Sickpuppy is right; build your own. It's far easier than you think. You will get better parts than a lot of those pre-made units. Compaq's are real junk, you couldn't give me one - let alone get ME to buy one. Forget about over-clocking - that is for gamers. Makes it more unreliable too. Besides, you want to keep it stable and error-free - stock is good enough.
Start with a good motherboard, like and ASUS or an ABIT. Get a real cheap case, one place to save money. Get a 650 watt power supply, so that it won't fail due to constant overload. I would rather buy a cheap case w/o a power supply and use the money to offset the price of the better power supply. My personal experience - and your gain. Buy some CORSAIR RAM; it's simply the best. Or - save a few bucks and get some OCZ; cheaper but still pretty fast. CD/DVD players/burners like the Sony can be had for about $40; Blu-Rays are still too expensive - forgetaboutit!
Get one of the nVidia 9000 series viddy card for $100~. Don't bother with a floppy disc player - they are a waste of time and money. And they are obsolete; there is no need for them any more - forgetaboutit. Hard drives - like a terabyte - will be overkill unless you want to store movies on them. I would rather have two very fast 300gb hard drives any day - one for the operating system and the second one for storing important stuff. That is best.
It is better to burn a CD/DVD and keep important data off of storage/hard drive. Hard drives are tempermental. If you drop them once- somewhere down the line - you can kiss it good-bye!
A multi-memory card reader that has front mounted USB ports on it cost $25~ - a bargain and a must!
Whatever CPU you choose will be fine for your requirements. I recommend AMD's; cheaper and faster. Saves you some bucks - too. You will need an adequate CPU cooler for it. Forget about water-cooled units or anything expensive/exotic - you don't need them because you aren't a gamer. Pick Xp over Vista - unless you can get Windows 7 x64 - I've tried it and I like it. Much better than Vista! If Vista causes you problems - a likelihood - you will be stuck if you aren't computer savvy. Xp simply kicks butt!
Start with a good motherboard, like and ASUS or an ABIT. Get a real cheap case, one place to save money. Get a 650 watt power supply, so that it won't fail due to constant overload. I would rather buy a cheap case w/o a power supply and use the money to offset the price of the better power supply. My personal experience - and your gain. Buy some CORSAIR RAM; it's simply the best. Or - save a few bucks and get some OCZ; cheaper but still pretty fast. CD/DVD players/burners like the Sony can be had for about $40; Blu-Rays are still too expensive - forgetaboutit!
Get one of the nVidia 9000 series viddy card for $100~. Don't bother with a floppy disc player - they are a waste of time and money. And they are obsolete; there is no need for them any more - forgetaboutit. Hard drives - like a terabyte - will be overkill unless you want to store movies on them. I would rather have two very fast 300gb hard drives any day - one for the operating system and the second one for storing important stuff. That is best.
It is better to burn a CD/DVD and keep important data off of storage/hard drive. Hard drives are tempermental. If you drop them once- somewhere down the line - you can kiss it good-bye!
A multi-memory card reader that has front mounted USB ports on it cost $25~ - a bargain and a must!
Whatever CPU you choose will be fine for your requirements. I recommend AMD's; cheaper and faster. Saves you some bucks - too. You will need an adequate CPU cooler for it. Forget about water-cooled units or anything expensive/exotic - you don't need them because you aren't a gamer. Pick Xp over Vista - unless you can get Windows 7 x64 - I've tried it and I like it. Much better than Vista! If Vista causes you problems - a likelihood - you will be stuck if you aren't computer savvy. Xp simply kicks butt!
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