with this route, you will be very very satisfied with the kind of performance you'll be getting overall.

 

[eklipz330]

that build could do some pretty decent gaming... amazing what you can get for $450 nowadays

 

[roadrunner197069]

Buy a recertified OEM if your on a real tight budget.

 

[megamanx00]

You want a cheap computer. This is a cheap computer

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=7754614

If you don't mind running linux you can't beat it for $130.

If you don't want to try linux then get an AMD build.

AMD Athlon X2 5000+ $66
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103211

ASRock ALiveNF7G-FullHD R3.0 $54.99 + 8.97 shipping
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157126

Crucial 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR2 800 $36.99+6.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148163

WD HD 500GB $59.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136178

And I'd also go with that eathwats PSU for $39.99 + $10.87 shipping
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371006

Giving you a total of $284.79 if you re-use the old case and optical drive. I guess you could be really cheap and re-use the hard drive too. You shouldn't re-use the power supply in that case since that's probably what fried the old computer in the first place. You can add in a better graphics card latter. The motherboard has 4 RAM slots and can take a total of 8GB, or 2GB per slot, so you got some room to upgrade there. As for an OS, if you go to college you can probably get one for free or for cheap, otherwise you'll have to buy a copy.