My philosophy is go cheap. Why? Because technology advances so fast what you spend $1,000+ on today will be available for $500 in 2-3 years.

And in 2-3 years you will want to replace that system but might not have the $ for it depending what you spend now: you fall into a cycle of "PC envy" and end up paying for more than you need.

Look at what you want it for. Unless you are going to play high end video games, do heavy video editing or CAD applications, the cheaper systems are usually more than adequate.

I am on a 4-5 year cycle on my PCs - I invest in memory and an external hard drive (backup, backup and backup). Keep the disk clean and the system maintained and the performance is usually more than adequate throughout the lifecycle.

Note: I am an "ubergeek" - I have my own server at home (running MS Exchange and Sharepoint) and have 4 systems at work (2 laptops and 2 desktops, not to mention the 100+ servers I manage). I can afford any system I want - all I do is adjust my wants to something more reasonable.

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Pax,
Richard Elliott
Midlothian, Virginia
Deacon, Presbyterian Church in America
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I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else. , C. S. Lewis