Cheap desktop for the parents

[Solitude]

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1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc Building a solid, snappy desktop for my parents who are not "computer people"
It will be used mainly for internet, e-mail, and some simple games and my dad might put a flight sim or 5 on there.

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included? $500 target but whatever it takes if i build over a few months

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

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. PSU
CPU (want to use a quad core, but not needed)
GPU (CPU on-board would probably be fine, though)
HD for storage, doesnt need to be huge
RAM (8GB)
Motherboard (I might have one in my garage, I need to check. If I do have it, its a 1155 socket)
OS (Win 7)
Monitor (want 23" or 24")

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Mid-tower Case
Possibly a motherboard (1155 socket)

6) Will you be overclocking? No

7) 7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it? Unknown yet. (want 1080p)

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC? next month or so, possibly over a few months

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support?
USB 3.0, Bluetooth would be nice, onboard audio, LAN,

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit? No

 

[Dangman]

Why not a prebuilt PC?

 

[timta2]

Please keep in mind that modern flight simulators (Microsoft) require a lot of CPU and GPU horsepower, to run right anyway. Kind of like saying I just need a cheap car to get to the grocery store, the library, and some drag racing.

 

[Astronomica]

You can get a fully featured AMD build for that much. I got my P2 with motherboard and ram for 200 dollars. You can save money by getting a second hand GPU from the fs/t forums. That should be good enough for anything as well as playing some sim games. Even if you already had an 1155 mobo a cheap cpu would just end up being the dual core pentium g620. 500gb hardrive can be gotten for as little as 40.

If it was for my parents, i'd cheap out the hardware as much as possible and spend the rest of a very nice monitor.

 

[Solitude]

If it was for my parents, i'd cheap out the hardware as much as possible and spend the rest of a very nice monitor.

this is waht I was thinking, too.