The best system $ 450 can buy.....

[sirpado]

My uncle has only 450 dollars to put down for a computer, monitor, and printer.....what is the best config i can get for him. he is only gonna be using it for web browsing adn some word processing, and maybe some mp3s....any recommendations? i guess itd be cheaper to get a mobo with onboard soudn right? any recs? thanks!

 

[TNTrulez]

And monitor? Whew. . . that monitor is going to be a significant part of that budget. I assume he wants at least a 17in.

 

[NelsonMuntz]

Yeah, I don't think he can get much for $450 w/ the monitor included. I would personally look into integrated sound and video solutions. In fact I will refer you here for some ideas, but I will also add that you can save money on a plainer looking case from Enlight or Inwin, you can also get a smaller monitor and a smaller hard drive and a cheaper CD-ROM to save some cash. That's the best way that I can think of to get an entire system built in that price range.

 

[Athlon4all]

Hmmm, tough but here's my suggestion:

Mobo: ECS K7VMA (On-board vid and sound, very stable board.) ($65 on pricewatch)
CPU: Retail Duron 750 ($50 or so on pricewatch)
RAM: 128MB PC133 SDRAM (about $25 at Crucial)
HD: WD Caviar 20GB ATA/100 7200RPM ($75 at pricewatch)
Modem: Cheap $10-20 Winmodem
Case: 300W PS ATX Case ($40-50)
CD-ROM: Cheapest brand name CD Drive you can find (probably $25-40 range)
Floppy: Generic Floppy ($10 or so)
But now for the monitor, the cheapest I've found is nearly $100, and the Printer, I saw a few in the $30-50 range but, none of them came with a printer cable. So you probably will need to spend $500 because you have shipping also, but this is my best suggestion.