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New Computer Build

P

Puriden

n00b
Joined
Aug 2, 2010
Messages
6
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc

General Usage, Internet, Word Processing, etc

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

$400-ish

3) Where do you live?

Houston, TX

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.

Tower Case, PSU, MB, CPU, RAM, HDD, DVD Burner, Win7 OS Home
Onboard video is acceptable

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 size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?

24" LCD, resolution unknown

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

1-2 weeks

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.

Nothing special, onboard video is acceptable

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

No, fresh install of Win7 64-bit Home required.


Thanks everyone for your help, my uncle will appreciate it.

Cheers.
 
Is the monitor or OS included in that $400 budget? Or does that $400 include only the tower (OS and monitor extra)?

If it's the former ($400 all-inclusive), you're better off with a pre-built PC. This is because the least-expensive worthwhile DIY build already costs $400 or more without the monitor or the OS. Any self-builds with parts, monitor and OS costing $400 or less total will either have extremely shitty parts (especially the PSU) that would likely blow up on just an extremely light load after just a few seconds of use or have parts that are so old and obsolete that the system might not be able to even run the oldest still-supported version of Windows.
 
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The monitor is not included in the budget, the OS is.

I was researching the DIY kits at Newegg, but by adding the Win7 Home OS, it pushes the total to nearly $460 (w/ shipping). I was hoping to keep it closer to $400 per my uncles request, but understand this is a struggle.
 
If you are going to do it the "legitimate" (according to Microsoft) way, you would have only $200 available for all of the hardware components combined. And the least expensive worthwhile CPU, motherboard and RAM would have eaten up that entire $200.

And even if you settle for the "System Builder" edition, you'd still have only $300 for all the hardware components put together. The least-expensive worthwhile PSU and the best bang-for-the-buck hard drive would have eaten up that remaining $100. And you'd still have to buy a case and DVD burner plus (if you don't already have one) a keyboard, mouse and speakers. That's how I came up with the $400 minimum cost of a self-built system without the OS (the monitor isn't included in the total).

So yes, for $400 including the OS you're better off getting a pre-built system from the likes of Dell.
 
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