Tower atx psu 400W included $39 M/B ASUS M2N-X PLUS $85 CPU AM2-940 x2 Dual Core 5000+ $100 Kingston 1GB DDR2 800 x1 $28 Graphics ASUS PCI-E 512mb 8500GT $74 18x dvd rw $35 Total $364 I have a friend that wants a brand new build... He has an OS that I am going to try and transfer to it. I am going to use his existing 40GB HDD to install the OS on. He has the mouse keyboard and monitor. He doesn't do gaming (but he wanted a graphics card *shrugs*)... he's basically a general pc user.... emails, word processing, chatting, surfing etc I think I have covered all bases.... how did I go cost wise?

Sorry that's AUD

It's highly unlikely the PSU in a $39 case is very good. A decent quality 400W PSU sells for at least $40 on it's own. There are better boards available for about $85. Look for one based on the nVidia 500 series or GeForce 7000 series chipsets & with 4 RAM slots. Here's a couple of possibilities: http://www.pcparts.net.au/Asrock-AL... http://www.pcparts.net.au/Gigabyte-... Get two 1GB sticks of DDR2-800 so that you can run dual channel mode. The 8500GT isn't a great card but since it's not for gaming, it'll be fine. If you get the ASRock board listed above, the card may not even be necessary (you can always add one later). Regardless, I see no reason to get a card with 512MB memory. You *should* be able to get a cheaper card with 256MB. http://www.pcparts.net.au/Galaxy-GF... "And that's the fishing line, because Sharkboy said so!"

i am guessing AUD is Australian Dollars - is that right? As far as I can see the main users of this site are people in USA (is that right?) I am in United Kingdom but normally show a rough conversion to US Dollars when i mention prices, otherwise you get confusing answers as the people in USA don't always quite get it. (sorry if I offend anuyone in USA)

Thanks Jam, Those are excellent alternatives. I'm leaning towards the Asrock because the cost less the graphics card, with another stick of ram running dual channel mode gives a decent performance boost and reduces the cost. I really don't think he needs performance graphics as it doesn't really support his usage style. I'll explain the how this setup is more suitable and see if I can talk him around. I agree on point you make about the case / PSU. I'm going to reconsider. The reduced cost of no graphics card will allow for a better PSU in the budget. Excellent. Heya Cliffpage, I realised after I posted that the currency difference was going to be a factor in the advice I was asking for....lol. I'll keep in mind in the future to convert to USD. Cheers mate. I'm glad I posted here... Thankyou very much for the help!!!