Need Advice on ~$450 Budget Everyday PC

nippplez

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Jun 15, 2008
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18,510
APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: Within the next 2 weeks or so.

BUDGET RANGE: ~$450 after rebates

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Minor video editing w/ capture card, Sims 3, MS Office, Photoshop/Illustrator

PARTS NOT REQUIRED: Keyboard, Mouse, Monitor, Speakers, Windows 7 - These will probably be bought locally

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: Newegg.com
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Hawaii, US - no free shipping :(

PARTS PREFERENCES: No Preference

OVERCLOCKING: No
SLI OR CROSSFIRE: No

MONITOR RESOLUTION: Most likely 1440x900 or 1680x1050

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:
So I'm trying to save a bit on crazy shipping costs to hawaii by adding my friend's computer to my order and was looking for advice on what kind of parts to use. The $450 budget may seem pretty low but i figured it would be cheaper than getting a dell (or is it not worth the trouble?). He is not a hardcore pc gamer so wont need a crazy GPU, though his wife will probably want something that will run the Sims 3. The most he will be doing is minor video editing of his crazy throwing knife kills in mw2 that he says he gets but no one sees or believes him.

A couple questions on the CPU/Mobo, RAM, and Vid Card.

Not sure on how many cores would be needed, but anything cheap will do.

Would 2 Gigs RAM be enough for Windows 7?

Could someone recommend a decent cheap vid card that would be good for just sims 3, video editing and photoshop/illustrator. Or would an integrated vid card be good enough for this?

Anyways, could someone recommend a build around $450 after rebates.. Thanks.
 
I'll just come up with the build that should solve all your problems...

AMD Athlon II X4 630 Propus 2.8GHz 4 x 512KB - $99.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103704

ECS IC780M-A2 (V1.0A) AM3 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard - $49.99 after $10 rebate
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813135250

Kingston 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model KVR1066D3N7K2/4G - $109.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134718

POWERCOLOR AX5670 512MD5-H Radeon HD 5670 (Redwood) 512MB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express - $79.99 after $15 rebate
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131334

SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD502HJ 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" - $54.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152181

COOLER MASTER Elite 360 RC-360-KKR1 Black Plastic w/350w Power Supply - $49.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119205

Total = $444.94, after rebates, shipping not included.

So how about that? A 2.8GHz quad-core, 4GB of RAM, and an HD 5670 I'd think could play Sims 3 maxed, and possibly MW2 and a 7200RPM 500GB HDD with a decent case and 350W PSU for $444.94? :D

 

nippplez

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Jun 15, 2008
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18,510
Thanks everybody for your replies, but my friend and I have decided that its probably better for him to just buy a premade system from bestbuy or somewhere similar.
 

someguynamedmatt

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+1^

I hate to say it, but in this price range, I think that it's almost better just to go with a pre-built system instead of building one yourself. You get all the peripherals with it, a monitor, decent parts, and normally the price is cheaper than the sum of what goes into it.

Just my two cents on that...