Help me choose a new PC

[The Brain]

I can't believe not a single one of you has warned him that those rebate-offering PCs (HP/Compaq, eMachines, or even Dell) come pre-loaded with so much crap software, they'll slow even a fast CPU to a crawl in no time. If you can get your hands on a cracked version of XP Pro that you install on the PC after formatting the drive, then fine.

If you want to try something different... <a href=http://www.alienware.com/Configurator_Pages/bot.aspx?SysCode=PC-BOT&SubCode=SKU-DEFAULT target=new>AlienWare has a low-end machine, rebate included.</a> It has Windows XP Home on it (not as good as Pro), but that's OK for you. The money does start tacking on once you're tempted to upgrade a few things-- it lists at $429.00 (and that's post-rebate), but an extra $100 will boost you to 512MB RAM and get you a 16x DVD-rewritable drive.

And you will want at least 512MB of RAM for just about anything you want to do (63??!!!). But try for 1GB if possible.