Thread: Cheap computer advice

Figured you guys might know hell of a lot more, been trying to look into it somewhat but ehh not sure how good the information is/will be. Anyways, my parents want to get a new computer to replace the old cheap piece of crap they bought, that is probably the slowest piece of shit I've ever seen (I mean it is really really fucking slow). They don't want to spend a whole lot since they don't use desktops too much anymore, it'd be mostly for:

Web Surfing
Playing some games (likely not overly intensive stuff like BF4 or that stuff)
Taxes
etc.

I was figuring something at least dual-core, possibly quad core if a decent one is possible
At least 4 gigs of ram, potentially more if possible
They want a large harddrive, about 1 TB or more. Why, I don't know but hey, whatever.

That is really about it, I was thinking potentially a cheapish quad core and/or extra ram just for future proofing, since they won't build a computer and will buy a pre-built. Why I'm asking more on generics then specific products, since again pre-built =/. Quad seems overkill but kind of iffy since assume at least won't have to worry about slowing down, and hell should last longer then the computer *shrugs*.

Found a few on Newegg today that were pretty cheap but curious about a couple things:
How are the AMDs? Seems they end up being cheaper, and they shouldn't be that bad compared to Intel, at least for the activities above right? One had a A8-6500, one had a A6-3620, and the other had a FX-4200.

How are the integrated cards these days? Like I said I figure they might play games like Tiger Woods golf (or whatever the new name will be), or likely older stuff and games like Bejewled etc. 99.9999% of the pre-builts won't have non-integrated anyways (in their desired price range) so kind of moot but one I found on newegg has a non-integrated so figured worth asking.

For Reference, these were the 3 I found:
Newegg.com - ASUS A8-Series APU 4GB DDR3 1TB HDD Capacity Desktop PC Windows 7 Home Premium M11BB-US003O
Newegg.com - ASUS A6-Series APU 4GB DDR3 1TB HDD Capacity Desktop PC Windows 8 64-Bit CM1735-US006S
Newegg.com - iBUYPOWER AMD FX-Series 4GB DDR3 1TB HDD Capacity Desktop PC Windows 8.1 64-Bit ARC Series NE611FX (though now see it was a cyber monday deal, ehh what happens when trying to quick search)

For that type of system you'd be fine with the AMD apus.

Intel HD4000 integrated graphics is pretty decent if you aren't doing any real gaming. If you're going for cheap, you could get by without a discrete graphics card. Heck, you could always put one in later if they decided to.

I'm not too familiar with AMD hardware, but they have some budget chips that pack some good punch for a low price if they get adequate cooling. For an average everyday computer with price in mind - AMD might be the way to go, though I'm sure a comparable i3 or lower end i5 might have a similar price.

RAM is getting pretty cheap and SSDs are coming down in price. You could use the money you save from not getting a GPU and put it towards 8GB of RAM and a 30-60GB SSD to install the OS on. They would probably appreciate the everyday usage boosts of booting from an SSD and having 8GB of RAM.

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My kids both have AMD A10-5800k's in their PCs with no discrete GPU and they are able to play most of the games they throw at it. Admittedly they're running low resolution (1440x900) but most games play reasonably well. As far as web surfing and such, they're more than adequate. The APUs you listed are the newer generation (Richland) vs the Trinity based APUs they have and would work fine for your parents.