Budget and general purpose system suggestions?

[RisingPhoenix]

I'm looking into building a computer for my mother and would like suggestions as to the parts I should get. She would like to just essentially gut an HP Pavilion 9880 case and just utilize the case as well as the CD and DVD drives. It will be a general purpose computer, utilized for mainly pictures, music, internet, and other general purpose things. I would like it to be decently fast and be able to handle minor memory-intensive processes, but certainly not top of the line because that's not necessary at all.

I want to replace the motherboard, processor, RAM, harddrive and power supply. A video card is not necessary.

A basic outline of the parts...

- I would like 2-4GB of RAM (preferably 4)

- A dual core processor (unless other suggestions are made)

- At least 250GB of harddrive space.

- A relatively new motherboard to catch up with the times (IDE connections seems to be fading out and PCI-Express is now commonplace). Integrated video card is fine and preferred.

I threw some things together on NewEgg to get an idea of the prices. I would like to keep it below $400, but there is a $500 max. Don't want to have to deal with several fans or heatsinks. Been out of the loop for a bit, so I'm not too sharp on processors and motherboards right now.

Any suggestions as to what I should get? Here is what I tossed together. (The HDD in the list is quite large and doesn't need to have that much space. It was just cheap). Any help is appreciated. Let me know if I need anything else. Thanks.

 

[Mathis]

I think your newegg shopping cart looks pretty good. Honestly, if you have the $500.00 to spend, I would add on a mid-range discreet graphics card. But I'm also very much against IGP.

 

[DavidJa]

the WD6401AALS offers better performance as shown here for the same price more or less
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=584967

but are you sure you will be able to reuse the case its likely the motherboard mounting holes are a proprietary design for hp, so you'd have to drill new ones.

 

[sbinh]

yeah the 640gb black is one of the best 640gb drive. it's very high rating

 

[RisingPhoenix]

the WD6401AALS offers better performance as shown here for the same price more or less
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=584967

but are you sure you will be able to reuse the case its likely the motherboard mounting holes are a proprietary design for hp, so you'd have to drill new ones.

I took a look at the motherboard already in the case to see if the holes would line up. They appear to be in the typical spot for a full ATX motherboard, at least from what I see in comparison to some pictures. I think the hole alignment is fine.

Also, I did switch out that harddrive. A few bucks for better performance is fine by me.

As for the video card, I'm going to skip on that, I think. In my experience, IGP has sucked for gaming, but has been fine for me in other respects. Unless there's something I'm missing (do say so if there is, or just for future note), then I think I'll keep it like it is now.

So with this case, the motherboard, RAM, PSU, HDD, processor, CD & DVD, this should be all I need to build the comp, right? Let me know if I'm missing something, and thanks for your input so far.