Inexpensive home-use PC also for lightweight C7 use?

It depends on the audio interface as well. If you want to use the onboard soundcard it’ll probably work using ASIO4all and a fairly high buffersize, but there’s no way of knowing other than to test it.
If you want to use an external audio interface that shouldn’t be a problem, but if it’s firewire there may be issues with the chip used in the firewire controller.

Also, check the minimum required specs for Cubase and compare it to your PC of choice. They’re pretty low though so I guess most desktop PC’s bought today would suffice.