what's a good choice for under $1000

[joytimeday]

One of my friends is on the market for a computer under $1000, as general he was suggested to go with the Dell and we had settled to this one:
Dell Vostro 400 2.33GHz 2GB 160GB Desktop $629
Viewsonic VA2026W 20 inch Widescreen LCD Monitor $190
Some others suggest him to build his own, but we can't manage that, if you have any good built list here please, thanks in advance.....

[Soopafresh]

It's fine. Dell installs a bunch of trial apps which slow down your system, so download Dell Decrapifier to get rid of them automatically: http://www.yorkspace.com/pc-de-crapifier/

[yoda313]

Some others suggest him to build his own, but we can't manage that,

Actually now that I have essentially rebuilt my computer I would recommend this course. The only down side is you have to install the operating system yourself.

The advantage of building yourself is you can buy the exact motherboard and powersupply that you want. Plus you can cannabilize any existing parts like harddrives and dvd drives to save some money for later upgrading.

The problem with prebuilt deals is you get stuck with packages that you can't customize completely. For example my hp I got last year only has two ram channels available as opposed to a possible four. Also I don't think many prebuilt deals offer SLI availability for gaming.

Now that I actually have installed my own procesor I really wish I had bought my system in parts instead of a package deal. It's actually added quite a bit of cost to the original outlay. If I had done a piece by piece ordering I probably would have saved some money even with buying my own VISTA package rather than a oem version.

If you don't HAVE to buy a new monitor than that really brings down the cost.

BUT don't worry you can always upgrade later.

[thinger62]

You may want to look closer at the Vostro 400. This is a similar package for substantially less ($530 plus tax, free shipping:

System Specs:
2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor
Windows XP Home OR Vista Home Basic
20-inch Widescreen Flat Panel Monitor
1GB DDR2 Memory
160GB SATA Hard Drive
16x DVD Burner
128MB NVidia GeForce 8300GS Video Card
Expires: 2/6/2008

You can upgrade the cpu and still be cheaper than just the pc in your link.


http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=04&kc=6W300&l=en&oc=brdw4aa...421&lid=197378