Looking for Prebuilt recommendations

[Sabarok]

Budget (including currency): 500 CAD?

Country: Canada

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: No games. Mostly for media and home office applications

 

This one is for a friend of mine who has asked me for recommendations. The requirements are pretty low, and looking at Newegg, there are options under $200.

 

I will be lending an old PC that's an i7-4770k, so we will be able to wait for some Christmas or post-Christmas sales. It would be good if the CPU doesn't feel like a noticeable downgrade. It would also be good if the case had space to install a SATA HDD. I have a spare 1 TB that I will be donating.

 

I'm seeing a ton of options on newegg.ca, but I haven't been paying attention to which brands are good. It's going to someone with no technical knowledge and I won't be available for support, so I'm recommending a pre-built. Advice on what manufacturer to buy from would be very helpful. Suggestions on what CPUs to look for would also be appreciated.

 

I know most hardware has a bang:buck on a bell curve, so spend too little and you get a fraction of what you could get by spending just a little more. What's a good price range for a reliable and responsive non-gaming desktop?