$400 budget for PC build

[Avalanche941]

I need a PC, but I have a tight budget; $400, give or take a little. This PC will be used for text editing, image editing, web surfing, and possibly 2D animation, if the PC is good enough. I already have a monitor, mouse, and keyboard. I want this PC is for it to be upgradeable, at least to a certain extent. I am hoping to use a Pentium 4 Prescott as a CPU, 512MB RAM, and 160GB hard drive. I am not sure if I can get a good PC with only $400. I am not sure about the MoBo, RAM, Hard Drive, and CPU, so which CPU, Mobo, RAM, and Hard Drive should I get? I am pretty sure about which case, PS, and optical drive.
Which OS should I go with, Linux or Windows? Are my choices compatible, as I am pretty sure they are, but if they aren't and I order them, it would be a huge waste. Should I get a motherboard with a built in video and sound, or should I get sound cards or video cards? Is $400 too little to get a good quality computer that is upgradeable?

[flanzig1]

For four hundred you either get an inexpencive Dell(with limited upgrade capacity or for a home built, use outdated/cheap junk. $600 is about the minimum for quailty low end self built PC.

[jer888]

400 is a little tight and this goes over but to be upgradeable, this is the best I could find if you want to build with the parts you said you wanted. you may be better off with a dell or such

Motherboard: ASUS P5B LGA 775 Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard = $124.99

yeah, that is 1/4 of your budget, but you want something you will be able to upgrade with later and that will defintly allow you to upgrade

Processor: Intel Pentium 4 531 Prescott 3.0GHz 1MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor = $79.00

Memory: CORSAIR ValueSelect 512MB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Desktop Memory = $44.99

Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar SE WD1600JS 160GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive = $52.99

as for the video, you asked wether to get integrated or a card. for upgradability, i would get the motherboard above which has a PCI-E slot and then get this card which will do what you said you need to do.

Video: EVGA 256-P2-N615-TX GeForce 7600GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card = $109.99

you did not specify which power supply you were looking at but choose a reputable brand from here

i didnt think those will be too bad for what you are going to do with it, but 400 is not alot to get any computer really

[Cricket]

When I do a budget build I'm usually looking at $600 + (without monitor, keyboard, mouse and speakers) minimum. I can't make it cheaper unless I go with low quality bargain basement parts (which I refuse to use). If you came to me with a budget of only $400 I'd tell you to go to DELL.com to see what they have available because I can't do a decent build with brand new parts for that price.

Cricket

[glc]

This is the cheapest system I'd attempt to build, prices are from Newegg, including shipping:

Foxconn TS-1 case - $61
Asus P5L-MX motherboard - $82
Pentium-D 915 - $106
Corsair VS DDR2-667 2x512 kit - $84
WD 1600JS hard drive - $59
Lite-On retail DVD burner - $38

That's $430, no operating system. Motherboard has onboard video and a PCI-Ex16 slot - and is upgradeable to a Core 2 Duo, case is the cheapest quality one out there that has a quality power supply. If you can't afford this, wait till you can or buy something out of the Dell outlet and forget future upgrades.

[flanzig1]

Did a quick cost on a build with quality parts using a Celeron D 347/Asus P5L-MX/512 VS ram/WD 80g SATA HD/Lite-on DVD burner retail/Antec SLK1650b case with PSU/XP Home OEM comes to around $420 =Around $40 shippng. Change to a D 914 /1 gig ram/X1300 vid card= comes to just about $600
With the Celeron and 512 of ram, PC probably wallow doing image work.

[glc]

That's why I suggested a dual core and 1 gig ram for that kind of work.

[Tithis]

Building a decent computer for 400 is possible, but you will have to sacrifice your upgradability. Making any future upgrades much more expensive. Its what I did, I can't upgrade my processor without getting a whole new motherboard, I'm on a 754 board.