Feeler post - Children's build

[Bob002]

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

Web browsing and light gaming

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

Say around $500 per, not counting OS licenses

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

Branson, Missouri

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.

Everthing. Case. Monitor. HDD. Processor. Optical drive. Power Supply. Video Card. Would probably use onboard sound and network card.

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?

Will need.

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

Probably Spring. i realize that I'm a little far out for "real" pricing, but sort of getting a feel to see if I'm not way off base.

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

None that I know of.

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

I do not. Would need as well, but not figuring into the price.

I'm looking at building my kid's a computer each. I'm trying to teach them responsibility and the like (plus get them off my stuff). Whilst I could buy them used laptops, I don't like the portability factor, so I'm trying to get a feel if I'm in the right ballpark for pricing. Of course, I could just buy them off the shelf Dell's of the like, as well, and that would probably work.

 

[atp1916]

Check out the TechReport's Econobox as a basis.

You'll need to skimp on some of those parts if you need to fit an OS and monitor in there... Like maybe using a cheaper GPU / CPU...

Edit: Get an i3-3220 and skip the discrete GPU completely!

 

[atp1916]

Tom's also has a ~$500 build. Note that they put a 7850 in there, which I don't think you need. You may be able to get this build closer to affordability or mix/match between the two to get the cost down.

 

[Dangman]

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

Probably Spring. i realize that I'm a little far out for "real" pricing, but sort of getting a feel to see if I'm not way off base.

Ok, if you see any specific hardware recommendations in this thread, ignore them as those probably won't be the same parts that we would recommend in Spring due to availability and pricing. And especially ignore Tom's Hardware: They're very sloppy to say the least IMO.

With that said, just talking generally here, you can indeed build or buy a PC for $500 these days. However, whether or not it makes sense to build a PC VS buying a prebuilt PC is largely dependent on your definition of "light gaming". If it's just flash games, just about any prebuilt PC will do. If it's like actual FPS, RTS, or RPG games, then it might be a better idea to do a DIY setup.