Parents build

What's the budget?

I just built a complete system for my parents that included high quality components, a 19" monitor, OS, keyboard, and mouse for $730 shipped.

yea i don't think they wanna spend like 700, prob like 400 max sadly.

What's included in that $400 budget? Monitor, OS, etc...?

Hmmmm, they have a monitor, i can prob salvage their old tower. So i pretty much need like a mobo, vid card, cpu, memory, maybe a HD, the old comp has a 160gb but was told i should prob update it and prob a cdrom drive.

How about something like this?

AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000 Brisbane 2.6GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2 65W Dual-Core Processor - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... $55.99

GIGABYTE GA-MA78G-DS3HP AM2+/AM2 AMD 780G HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... $85.99

mushkin 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=N82E168... $46.99

Antec NSK4480 Black/ Silver 0.8mm cold-rolled steel construction ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 380W Power Supply - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... $99.99

Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD3200AAKS 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... $54.99

LG 22X DVD±R DVD Burner Black SATA Model GH22NS30 - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... $24.99

Total $368.94

Do you need an OS?

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit for System Builders - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... $99.99

don't need the tower, just need to get a 80mm fan for the back of my old one. I have a OS but i still need a vid card. So maybe get rid of tower and swap for a vid card? oe is the on board good enough

The onboard video on a 780G motherboard is plenty for the intended use. It'll even do HD video perfectly, just to give you an idea. Is it really going to gain you much to re-use the old case? Are you planning on re-using the old (probably crappy) PSU too? I'd at least get a new PSU.

ok so i will use the on board. Also the tower that I have for them is http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

The case is fine, but I'd upgrade the PSU. Rosewill PSU's are known as ticking time bombs. I wouldn't risk it, even with a low-end build like this.

Edit: Here's a nice PSU for a pretty good price:

CORSAIR CMPSU-400CX 400W ATX12V V2.2 80 PLUS Certified Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... $59.99 - $10 MIR + 20% promo code "Jansave20" ends 01/31

I might as well just get the new tower, since this one is pretty beat up. But that setup looks good. It should be a good system right. Cause i don't want to hear them being like this thing is slow blah blah blah what did u build me.

What were the specs on their old computer? The above build is certainly not slow. I'm sure a 2.6GHz dual core CPU with 4GB of RAM and a new, fast HD will be a very big improvement over what they currently have.

yea it def is gonna be. don't remember the old comps specs but def not as good as this one. So will prob be getting this setup. Thanks for all your help.