Budget Internet Browser Build

[illram]

Hi all. Pondering building a cheap PC for my parents for Christmas.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc

Web browsing, flash games, Netflix and other streaming video, word processing. The ability to stream video from the web (HD, e.g. 720p ideally) without issue is important.

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?

I'd like to try to do the main hardware of the computer + the OS for under $350.00, excluding tax and shipping.

3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.

US, San Francisco

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.

CPU, Mobo, RAM, HDD, Case, PSU, ODD. I might need the whole shebang, i.e. mouse, keyboard, monitor... those are outside my $350.00 compter budget, but if there is a way to get those and keep it in budget that's cool too.

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.

None.
6) Will you be overclocking?

No.
7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?

Likely to be cheap, so no more than 1600 x 900. No bigger than 22".

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?

Before Christmas, ideally November.

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video? etc.

None. Onboard, e.g. FM1 or LGA 1155 would be ideal since I think that would be cheaper.

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?

Nope, need OS.

Playing around in Newegg I spec'd out this build:

SAMSUNG CD/DVD Burner Black SATA Model SH-222AB
$18.99
Rosewill R218-P-BK Black SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
$29.99
Western Digital Caviar Blue WD1600AAJS 160GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5"
$33.99
FSP Group ATX300-PA 300W ATX 12V (v2.2) Power Supply
$26.99
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-10600CL9D-4GBNT
$25.99
Foxconn H67S LGA 1155 Intel H67 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s Mini ITX Intel Motherboard
$54.99
Intel Celeron G530 Sandy Bridge 2.4GHz LGA 1155 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor BX80623G530
$56.99
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit
$99.99

Total of $347.92 before tax and shipping. But I am not a huge fan of the case and if I have to get keyboard, mouse, etc. it will get more expensive and I might as well just buy a Dell or something. (Hoping to build it myself, because it's more fun that way!)

Thanks in advance for suggestions.

 

[Dangman]

But I am not a huge fan of the case and if I have to get keyboard, mouse, etc. it will get more expensive and I might as well just buy a Dell or something. (Hoping to build it myself, because it's more fun that way!)

Just go buy a Dell. I doubt your "fun" is worth paying more money for lower quality parts. Some of those $400 prebuilts have better parts than the parts you just listed.

 

[illram]

So in your opinion is it impossible to build a budget build at this price point to accomplish the tasks I listed that can compete in quality to something offered by big manufacturer like Dell or HP?

 

[Dangman]

So in your opinion is it impossible to build a budget build at this price point to accomplish the tasks I listed that can compete in quality to something offered by big manufacturer like Dell or HP?

It's not impossible but improbable to do so without certain factors/sales/stores/connections. Then there's the performance issue: The hard drive and CPU found in some of the $400 PCs are faster than the setup you posted.

 

[mannyman]

Well the Sandybridge pentium is better than any of the processors in all the $400 computers i have ever seen.

The hard drive is weak.

Also it is far easier to buy a whole computer due to no wait or anything like that.

 

[illram]

Some of the components I listed were chosen mainly based on price and not performance, hence weak choices such as the HDD. I was kind of drawn to try this as I had never tried to see if I could put together an uber-cheap but functional build.

Oh well. Thanks for the input!

 

[engiNURD]

It's possible, just not advisable. I've done it plenty of times, but as Danny mentioned, it takes a lot of patience waiting for certain sales. The good thing is, BF/CM is around the corner, so if you want to try it, now's a good time to start. You're in the bay, so you should be somewhat close to Fry's and Microcenter, which typically help with the combo deals and such. It's too bad nobody offers any FAR cases nor PSUs anymore. I think I built 4 or 5 PCs out of those free Ultra Wizard cases and V500 PSUs ($20 - $20MIR), plus the $60 - $100 mobo/cpu combos fry's used to be famous for promoting. My cheapest computer was something along the lines of this...
($20) Ultra Wizard ATX case, ($20) Ultra V series 500W PSU, ($80) Combo: Pentium dual core E2140 + ECS GeForce 7050 mobo, ($25) 2GB DDR2-667, ($30) 250GB HDD (like half price at the time), ($15) DVD Burner used, comes to $190 - $40MIR = $150 ... though, I think it took over 6months to get all the parts, lol (waiting for deals).

These days, though, I wouldn't even touch one of those PSUs anymore, lol. The last good combo I got from Fry's was over a year ago (Intel i3 530 + Gigabyte GA-H55M-S2H for $115). Instead, I now just buy used parts if I need to save money.

 

[Dangman]

Yeah definitely a lot of patience. Like Enginurd, I too built a cheap PC over the course of 3-4 months. And it was based on those old Fry's deals:
$50 - Antec NSK4480B Case + Antec EA38 380W PSUfrom Fry's
$80 - Pentium Dual Core E2200 + ECS GeForce 7050 mobo from Fry's
$20 - 2GB DDR2 800 RAM from Fry's
Free - 160GB Seagate drive I had lying around
$20 - DVD Burner from Fry's
---
Total: $170 or so.

Those were some awesome Fry's holiday sales back then.

If you still want to do it, more power to you. Though it's definitely harder now that Fry's has a significantly lower rate of awesome deals for DIY PCs. Plenty of awesome deals for prebuilt PCs though.

And to address what I mean by "Some of those $400 prebuilts have better parts than the parts you just listed.". Here's an example:
http://www.frys.com/product/6684184?site=sa:adpages page:1

Intel Sandy Bridge Pentium Dual Core G620, 4GB DDR3, 1TB Hard drive, and Windows 7 HP all for $300. It's cheaper than your planned setup but comes with a faster CPU and hard drive as well as better quality PSU and better cooling case.

So if you do want to do a DIY build, in order for it to be a worthwhile expenditure of your money, it should be equal or better both in terms of performance and quality to the above Lenovo. Remember that Fry's usually has such a good desktop deal every other week or so.