~$500 build - Web box with a bit of room for future upgrades

Hi all,

My girlfriend's computer (technically my computer...) gave it up yesterday, with the main problem being the video card. That and due to some of the noise it's putting out, I suspect the fan on the power supply is on its last legs. It's a seven year old Dell that's been on 24/7 since I got it, so while its near death is not unexpected it's still annoying.

Basically, I'm looking to put something together that will suffice as a general use box for her (web use, photo manipulation, music, movies, DVD burning), but that won't be too expensive and will have some leeway for future upgrading.

The motherboard selection is where I've been having most of the problem. There are a lot of motherboards out there, with few reviews for the lower end ones (onboard video, sound). If I get a decent motherboard with onboard video would it be possible to cram a cheap Celeron or Pentium D processor on there and replace that with a Core 2 Duo down the line? It'll never be a big gaming computer although I do have a spare 7600GS back home that will suffice for most stuff (as well as handle Aero, I guess) whenever I can get it out here.

Anyway, I was just looking for suggestions. So far I'm thinking Antec Sonata II for the case/power supply, 1GB of memory (not sure what brand or speed), a 320GB Seagate hard drive, and some sort of DVD+RW drive. Who knows on the motherboard and processor.

Thanks in advance. And as a warning, please don't link to Newegg. :P The $500 suggestion is in US dollars, but since I'm in Canada only sites like NCIX and Tigerdirect are useful (NCIX, preferably).

Another website I would suggest you check out is www.directcanada.com

I order from either directcanada or tigerdirect depending on which one is cheaper.

I tried but ncix totally sux for users, well compared to other sites, I created an account and everything wouldnt let me make a wishlist. I will try tigerdirect later.

Thanks for the suggestions.

I've priced out some parts:

-Intel G965 motherboard ($160CDN)
-Pentium D 915 ($120)
-2x512MB Corsair Value DDR2-667 ($100)
-320GB Seagate hard drive ($120CDN)
-LG DVD writer ($45)

Which is okay. Unfortunately, the case and Vista push it up to $800CDN, which is to the point where I start going "Hey, I might as well throw another hundred bucks at it for an E6300."

Such is the nature of the PC, it is hard to build a good one cheap and upgrade makes the system that much better, but they add up in the end. At some point you just need to stick to your budget. If you know you're going to be upgrading this system in the future then I say going Pentium D is ok... I would plan an upgrade path that would go midrange DX10 card once both ATI and Nvidia have shipped their parts, Ram upgrade to 2 or 3GB, finally a Quad core CPU in 12-18 months. It will mean putting about another $500-800 into the system over the next 12 to 18 months. But in the end you should have a respectable gaming platform. BigD

I caved yesterday, and decided that since I do have a budget I should just stick with it, and though it would be nice to do future upgrades, it's not essential.

With a bit of weaseling I managed to get an extra fifty bucks off a sale computer from the Compu Smart down the street. It's not my first choice, but for $530CDN I got a little budget Acer that's plenty for what my girlfriend needs - X2 3800, 1GB RAM, a 250GB hard drive, plus the usual stuff like a DVD writer and memory card reader.

It has a PCI-E slot so I can probably cram in that 7600GS if I replace the power supply. It's not very greedy, though, so maybe it'll run (the crappy included PS seems to be 300W, and there's only one hard drive and disc drive).

edit - there are also four RAM slots, which was more than I was expecting.

It's not ideal, but the price was right, and whenever I start picking out pieces myself I look at each part and constantly think "Well hey, that better part is only $20 more..." Then it just keeps adding up. :P

Thanks for the suggestions anyway, guys.

The 7600GS requires a minimum of a 350W Power Supply, but it may work on the 300W.Cyborg-21

[QUOTE="Cyborg-21"]The 7600GS requires a minimum of a 350W Power Supply, but it may work on the 300W.crazytom49