# Budget PC Build



## Techie19 (Feb 10, 2008)

Hey there guys. I have a friend from work who would like me to build him a PC. He doesn't need a gaming PC or anything like that. He just wants a budget PC, mostly for internet browsing and burning DVDs and CDs. He says hes willing to spend about $500 on it. 

What components do you guys recommend for such a build? Should he go with Dual-core or not? AMD or Intel? How much RAM? Hard Drive? XP or Vista?

Thanks in advance for replies and comments.


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

AMD is the solution x2 5600 or x2 6000, 2 Gig ram, ATI integrated video, 250Gig hard drive and a decent power supply in the 450-500w range.


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## Nepharius (Jan 9, 2009)

I would suggest going AMD in this case. Basically you can get him a cheap and nasty case with power supply the baseline motherboard cos he doesnt need any of those fancy features anyway. 2gig of RAM would probably be over kill but its only like $30 here so I assume even cheaper in the US. HDD depends on how much stuff hes going to store. If its just word docs and a few photos you can probably get away with the smallest available. Dont bother with sound card or graphics card (but do make sure your chosen motherboard has both)

If you want to go adventurous you could also consider a smaller form factor motherboard like a mini ATX or something and give him a tiny computer.

Also I reckon stick with XP unless he particularly wants to go Vista, its cheaper faster and its not like hes gonna be able to run Aero or need DX10 support


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## Techie19 (Feb 10, 2008)

I was checking on Newegg and created a cart with the following items. What do you guys think. I believe everything is compatible.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811164118
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813153120
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103214
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148163
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136195
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106263
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116485
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835100301
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103050

Total in parts without shipping/handling and tax comes out to $310; originally my friend said he was willing to spend $500, but then he told me that if possible I can build it for less.


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

Not much there I like you need to give him some decent components or send him to the Dell web site. It is not possible to build a PC as Cheap as Dell, you need to compete with Quality not prices.
Never use a case power supply combo the PSU's are junk and old spec sold with the case is usually the only way to get rid of them.

Have a look over this it is a system that is not the fastest or most powerful but will do what he needs and run for a long time.

Link................................................................................	Discp.	Cost	Rebate
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...118011&cm_sp=DailyDeal-_-27-118-011-_-Product DVD/RW	$23.99	
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128342 GA-MA74GM-S2	$54.99	
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103235 X2 5400	$62.99	
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136149 WD 500	$59.99	
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139003 450 VX	$68.99	-$10.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106263 DVD Burner	$21.99	
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147111 case	$19.99	
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148163 2x1Gig	$19.99	
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116485 Vista HP	$99.99	




$432.91	-$10.00
Total	$422.91


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## akedm (Oct 1, 2007)

Or for $5 more (after mail-in rebate) he could effectively double the RAM as far as Windows is concerned. He'll personally gain about 60% more RAM, but Windows will utilize the rest. May as well max out what's available for only $5 more.

Corsair 4 Gigs DDR2 RAM : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145184 $24.99 after mail-in rebate

And wrench, that's a real nice build for $425, including the O/S. ray: I'm going to keep that in mind for my son's first build and add a HD4850 or HD4670 graphics card.

- Eric


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

akedm said:


> Or for $5 more (after mail-in rebate) he could effectively double the RAM as far as Windows is concerned. He'll personally gain about 60% more RAM, but Windows will utilize the rest. May as well max out what's available for only $5 more.
> 
> Corsair 4 Gigs DDR2 RAM : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145184 $24.99 after mail-in rebate
> 
> ...


Make sure you add a larger power supply to go with the video cards 650w or 750w respectively.

No need to add the complication of 4 gig to that system 2 is plenty for a nongaming system.


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## Techie19 (Feb 10, 2008)

wrench97 said:


> Make sure you add a larger power supply to go with the video cards 650w or 750w respectively.
> 
> No need to add the complication of 4 gig to that system 2 is plenty for a nongaming system.


Don't u have to have a 64-bit version of Windows in order for the system to recognize anything above 3GBs of RAM?


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

About 3.2 to have it show, 32bit systems will see 4gig report about 3.2 but can address the upper memory areas for system devices.


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## Techie19 (Feb 10, 2008)

I felt so dumb when I built a computer for my best friend last summer. I installed 4GB (4 x 1GB) of ram on the motherboard which supported up to 8GB. But windows would only report 3GB of RAM. So I guess I learned the hard way. The OS was Windows XP Professional 32-bit.


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

When you add memory it's always better to use 2 sticks over 4 because 2 gigs sticks use the same amount of current to run as 1 gig sticks so 4 sticks will stress the memory controller faster and you will usually need to bump the voltage up on 4 sticks and not on 2.


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