I want a new computer with XP OS.
okay I built my own at dell(didn't purchase yet) but the price seems very high. I choose not to get a monitor because I hear dells aren't that great in that department. I have my own speakers. keep in mind the 3 year warranty ,included in price, was two hundred and change so really I'm paying about $800 for the computer. Doesn't this seem too high for an older computer or is it worth it? $1,072

Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E4500 (2MB L2 Cache,2.20GHz,800 FSB)

Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition - English

2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz- 2DIMMs

Dell USB Keyboard and Dell Optical USB Mouse

No Monitor

ATI Radeon HD 2400 PRO 128MB

320GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™

Dell 19 in 1 Media Card Reader

Integrated 10/100 Ethernet

56K PCI Data Fax Modem

Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 8.1

16x DVD+/-RW Drive

Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio

No speakers (Speakers are required to hear audio from your system)

Microsoft® Office Home and Student 2007

Adobe Photoshop Elements + Adobe Premiere Elements

Dell Care 3yr in home warranty

1,072 Total charge with delivery.

You're are much better off building it yourself or buying a barebones pc that comes with a case, ram, hard drive and processor. If I was you I wouldn't buy from a namebrand pc I would build or have someone build it for me that you know, but if you don't know anyone next thing I would do is buy a barebones system.

That price is a total rip off. You can build thaT PC yourself for less then 500 bucks.

For that sort of money I would expect to get at least a 19" LCD monitor with it.
The 56k modem who is going to use that? most use broadband, unless you are unfortunate enough to be in a location where it's not available.
Acrobat Reader is a free program.
Make sure the other programs are fully licensed, not time limited demos that you have to pay for, in order to be able to keep using them.
A lot of PC makers are foisting programs onto unwary byers, who a couple of months along find their programs have stopped working and need to be paid for.
Check out the prices on http://www.newegg.com/ of individual components you have listed for that unit, you may get a surprise how little the hardware costs.

I bought a relative a general purpose Core 2 Duo PC from Dell a couple of months back & it came with a 19" LCD & Vista Basic. Sad to tell ya, the whole system cost me just a third of what you plan on spending on your general purpose Core 2 Duo & yours doesn't even include a monitor ... LOL!

BTW ... Dell does have decent *rebadged* LCDs.

But wait guys.. what about the award winning support over at dell...:)

Seriously though... back a few years ago when i had the time i would have been allover building one myself. For all the reasons you guys listed above and many more. My Pentium3 with WinMe is still a power house :).

But for those of us who dont have the time or expertise.. what oem/off the shelf/name brand would you suggest? Compaq? Dell? Acer?

Keep going to the big name sites as well as third party sites like tigerdirect or frys. They have so many sales tricks the if you keep an eye out you can find your system on sale usually in a few months. Personally I hate Dell because they still owe me $66 and I make no bones about it.

I read it wrong and answer it wrong too. So get off my case you peanut.

im consdering just getting a new HP computer with vista and just call it a day lol