Buying a new PC

[Blackadar]

Ok, my Alienware PC after 4 years of major abuse seems to be giving up the ghost.

I'm currently running a P3 866 with 512m RAM and a Gforce 4200. It's a dino.

So I'm really thinking about buying a new one. As always, it will likely be via mail order. And I'm going cheap - under $1k shipped.

Somewhere in the Athlon/Intel 2800 arena with 512m RAM and a decent video card. Nothing major and no monitor needed.

I won't go get another Alienware...it doesn't fit with my budget.

I can go to the Dude, you've got a Dell! route, which is attractive simply for the payment options. I can get a baseline decent system for around $750.

I can go IBuyPower or CyberPower, both in the same area with Athlon. The issue here is they don't install the OS. I have WinXP at home so I could do it myself, but I'm a bit concerned about updated drivers. I'm not looking forward to a reinstall of an OS and the issues that can come with it.

What do I do? Where should I go?

[sachmo71]

I recommend Dell.