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I know very little of PCs (use MAC at work), and will be buying a PC in the next week. Would like to keep the cost to about $7-800, not counting monitor printer, software. Will be used for internet, word processing, DVD playing, games. Nothing too tricky. I have looked at Dell, HP, Compaq so far but the "seeming" best buy sofar is from "BEST BUY", their own brand VPR Matrix ($750 with the $100 off savings until 6/17). The case is not as attractive as the others (basic ivory tower) but I think the "guts" are name brand stuff that everbody has (or so the sales guy says)..

P4 1.8ghz
256 DDRAM
56K modum
16x DVD
CD-Rom writer forget the speed
Gforce2 graphics

Any and all thoughts appreciated. Need help, me no speaky P.C. Thanks.

I think you really want to stay in the main computer companies (Dell, HP, etc.) I've heard horror stories about all brands. For example, while I had an HP laptop whose hard drive completely failed right after I totally customized it for myself, my sister has an HP that has not required a single call to service in the two years she's had it (has never frozen up or anything). So it's up to you, but I'd recommend staying away from anything "too cheap". My brother had an E-Machine that lasted two days before it crashed. And that seemed like a great deal.

I have a Sony Vaio Laptop and it works great, aside from a few nagging things. I guess you just have to get lucky and get one with few or no problems.

I work for Compaq, so I must promote a new presario. Less the fancy monitor, printer, and such - you can get them for cheap.

FYI.

Presario 4000
1.4Ghz celeron
256mb RAM
40g UDMA hdd
16X DVD-ROM
JBL Speakers
Microsoft XP Home

= $719 (no monitor)

+ $259 for a 17" flat CRT monitor

Please keep in mind, if you are going to be playing games, one of the most important pieces is the Video card. Now, the Best Buy branded box has a Geforce 2....What type of Geforce 2? There are about a dozen versions of the GF2 ranging from bottom feeders to top of the line. Also keep in mind that GF2 is technology from a few years ago...an eternity in the PC business. The newest graphics chips are based up on the GeForce 4 (by Nvidia) and Radeon 8500 (by ATI).

I find the best thing to do is BUILD YOUR OWN COMPUTER. I priced out a system better than the one you listed below for around $500 in parts + monitor. It might seem like a hard task, but it is very simple especially with the Internet as your resource. Besides, the knowledge you would gain would be immeasurable and I am sure some of the PC Gurus on this site would be more than willing to help in times of trouble

My .02

Well I work for Best Buy so I will promote the VPR.

The case is plain cus it is a standard case. As for the components, you can't build a comp with those stats for that price. (I have tried.) The best part is, it's made of industry standard equipment. Which is more than can be said for Any of the others listed so far.

The best advise I can give is compare the compnents. Like on the Compaq, It has a Celeron processor, the VPR has a P4. those are things you want to check on before decieding.

If you want more advise I can help, just shoot me a PM or email.

P.S.- I am a repair tech at BBY.

Dare I say it... Walmart will have some of the cheapest PCs around from Microtel. And you won't have to pay the M$ tax with them...

Now, as long as you can live with buying from Walmart.....

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product_listing.gsp?cat=86798&dept=3944&path=0%3A3944%3A3951%3A41937%3A86796%3A86798&bti=0&sb=61

How about any employee discounts?

(I'm actually looking strongly at the Presario 1700 notebook for college, myself.)

Dan Nixon, I hope you know that if you purchase a PC, it will likely not be compatible with much of your programs from work --- i.e. you won't be able to take any work home. Not that that's a bad thing, but I thought you might (should) know.

Don't expect to play games if you don't expect to pay lots of money.

Dell, no contest if you don't build your own computer. We have a few thousand Compaq's and recently dumped them in favor for Dell's here at work.

I have far less problems with the dell hardware than the Compaq, but Compaq may have gotten better, I am just saying what I know and would do in my own situation.

Don't you mean "Don't expect to play the games that just were realesed in their highest settings if you don't expect to pay lots of money."?

You can most definately get a kick ass gaming system with a monitor for under a $1000.

Just make it a XP 1800+, 256MB DDR, GeForce4 MX or ATI Radeon 8500. Anything better than that and price begins to rise expotentially.