Need HELP with a BUDGE/VALUE system please!

[GremlinHater]

Ok, here's the low down, I need to put something together for my sister, she's not rich, but a computer can really help out her life, were looking at around 500 without a monitor, if you can hit the mark with one, that be sweet. Don't worry about any software. It might be an oxymoron but i've been out of the loop for awhile but i'm wanting everything that comes with QUALITY at a CHEAP price. My main retailers are multi-wave and newegg so I'd like to stick with them, I can only assume that most of you are still using them so hopefully you'll concur with my decision to go with them. I need mobo, case, video card, modem (maybe cable modem, please price both), soundcard, speakers, keyboard, mouse, ram (256 minimum please), processor/heatsink and fan, cd burner, dvd (icing on the cake), speakers, basically the whole 9 yards minus the monitor (i think i covered everything). As far as system preference, when i was in the loop i liked AMD but i guess intel's been cleaning up there act so if that's the way to go now, well, gotta flow with the crowd, i've never built an intel machine from scratch but i'm hoping it's similiar to AMD?

And I'd deeply appreciate reviews to any of your suggested hardware so i can catch up to speed. If there's any pitfalls with hardware recently I'd also like to know about it, as in if there's a new product that's buggy or high rma's or anything like that, i'd appreciate it. thank you in advance. If you need any more info as to the spec's or preferences just give a shout, i'll be checking back here as much as possible.

 

[GremlinHater]

Oh, and i your wondering if i'm o/c, well, i considered it and it probably be better to keep warranty unless it was cheap and the performance was worth the voiding.

 

[mcveigh]

don't over clock if it's for someone else.

Anand just redid the value suystem guides.

here's the cheapes one WITH 19INCH MONITOR

here

all guides here
http://www.anandtech.com/guides/index.html

 

[Antoneo]

I suggest you to go AMD since its cheaper that way. The main reason why many people are jumping on the Intel wagon is because of the Northwood core. It's an overclocker's dream. However the "cheapest" Northwood is a 1.6A and probably the best ocer but it'll set up back ~$150, one-third your budget.
And all computers are similar so you'd have no problems if you went Intel. 'Cept you might miss out on the VIA chipset problems .

I'm not too familiar with AMD's offerings and motherboards that build around that chip but a quick search should start you off. Since you are budget limited go for an integrated motherboard solution. Usually they throw in audio, NIC, and video in there and those should be decent enough for browsing and other not too heavy apps. Don't expect a lot of gaming out of it though.