$500 Computer

Today I made the $500 computer, and I am extremely excited about the build. I compiled the build on Newegg.com exclusively. They tend to have the best prices, and it can save a lot of money to buy from one place (Shipping can add a lot to the cost, and can be cheap/free after a certain amount). The hardware is future proof, with the new AM3 socket and DDR3 RAM. The hardware is close to $500 without the operating system. If you were to get a copy of Windows 7 Home Premium would put the cost above $500, but there are several free, open source operating systems available. Ubuntu us a very popular free Linux distribution; Mint is another, and has a lot of eye candy.

So, the build is as follows:
MSI 785GM-E51 - $80 - (Integrated ATI Graphics with 1080P video and onboard HDMI connector) - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130247
AMD Athlon II X4 630 - $102 - (Quad core running at 2.8GHz) - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103704
4GB (2x2GB) OCZ Gold RAM - $92 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227479
Rosewill Green Series 430W PSU - $40 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182202
1TB Seagate Barracuda HDD - $95 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148433
Rosewill ATX Mid-Tower - $30 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147147
Rosewill 120mm Fan (2x) - $9 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835200048

Comes to $448 total. You still need a monitor, but most people have one from an old PC. The motherboard supports the major standards, HDMI, DVI and VGA. That means your current monitor will work until you can get a new one to replace it, if you would like to at all. It also has a PCI-E 2.0 x16 slot, so you can outfit it with an awesome graphics card later, if you ever want to game with it, or maybe use it with 6 monitors?

Good luck and happy building!