Wife needs a new PC

CrazyJoe

So the 10+ year old PC that my wife was using has finally died and we need a new one. With buying the house we are pretty short on money so my budget is somewhere around $300 or so. I would love to get at least an i3 or equivalent. All she would be using it for is internet and basic word processing so nothing fancy. I know there are lots of people in IC that look at computer deals regularly so if any of you see a good deal in that price range please let me know. I have an old Radeon 6850 to put in the system which will be plenty for her uses so graphics aren't really a priority. I also have legit copies of Windows 7/Office so OS/software is also not that important.

shwaip

laptop or desktop?

Does she need a monitor?

CrazyJoe

Desktop. She does not need a monitor.

mertesn

I have some spare CPUs. If you can get yourself and AM3 or AM3+ motherboard I can send one your way.

CrazyJoe

Any suggestions on a good one? I am fine with building a new one if the parts can be about the same price range. I am not sure what the problem with the system is as it doesn't do anything upon powering on. The screen is blank and the monitor says there is no signal. The power supply seems to be working as the case fans are on and the optical drives open and close when pushing the buttons.

mertesn

I would recommend a Gigabyte board. They aren't the cheapest, but I've had excellent experiences with them, and I'm pretty sure @Thrax would agree.

Thrax

Yup, gigabyte.

CrazyJoe

So what about this?

Motherboard

Memory

shwaip

I'd say you should go for 8GB of memory. A quick newegg search shows me that this appears to be the most reasonably priced 8GB kit that has a recognizable manufacturer.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148500

CrazyJoe

So I was looking at Dell Outlet just for the heck of it and I found two PCs that might fit our needs. These are the Specs on them. What one do you guys think is better? Both come with Win8 Preinstalled.

A 3rd Generation i5-3330s Processor with 1TB HD, 8GB DDR3 1600MHz for $375.20

or

2nd Generation i7-2600 Processor with 500GB HD, 4GB DDR3 for $367.20

Are either of those a good deal? I haven't found anything close looking around at the local box stores the past few weeks.

Tushon

Unless she is doing something CPU intensive, more ram and storage is probably better for <$10 more (and it's the 3rd gen i5, so still pretty good)

CrazyJoe

That's what I thought. I doubt she'd ever really use the HD space, but she does take alot of pictures of our dog, so who knows.

shwaip

there may be a coupon as well

http://slickdeals.net/permadeal/99338/dell-home-outlet-dell-outlet-coupon-for-2030-off-refurbished-or-scratch-dent-laptops-desktops-allinones-tablets

CrazyJoe

I used that coupon. The posted price was after coupon.

CrazyJoe

I actually have a decent amount of rewards certificate to Best Buy and was looking at this one. Is that a decent system for the price?

shwaip

It seems like you could probably build a pc for cheaper than that.

Ryder

But with rewards points, it may make it much cheaper?

CrazyJoe

Yep. I went ahead and got it. It's tax free weekend and I get about 5% back in rewards and 18 months no interest.

MrTRiot

I have a spare AMD 965 BE with a gigabyte board if anyone is interested