400 dollar budget, best bang for the buck?

[doodle dee]

My friend is asking me to build a computer for his parents with a budget of roughly 400 bucks. Im not used to building a system with such a low price level so its time to let y'all take rip at some suggestions. Preferably no celeron or durons. I'll try to comprise my own list and update soon also. Thanks in advance!

ps: this will be used primarily for email/surfing, so we can definitely skimp on video and use onboard sound.

 

[Nitestick]

try for a sempron system. use 256mb of some generic ram and work from there. it will be tight though. do they need a monitor?

 

[doodle dee]

no monitor and on second thought, they wont know what in the system anyways, so celeronD and Semprons are in!

 

[McHopsky]

Dell.com - Cant beat their deals at 400 dollars. Youll probably even get a monitor and a printer for that price.

 

[Vybuni]

Biostar mATX motherboard s754 w/integrated 6100 video = $60
AMD Sempron 3100 =$80
Western Digital 80GB SATA150 Hard Drive =$53
1GB Corsiar valueselect DDR400 RAM =$79
Foxconn mATX mini tower w/ 300W PSU =$43
ASUS CD-RW =$21
Windows XP home =$94

Total=$430

 

[doodle dee]

This was what i had in mind so far:

AMD Sempron 64 2800+ Palermo 800MHz FSB Socket 754 Processor Model SDA2800BXBOX - Retail for 75.50
Kingston ValueRAM 512MB (2 x 256MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model KVR400X64C3AK2/512 - Retail for 42.99
ASUS K8U-X Socket 754 ULi M1689 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail for 46.00
Western Digital Caviar SE WD800JD 80GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM for 53

so far thats 217.49, dont have an idea about case yet....Im not too sure about getting a case with a psu since the psus usually suck. What do you guys think so far?

 

[Vybuni]

That would be fine, looks like a leaner version of mine, but you should get a motherboard with onboard video. The onboard is fine if its just for internet/word. Look for the 6100, 6150 or X300 (or is it X200, i forget) video chipsets. For such a cheap PC, i wouldnt worry too much about the PSU/case combos. The ones with the cases, while not great, are not gonna kill your computer every time you start it up.

 

[molsen]

the case Vybuni posted actually has a Fortron Source dual 12v PSU in it. It's actually a nice little case/psu combo

 

[Nitestick]

doodle dee, that setup looks pretty good. whatever you do stick to the sempron combo. i'm sure you know this but just leave the celeron's to rot.

 

[mgoldb2]

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice 1GHz FSB 512KB $169
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103535
ASUS A8N-VM Socket 939 NVIDIA GeForce 6100 Micro $67
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131571
video card included with motherboard
WINTEC AMPO 512MB 184-Pin DDR $36
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820161615
Western Digital Caviar SE WD800JB 80GB 7200 RPM 8MB $53
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144122
NEC Beige 3550 $39
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827152059
Linkworld 431-10 C2228 Black & Silver Steel/Plastic(18A PSU) $24
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811164063

Total: $388

this my try with $400 to work with