Budget Desktop <$500 Non Gaming

[foldageXmirrion]

Approximate Purchase Date: Before March 2012

Budget Range: <$500

System Usage from Most to Least Important: surfing the internet, skype, watching movies

Parts Not Required: keyboard, mouse

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: http://www.gearbot.co.nz/ (this finds the best price from a NZ supplier, where I live)

Overclocking: No

SLI or Crossfire: No

Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080 smaller?

My stepmother asked me to put together a desktop PC for the family as they have been sold some real dud reconditioned ones in the past, (current is an XP laptop with a LOL 32GB hardrive!)

I recently put together a quad core for myself (i5-2500k) which is great so I'm wondering how much bang for the buck I can get them. Should I be going with an AMD > Intel for a better price and do I want to look at tri/quad cores or just get a duo?

Would prefer integrated graphics as they never do anything strenuous GPU wise (save money's).
I put a 1TB Spinpoint F3 7200rpm HDD in my build maybe something in a 500GB would be better for them as I can't see them ever filling that up, if they do I can drop more in cheap as.

Is a 1920x1080 monitor overkill for there needs I'm sure there is a sweet point for monitor sizes/resolution value/quality so if that sweet point is smaller resolution that's great too, suggestions?

Only other consideration is it needs wireless capability as I can't get it hard-wired via Ethernet cable in it's future location (I've never had a wireless desktop so assume NFI)

RECAP - Parts Required

Case
CPU
Mobo
PSU
Ram
DVD-RW
HDD
Monitor

 

[Outlander_04]

Check out
www.pricespy.co.nz
for a better price tracking bot

Under $500 NZ with a monitor will be tough .

I suspect it will be an Athlon X2
760G chipset motherboard for the integrated graphics
2 gig of RAM
Probably a 19 inch 1440 x 900 monitor

Have you considered the cost of Windows?
You may be able to buy a copy of XP on trademe for $30 or so

Hard drives are very expensive right now thanks to floods in Thailand messing up production . You might be looking at a 160 gig drive

 

[foldageXmirrion]

Yeah I figure people see <$500 and assume US$ so ... <NZ$500 *without monitor

Is there a point of diminishing returns with a dual-core and 4GB Ram? (Win7)

 

[saratj1]

Is there any parts you can scavenge from the old pc like hard drive cd/dvd drive, psu ram?

If there are then I would go with the I3-2120
if you get the hard drive,psu,DVD burner, and case, then you could do an I3 motherboard, and ram for less than $500nz

 

[foldageXmirrion]

It's a laptop but I might be able to scavenge a PSU, DVD Burner from one of my old rigs in the garage maybe even the case with a custom paint job for lolz.

What's the 'watt range' I need for a simple setup like this?

 

[Outlander_04]

Here are suggested components to fit your budget . Prices are the lowest available on the pricespy website , and actual cost may be higher with shipping .

Athlon X2 255 $88.55

Gigabyte GA-78LMT-S2P $87.45

Kinston HyperX Blu 2 x2 gig DDR3 1333 Mhz $42.31

Western Digital Caviar Blue 320 gig hard drive $73.83

Seasonic SS-350ET psu $50.90

Gigabyte GZ-X6BPD case $59.23

That totals $402.34

A copy of Win7 64 bit is $133.81

Options: upgrade the processor to the cheapest Athlon X3 to make it a little more responsive .
The case has no fans included . That should be fine since its such a low wattage computer , but adding a 120 mm fan can only help

 

[foldageXmirrion]

Looks like they may have to spend a bit more, thinking of

CPU INTEL i3-2100 $157

MOBO ASUS P8H67 $160 (What other suitable options these are pretty expensive)

RAM Kingston 2x2GB DDR3 1333MHz

HDD i'm still undecided as the $$$ difference between 320GB-1TB is not a lot but I'm
leaning towards something with 7200RPMS

CASE+PSU combos like Thermatake/Coolermaster (450W PSU) come in for around $100 so might go that way.

DVD-RW Liteon $35

I have an old 1280x800 LCD I don't use and a DVD-RW's I can put in to save a few bucks but would like to save a bit on the MOBO and then I think I'm good to go.

 

[foldageXmirrion]

Bump