I am upgrading my computer to a high end system. Below are my specs. I would appreciate any suggestions or comments toward my upgrade. Dell Dimension 4400 Windows XP Home Edition Pentium 4 @ 1.6 GHz 384MB DDR RAM nVidia Xtasy GeForce4 TI 4200se 128MB DDR 80 GB Hard Drive (FAT32) USB Gamepad (exactly like a Playstation 2 pad) 48x CD-ROM 32x CD-RW 19 inch flat screen monitor ATI Wondereye webcam Microtek ScanMaker 3800 scanner HP Laserjet 6p DSL @ 100 Mbps 3 1/2 inch Floppy Drive Surround speakers Wireless keyboard and mouse Microphone

1.6 P4?...that's no high end...get at least a 2.4 P4. I'll change the CD-ROM for a DVD-ROM....next Office and Windows version will come on DVD. if you really wanna go high end get a DVD burner and not a CD-RW...the one that burns DVD+/-R,RW. About the Operative system...Home? I'd get Win XP Pro....it is better.

I would get at least 512mb memory, if you want high end. Also, what kind of sound? Good speakers don't work that well with a cheap sound card.

I would build the computer your self or have a friend help build you a system. What I reconmend would be as follows: XP 2700 @ 333 Swiftec MCX 462 with Panaflo Ultra Asus a7n8x 2 X 512GB OCZ 2700 Radeon 9700 Pro SB Audigy 80 GB WD 8Mb 44X24X44 Yamaha burner Slot DVD Player 450 Watt Enermax Case - personal pref. Just my 2 cents Now that's performance!

I suggest to everyone except the most casual user to do the following: Don't buy a brand-name computer. If you can, find an independent computer retailer willing to put the system together for you and offer a warranty. They will also most likely price-match all your parts if you can find them cheaper at different retailers in your area. Do some research and find every part you want and have them set it up for you. Brand-name computers will skimp you where ever possible. For instance, they'll give you a tiny case that will make it difficult to do future upgrades, and/or in most cases, give you crappy parts or extras you don't need. The parts that they list with generic names are where they screw you, as they will give you the cheapest hardware they can get away with. If you really want to know if you're getting a good deal or not, it's best to know the brand-name and model# of every part inside it. However, that Dell Dude is very convincing. =)

Antec make damn good cases and power supplies....I recommend them.

You could get another hard drive. Better yet, get a raid card and 3 more 80Gb'ers, and put them in RAID 5. If you're going to get a card, make sure it has 4 channels or else you won't get as much of a performance gain. Whatever you do, stop using FAT32. Doesn't that limit you to 32Gb partitions? NTFS takes a small performance hit, but you get journaling, 64 bit addressing for larger partitions with smaller blocks, and more advanced filesystem features. You could be wasting as much as 10% of your drive with FAT32 depending on the size of your average file.