Help me build a computer

Our desktop is just about at the end of its life. I built it 7.5 years ago, after five people using it most every day for 6 years, and then on and off use for another 1.5, its tired. I figure that we'll need a new motherboard, processor, harddrive, possibly memory, and possibly video card. What say the GRM boards?
What motherboard, processor, and hard-drive should I get?
Does memory go "Bad"? I think we have two (2) 512mb cards of something in there.
What about a video card? We don't game, we got whatever was a decent mid-line card back then.

We want to keep it as cheap as possible, but don't want crappy stuff. It will be used primarily for ebay, youtube, email, word, and excell.

I would figure on next to nothing from your current system being modern enough for a new system.

I have had decent luck with Tiger Direct's barebones systems. They're cheap, and I've had good luck with them for the most part.

Yes, basically your computer case needs a new computer...

A good place to start is to look at Tom's Hardware System Builder articles:

System Builder Marathon, December 2010: $500 PC

In some of their builds they do have some stuff you may not want because they do focus on gaming (e.g. Video Card, they do have article on the best buys in video cards also), but that is pretty much the most demanding for a computer.

Be careful not to go TOO cheap on computer parts. There is always a sweet spot somewhere in the middle of the price range where you get the best bang for you buck. Also, you don't want to end up with a computer that is out of date in a few months.

Yeah, I had a cheap motherboard go bad in just about 10 months. That's one place you don't want to go cheap.

I built one for desktop publishing/video processing. EVGA motherboard, i7 processor, ATI fire video, buckets of ram and a couple of Tb hard drives. Have had good luck with new egg for prices. Bigger drives are now out and newer motherboards with 4 sli slots.

For the memory thing, it can go bad, but most likely it's outdated. There's more than size that's important, there's also how fast the memory can be accessed (read speed and write speed) and how much access there is to the memory (front-side bus speed and channel width).

Another "your power cable needs to connect to a new computer" vote here. If it's 7.5 years old you're lucky if you can reuse the case and you're almost in lottery-winning territory if you can reuse the power supply in that case.

The recommendation to have a look at places like Tom's Hardware is a good one, but as an alternative I would suggest you have a look for a used system on CL.

I "scored" a 2-3 old Dell (even though I don't like Dells that much) with a 24" LCD and some accessories last year for $400. It's a decent spec quad core machine and my main and only gripe with it is that it only holds 4GB of RAM. But it's fast enough for what I do on it (a little rFactor but mostly programming and some photoshopping) and the monitor alone was and is probably worth half of what I paid for the thing, not counting that I had to bump up the RAM from 2GB to 4GB.

Sounds like a cheap laptop would be more than enough for what you need. Get one with a dock and you can use a full sized keyboard, mouse and monitor.

That or a NetTop system: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nettop

The only real reason anymore to have a fully built "desktop" system is to game, use as file storage server or for something more serious (movie editing, photo editing, software development, etc)

Even then, a NAS is usually a better solution for file storage.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network-attached_storage

For what you're looking to do, I might seriously look at going to a NetTop or upgrading the existing system and rebuilding the OS. Generally speaking, refreshing the Windows installation on your systems every 2-3 years is like doing a full detailing on your car. Same car, just looks better. Its worth a shot as you'd want to wipe the system out before getting rid of it or handing it down anyway.

Look at the current system specs and up the memory to as close to 3GB as you can. Upgrade the video card to the newest and fastest that will fit and replace the hard drive(s) with a larger, faster one. I've done this a few times and have extended the life of several systems. The more and more cloud-based your use is, the less and less system you really need to make that happen.

take a peek at the barebones systems from shuttle (shuttle.com). They are small, are practically silent, will have onboard video and audio, and for ~$200 you'll have a great start to building a decent desktop system....just add processor, memory, HD. We have 3 here at the house -- one in my office, mrs. orphancars office, and another as a dedicated HTPC running Linux. Built a bunch for friends.

I just built one recently for under $500 and it has a quad core proc and 4 GB memory. A nice to have is that it has two video outputs -- I have one running to a 24" LCD and the second to a 19".....mucho real estate

Use pricewatch.com to shop for components.........

This sounds just about perfect for you: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7204163&CatId=4947

Buy this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.611167

Assemble.

Profit!

You really think the case and power supply are not compatible with the other new components these days? Its an Antec Sonata II as seen here: http://www.antec.com/Believe_it/product.php?Type=Mg==&id=NjYy

The Antec Sonata is an ATX case if it's the one that's still around - in that case you might have to get a new PSU (if the motherboard or graphics card needs a couple of new connectors the old PSU doesn't have) but you should be able to reuse the case.

Once upon a time, a 200-watt power supply was plenty. Now, depending on what graphics card you install, 600 watts might not be enough.