Revamp for a sweet woman

[Salty Sailor Boy]

So I am in the process of building a pc for a lady who cleans where I work. She has had the same computer for years. It was built by a dear friend of hers who is now passed. I informed her I could build her a new one. She just wanted her old one fixed however it’s so outdated it would have a hard time with basic task. I offered to build the pc in the old tower itself so it would still look like the old pc she had.  This sparked her interest.. seeing her response definitely made me feel pretty happy. I made the decision I’m putting a pause on my computer to build hers. But I can’t spend a lot of money on it so basically I’m looking for a cheap build for a basic midtower case. She is just wanting to browse the internet and watch videos. I’m not really looking for a price point but I’d say less than 500. Thanks all I can really swing right now for her but I really wanna do this. She is so sweet. I’m thinking integrated graphics. I don’t wanna do ddr3 but it’s so cheap...  any build recommendations would be very welcome. 

[aisle9]

Budget, will handling browsing and videos but not a whole heck of a lot else:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Celeron G3930 2.9GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($35.49 @ SuperBiiz) 
Motherboard: ASRock - B250M-HDV Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($40.98 @ Newegg) 
Memory: Crucial - 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  ($44.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($46.89 @ OutletPC) 
Power Supply: Corsair - CXM 550W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($34.99 @ Newegg) 
Total: $203.34
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-12-19 18:25 EST-0500

 

Sweet spot:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Pentium G4600 3.6GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($86.88 @ OutletPC) 
Motherboard: ASRock - B250M-HDV Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($40.98 @ Newegg) 
Memory: Crucial - 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  ($87.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Storage: PNY - CS1311 480GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($125.50 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: Corsair - CXM 550W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($34.99 @ Newegg) 
Total: $376.34
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-12-19 18:27 EST-0500

 

Overkill (the i5 isn't necessary, but would lock this build in for years to come):

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i5-7400 3.0GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($178.49 @ OutletPC) 
Motherboard: ASRock - B250M-HDV Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($40.98 @ Newegg) 
Memory: Crucial - 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  ($87.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Storage: PNY - CS1311 480GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($125.50 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: Corsair - CXM 550W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($34.99 @ Newegg) 
Total: $467.95
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-12-19 18:28 EST-0500

[Salty Sailor Boy]

Wow thank you for your snappy response. 

[Anghammarad]

If you are wanting to only use new parts, well then I would need to do some research myself.

 

If used is ok as well, I fared quite well with socket 775. The machine that I used as Media Server, living room computer sported a socket 775 board, 6 gigs of ram ( the other 8 gig sets I had went with nearly identical machines I gifted friends that had worse ones), and in my machine a used gtx 560. 

 

It browsed the web well, it played videos well, did browser games well, even played some newer games well. 

 

Throw in a SSD and it should be good to go.

[aisle9]

12 minutes ago, Anghammarad said:

If you are wanting to only use new parts, well then I would need to do some research myself.

 

If used is ok as well, I fared quite well with socket 775. The machine that I used as Media Server, living room computer sported a socket 775 board, 6 gigs of ram ( the other 8 gig sets I had went with nearly identical machines I gifted friends that had worse ones), and in my machine a used gtx 560. 

 

It browsed the web well, it played videos well, did browser games well, even played some newer games well. 

 

Throw in a SSD and it should be good to go.

I wouldn't build on 775 with a $500 budget in 2017. That's not to knock 775--I buy lots of old 775 PCs at yard sales and flip them on the cheap ($50-100), but with that sort of budget, the OP can afford something that will last much longer and be made entirely of new parts with warranties on them.

 

But, yeah, if someone needed a basic PC for $100, 775 is the way to go.

[Energycore]

I thought from the title that this would have been your significant other

 

I'll make a recommendation and put in a 120GB SSD. I really don't think someone who just browses is going to need more capacity than that and she's going to love the speed.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Pentium G4400 3.3GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($49.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock - B250M-HDV Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($40.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial - 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  ($84.88 @ OutletPC)
Storage: PNY - CS1311 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($53.62 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair - CXM 550W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($34.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $264.46
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-12-19 18:47 EST-0500

 

The upgrades I'd do if you want to spend more is a bigger SSD for her, a 4-thread CPU like the G4560 and an aftermarket CPU cooler since her old case probably isn't great when it comes to airflow. And she'll love the silence compared to your usual whiny office computer.

 

The SSD is a must though, imo.

[Salty Sailor Boy]

No not my wife. When I get to build my pc we will share:) thank you all very much