Advice for building inexpensive home PC

[Ritwik7]

Hi everyone!

I'm back here after quite some time and need suggestions on a new PC build for a friend.

The main tasks that the system will be used for are:

1. Surfing the internet
2. Working on Microsoft Office / Open Office
3. Watching movies / listening to music

There will be no gaming on the system.

Would be nice if the price could be kept around US$500 including a monitor and other peripherals.

Regards,
Ritwik

 

[vChRiSv]

Have you considered the Budget Box in the TechSpot PC Buying Guide? It only runs up to $545. I'd throw the link into the post in case you're lazy like me, but I don't have 5 posts yet.

 

[Ritwik7]

Thanks vChRiSv.

Incidentally I find that the build I've figured out is identical to the one suggested in the Budget Box Buying Guide!!!

 

[Tedster]

there are tons of budget systems that can be built for a song. But at a certain price point, the real question is it worth your time in building a budget system. any boxed set a store can do what you want and there are some bargains to be had. You can buy kits from newegg for dirt cheap, but when you add the costs, a store bought system comes about to about the same. building a middle to high end system is more economical yourself, but not a cheap system in most cases.

 

[Ritwik7]

That's a good point Tedster. The point is that here in Calcutta I won't get any boxed kits (as far as I'm aware). So for me assembling is the best option.

I was wondering if the AMD Athlon II X3 is a decent enough CPU for the above-mentioned tasks? If I get an AMD 760G based motherboard, will the ATI Radeon 3000 integrated video chipset do fine for basic multimedia purposes? The system will be running Windows 7.

 

[Tedster]

That's a good point Tedster. The point is that here in Calcutta I won't get any boxed kits (as far as I'm aware). So for me assembling is the best option.

I was wondering if the AMD Athlon II X3 is a decent enough CPU for the above-mentioned tasks? If I get an AMD 760G based motherboard, will the ATI Radeon 3000 integrated video chipset do fine for basic multimedia purposes? The system will be running Windows 7.

that's more than adequate for what you want to do. Good luck!

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

USD 500 is overkill for the kind of use you have in mind for the system. About half (or a little more than half) of that budget would get you a system that can do all that quite effortlessly.