Desktop PC recommendations

[esa5444]

I am looking to buy a new desktop computer. My old one is from October of 2006 and is starting to fall to pieces. Today the graphics card went, though lucky for me it had a motherboard mounted GPU, and I think it has some electrical gremlins that I don't really want to bother fixing.

I am not looking for a high end machine, but something in the 400 dollar range. I need just the computer, got the screen and keyboard already. That said, last time I went PC shopping, it was Pentium vs Athlon, 32 vs 64 bit, and single core vs dual core. I think my knowledge is a bit dated.

I'm looking for some recommendations on what to get.

[mekender]

Anything that you pick up at Best Buy is going to be way beyond the capabilities of what you have now.

I prefer HP and Dell when it comes to pre-mades myself.

[arctictom]

Yep I have been buying dell, and hps for a while, I used to build my own but I can't compete given the cost of components.
I will add Wallmart to my list of places to cruise for desktops though, and I have got some great deals from amazon

[randy]

Agree with the Best Buy advice. Once you check what they have, see if Sam's club has the same model at a lower price.

I actually have a custom build, but that's because

I have a friend in the business with basically free tech support (we often sit around drinking beer and working on each others computers or radio gear while wife and kids do whatever they do) and he knows how to get quality parts at decent prices

I needed serial ports for my Ham radio apps,

Wanted it set up for 2 monitors (running VGA on the primary and HDMI to the TV I use as a second monitor)

and wanted Windows XP Pro to maintain compatibility with the other machines in the house (wife, daughter, and 2 laptops). Just makes my life easier to have the same OS on all when jumping around to different machines.

So it's not really a basic box, but only cost me just under $600

[workinwifdakids]

I don't buy anything except HP, and haven't for years and years. I think they put out an outstanding product, and I've been very happy.

[mekender]

Agree with the Best Buy advice. Once you check what they have, see if Sam's club has the same model at a lower price.

I actually prefer Costco simply because they have a no questions asked return policy and it is like 60 days... Most other places give you 14 or less.

[randy]

Agree with the Best Buy advice. Once you check what they have, see if Sam's club has the same model at a lower price.

I actually prefer Costco simply because they have a no questions asked return policy and it is like 60 days... Most other places give you 14 or less.

Don't have Costco here. Have never been in or even seen one. Hence why I didn't mention it.

[jetfxr69]

Randy I think we could go down to Cinci for Costco. I had a supervisor here at W-P that swore by them.

I pointed out to him that in general I got similar bargains at Sam's, and it was four minutes from my house.

[randy]

I just checked their web site. 2 in Northern Cinci area and one north of Columbus. Will have to keep that in mind. Thanks