[quote name='mietha']I just bought this one
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...5710y&lp=1&type=product&cp=1&id=1218045567985 for under $400 a couple of days ago for my wife, and she's pretty happy with it. It will run wow at 15fps with the on-board video card, as a benchmark. Very happy with it for the price. Also (and this was very important to me) it was one of the very few comps they had that ran the 32-bit edition of vista. 64-bit just has too many problems. I was trying to avoid it like the plague. Also, its stats aren't great, but they are better than some that are priced in the ~$600 range. emachines are ass, but not as bad as dell. I've owned probably close to a dozen computers over 20+ years, and I had more trouble with the one dell I was suckered into buying than all of the others combined, and that is not remotely a joke.[/QUOTE]
The fact that you've owned over a dozen computers in the last 20 years kind of goes against any sort of expertise you may think you have here. Dell machines are heads and shoulders above emachines, even on their worst day. You must have had some freakishly bad horror story, because I've dealt with literally hundreds of Dells at various IT jobs and havent encountered anything like that, while every single emachine I've seen has ultimately been garbage.
OP, you obviously already have a monitor, a keyboard, a mouse, and an operating system, because you're posting. Do you really want to buy them all again? Is this replacing your current PC or in addition to it? If you're going for a *second* PC, you're still better off with Dell if only for monitor quality.
I actually just ordered two "kits" from tiger-direct that pretty much have these specs I was planning on building (all the parts, just bundled together really cheaply and I have to do it myself), one to run Windows Home Server and one as a gift. Those were $140 each and possibly had slightly better specs than this, but okay.
Assuming you want a prebuilt on the cheap, I'd do two things:
1. Order from a site that won't charge you shipping or tax (or at least not much) like Amazon or Newegg. Tiger is also good.
2. Order from a site with good customer support.
Dell does have some great deals though, peep this from slickdeals' frontpage:
Dell SB has Vostro 220N desktop PC for $389 + $30 S/H = $419. Thanks ShadowGuard
Note, this PC does not come with Windows preinstalled, you will need to install an operating system before using it. FreeDOS is included.
Specs
* Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 (2.8GHz, 3M, L2Cache, 1066FSB)
* 1GB Single Channel DDR2 SDRAM 800MHz - 1DIMMs
* Single Drive: 16X (DVD+/-RW) Burner Drive
* 250GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache
* Integrated Video, Intel GMA X4500HD
* Integrated 5.1 Channel Audio
* Dell 21.5 inch S2209W Full HD WidescreenFlat Panel Monitor
* FreeDOS included in the box, ready to install
* 1 Year Basic Limited Warranty and 1 Year NBD On-Site Service
It is possible to reduce the cost further to $369 by choosing the following options:
* No Optical Drive Selected [subtract $20]
* 80GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache [subtract $20]
* Dell 20 inch Widescreen 2009WFP UltraSharp Digital Flat Panel Display [subtract $10]
http://configure.us.dell.com/dellst...7378&acd=10466193-1225267-u0t0f0fp18029c0s558
If you're willing to put an OS installer disc in, you save money, get a much larger monitor, a much better processor, etc. If you buy retail you will almost be guaranteed to be forced to pay a license fee for an OS you neither want nor need.
While I wouldn't downgrade the monitor, I would cannibalize your existing optical drive and save 20 bucks on this rig, bringing you down to $399. I'd also probably get the smaller hard drive, but that's me.
Again, thats 399 for a much better PC with a larger, brighter monitor, and much, much better support than an emachine.
