I am SO confused these days. Five years ago when I bought my Packard Bell Platinum 450 Pentium 2 it was the TOP of the range. Now its time to buy a new computer (and before you say…I do not want to upgrade my old one as its not worth it) so why am I confused? Looking at the spec of new computers I want to buy a good machine for all round home use. I do not want to find myself having to upgrade in a years time. What I don’t understand is the difference between Pentium, Athlon, Celeron etc etc. As I see the price range the higher up I still see that Pentium 4 looks the best. Am I right? Also graphics boards….what is the best? GeForce, Radeon 9200 etc etc. Help me out here folks.

I think you'll get as many opinions as there are people. Of course a Pentium 4 and an Athlon are better processors than a Celeron, but it depends on what you want to do with your machine. If you're a Gamer, you'll need a heavy duty video card and a Big hard drive, but for the average user who checks email and surfs the web and runs some local apps like Quicken etc., you don't need a rocket ship. I think I personally would opt for the P4 processor or the Athlon. I can't offer an opinion on video because I haven't done much research on that subject, but I'm sure you're gonna hear from some other users. Any machine you buy these days will blow away your old machine, so you really can't loose. Bigger is not always better, but then if the manufacturer din't want us to believe that, how would they sell new machines. Good Luck.

Yes it is for home use.....the kids have some super games now....me well just the e-mail surfing...that sort of thing....plus a little editing now I have a digital camcorder.

Hi Paul, hi Grasshopper, hello everyone, It is definitly confusing for many. I build a lot of computers and prefer the Intel Processors at this particular time. AMD and Intel have bounced back and forth being on top in the market. Here was the last one I built and where I got the products. The little lady is very happy with it. :-) Intel D845GEBV2 motherboard. Intel P4 2.53GHz Processor. 512Mhz DDR 3200 Memory. WinXP Professional. The above 4 items were purchased from JLProductions. This is not the first purchase I've made from them and I always receive great service. Highly Recommended. 80Gb WD Hard Drive. Got a deal at Best Buy, after rebates it was $40.00. CDRW, found in the closet. :-) The case I purchased locally because of the cost of shipping. My suggestion would be to find someone that can build the computer for you with your current needs and future needs in mind. The first thing I do when building someone a computer is talk with them and find out what is best for them now and in the distant future. JLProductions also builds complete systems. HTH Best Regards, Mesich

Whatever you get, don't get the best (most expensive). The mid-range today is as good as the best was 8 months ago, and the best today will be mid-range in 8 months. The only thing that doesn't change is that the very top-end is a rip off.

Hi PaulPaul.. I just finished getting a really nice machine built for my daughter at an outfit called PCClub. Intel mobo and P4 processor (2,4 GHz), 512mb DDR RAM, two 80Gig, 7200, 8mb cache Western Dig HDD's, GigaByte 128mb graphics card, XP Pro, all for $1500. One year warrantee with optional 2 years for $75. This thing has an 800MHz front side buss (FSB)!!! Great game machine. Understand, the $1500 was for the tower only. No keyboard, mouse or monitor in the deal. She purchased those seperately. Total investment after all was said and done was about $2200. The Mitsubishi LCD monitor alone was $500. A friend did the same sort of deal on a machine that cost him $800 and used his old monitor, keyboard and mouse. ( http://www.pcclub.com/stores.cfm) I don't know where you are located, but try the link above and see how close you are. Even if you are not near a store, you could checkout the possibilities on the web site. My personal recommendation is to stay away from the name brand box makers. They load a lot of stuff you have absolutly no use for and some have hidden partitions which can at times really complicate your life. H-P is one of them. If you can't or don't want to build it yourself, these guys are really good. The only advantage (and that's iffy) to buying from the big box makers is the bundled software. You don't get that with this approach. You just get the OS and drivers for any installed hardware. HTH - Ray

Ray, that sounds like a nice machine, but for $1500 you could have a fast AthlonXP with all the bells & whistles, complete, and a 19" LCD display.