[patriota-ferus]

I would hesitate to buy anything over the counter, esp. a DELL !

I did tech support for them for a year. They spend more on the their advertising than on their product. I had never been cursed so many times in my life as I did that year!!

My advice is simple: Find a local “geek” and have him build a good/solid machine and install a real operating system ( not a "recovery disc").

The problem with most over-the-counter machines is they use the cheapest parts that can be found. The outside is cool looking, but the inside is third-world.

There are two places that I would recommend online for help in this area. PCPartsCollection.Com and TigerDirect.com

I build my own computers. These are the places that I get my parts from. They , also, have computers that they build themselves. Just a thought!

[mlmr]

I had a horror-show with dell, my link is futher down in the thread. I have been looking at the Tiger direct catalog. Would they build them for me? Then I need to add in two operating systems. Where would I find the two operating systems and things I need, (Mail, word) at a reasonable price. Do I have to buy more than one and is there a discount?