[Lloyd227]

Any advice at all would be appreciated.

Best regards,
Lloyd

[Jeff Chandler]

I like sticking with what works and Windows 2000

Cognitive dissonance.

[rightisright]

I have built my own (and other family members) PCs for the last 5-6 years, and have found you actually CAN squeeze a $2000 computer into a $700 budget.

My preferred online vendor for parts is New Egg (www.newegg.com), quick delivery, cheap shipping and (usually) great prices

You may want to offer your son a compromise, you will get the $200 video card, as long as you go with an AMD Athlon XP as your processor. Make sure you have enough cooling, and get a good case (I prefer the Antec's). And yes, the video card does make a difference.

Good luck.

[Orangedog]

I have my own version of Moore's Law: "The kick-ass, off the shelf system will always cost $2000."

I build all of mine. It used to be to save money, but now it's more on principle. Kinda like Ted Nugent going to a steak house...he'd rather kill it and grill it himself.

I'm sure your older son wants the big honkin' video card. I've seen the new 256 MB monsters for around $500(!). I'm only now getting to the point where my 32 MB card I bought 3 years ago is no longer doing the job.

Whatever you do, don't buy a Dell unless you like speaking to people from India.

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/retailerratings/liststores.cfm

Above URL has info on a lot of online stores.

[Ex-Dem]

Depends on how computer saavy you or someone you know is. If alls you need is the actual computer (no monitor, printer, keyboard), you can buy a case, motherboard, graphics card, memory, etc. for a few hundred bucks on E-Bay and assemble it yourself.

Last computer I had was a 1.6 GHz P4, GeForce2, 256 megs RAM for about ~$200, which was a decent computer for a few years ago. The CDROM and DVDROM drives I got seperately, from a cannabalized computer. You can just strip them from your old computer (unless they happen to be pretty old and you would like to replace those too). Make sure you get new parts from a reputable dealer on E-Bay.

BTW, I'm a Windows 2000 stickler too :). I hate computers that comes pre-installed with the OS. The company usually gives you a version that comes with all kinds of software and adware that you don't want.