Building new school computer

[mookial]

Looking to build a new computer for my girlfriend because she will starting school soon. She doesn't play any games and will be using integrated gfx. I was wondering if building a cheap PC is better then buying one from bestbuy or dell. They run for about $500 with no keyboard, mouse or speakers.

Approximate Purchase Date: 1-2 Months

Budget Range: $400

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Internet, movies, music and word processing. Maybe some occasional flash games

Are you buying a monitor: Yes


Parts to Upgrade: Everything, building from the ground up.

Do you need to buy OS: No

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Newegg

Location: Queens, New York, USA

Parts Preferences: Intel CPU

Overclocking: No

SLI or Crossfire: No

Your Monitor Resolution: Any, just the best bang for buck and in price range

 

[obsama1]

That's going to be pretty hard. A good monitor is $100, so that leaves $300 for parts. Let me see what parts list I can come up with.

 

[mookial]

Well 400 is not the exact budget. Going to about 500 would not be bad and a little under 600 wont hurt. Just trying to see if building can beat buying those crappy computers from Dell and BestBuy.

 

[obsama1]

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/gPNz

Increase your budget to $500. $400 is pretty hard to work with.

 

[raytseng]

Do you need to buy OS: No
questionable...
the fact that your dell/bestbuy whatever computer gets you a legal copy of with tends to sway towards buy.

I also probably will ask, if she doesn't need those other things, would a laptop give more functionality? There is a market reason laptops have been outselling desktops for the past 10years or so....