Kinda on topic:
My son asked for help helping a friend build a box to be used for word processing, browsing, basic games, and enough image editing to be able to sort, store, resize, crop, etc.. basic stuff. The friend had a monitor, keyboard, mouse, and speakers from the past system. Everything else had to be new. And he wanted the best bang for the buck.. all 400 of them.
The end result was a micro box, PS, MB, 8gb of RAM, a 2 core Haswell, 128gb Samsung Evo SSD, 1tb 3.5 inch HDD, Lite-on DVDRW, and a USB 3.0 internal card reader. We took advantage of some decent sales after Christmas, etc.
Frankly it was surprising how quick and powerful a system $400 can get you. The only time I could tell a seat of the pants difference from my quad core 4770k system was when using layers, filters, and more advanced functions.
Eye opening.