simple college desktop computer

[Ormagoden]

my manager at the place i work at wants to go back to school and learn a trade and get a degree or anything. she needs a simple college desktop that can do the work she needs and surf the net. not looking to spend alot on the parts or anything like that. if someone could post a build for me that would be awsome

 

[RichM499]

Well, she is just going to be doing research and surfing the web? ANYTHING made in the last 11 years will do that with room to spare. What is your budget?

 

[matt123]

What budget?
Any special specification

 

[Yami]

If it's just surfing + office then $300 would probably cover it.

 

[Ormagoden]

she is trying to go as cheap as possible since she is going through a divorce and her money is short. i told her i'd do the research for her and just build her a rig. it only needs to be basic and be able to run powerpoints and things of that nature

 

[RichM499]

Well take a look at AMD motherboards and chipsets, and Radeon video cards. You can peice together a computer around those components for pretty cheap, and still have a decent little machine. Intel tends to be more expensive.

You could probably find a cheap $100 system in your area on Craigslist, something like a Pentium 3 or some such. A Pentium 3 would be plenty for surfing the web, playing java or flash based web games, and basically anything you'd want to do except for gaming and the like.

You won't be able to build a system from scratch unless you shell out around $300, but if you give me a definitive number, I will put together a system from Newegg or Tigerdirect for you within that price limit.

 

[Ormagoden]

lets go with $350 to $400

 

[aliasaid]

you could look into something like this...

Newegg.com - Antec Basiq BP430 430W Continuous Power ATX12V Version 2.2 Active PFC Power Supply - Power Supplies
Newegg.com - AMD Athlon II X3 435 Rana 2.9GHz 3 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core Processor - Processors - Desktops
Newegg.com - ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO AM3 AMD 785G HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard - AMD Motherboards
Newegg.com - G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL - Desktop Memory
Newegg.com - SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD502HJ 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER ELITE 335 RC-335-KKN1-GP Black SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Computer Cases

total $380 but i didn't include OS or monitor. If you need both those things then you're really looking at a $150-$200 build.. and in that case you'd do better looking at prebuilts like gateway, etc. You could still downgrade to include an OS OR monitor, but not both.

 

[Trotter]

HP Pavilion p6243w Desktop, AMD Sempron LE-1200 2.1GHz, 3GB , 320GB HD, DVDRW, Keyboard and Mouse, Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit, Factory Refurbished - HPNY799AAR - Buy.com
$300 w/free shipping

Take the rest and get a decent monitor and speakers for her, maybe MS Office.