Building a family computer, need assistance please!

V

Vaen

New Member
I'm looking to build a family computer (no real gaming) on a budget of about 500$. I need nothing but the tower, no peripherals. I was looking on mwave for Motherboard / processor bundles but was unable to locate any. I've helped build a couple of gaming computers, but we never had to mount the processor.

Anyway, if anyone is willing to assist me, these are the things I'm looking for:

Prefer Intel Processor
A big harddrive (lots of pics and music)
Decent soundcard
Don't need a real great vid card, maybe in the 50 dollar range?
Looking to get up to 4gb ram
Vista Home edition

The computer does not need to be high end in any respect, just looking to build a decent rig for net surfing, music, and pictures. I'm worried if I spec it out by myself that I may run into compatability issues during the hook-up.

Thanks for reading the post, appreciate any time anyone spends on helping me with this dilemma.

~V
 
if you don't plan on doing any video intensive stuff then just get whatever the cheapest card is that your motherboard supports. If your motherboard supports PCI-E 2.0 x16 video cards then there is one on newegg for $28. btw good video cards start at around $150.
 
I'd be open to an AMD build if its a bit cheaper, haven't had amazing luck with AMD processors before but that was a long time ago I suppose.

Not looking for a 'good' video card, plan to do no real gaming, as stated above.
 
 
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Bodaggit23 said:
It's a bit out of budget, but you could skip the video card for now
and that would bring it about right.

$557.91 after rebate.

This is a decent Dual Core AMD setup that could easily be
upgraded down the road a bit.


AMD Athlon II X2 245 Regor 2.9GHz ($67.99)

GIGABYTE GA-MA785G-UD3H ($89.99)

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 1066 ($54.99)

XCLIO STABLEPOWER 500W ($49.99)

SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 4650 $49.99

Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB ($69.99)

Sony Optiarc Black DVD/CD Rewritable Drive ($29.99)

RAIDMAX Tornado Computer Case ($44.99)
($34.99 after Rebate)

Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit ($109.99)
Includes free Windows 7 upgrade coupon
Click to expand...
Only thing i'd change is this case:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147106

Free shipping with promo code EMCLWMM55

HDD, $5 more for an extra 140gb:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136319
 
Thanks for all the help guys, in addition to these parts I just need some thermal paste to mount the processor to the board right?
 
Vaen said:
I'm looking to build a family computer (no real gaming) on a budget of about 500$. I need nothing but the tower, no peripherals. I was looking on mwave for Motherboard / processor bundles but was unable to locate any. I've helped build a couple of gaming computers, but we never had to mount the processor.

Anyway, if anyone is willing to assist me, these are the things I'm looking for:

Prefer Intel Processor
A big harddrive (lots of pics and music)
Decent soundcard
Don't need a real great vid card, maybe in the 50 dollar range?
Looking to get up to 4gb ram
Vista Home edition

The computer does not need to be high end in any respect, just looking to build a decent rig for net surfing, music, and pictures. I'm worried if I spec it out by myself that I may run into compatability issues during the hook-up.

Thanks for reading the post, appreciate any time anyone spends on helping me with this dilemma.

~V
Click to expand...

$500? You should go with AMD. Here's a link to a build I'm about to do for the same purpose as you.

http://www.computerforum.com/157140-desktop-cases-atx-matx-everything-else.html
 
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