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Fry's? Reliable?
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA

But, seriously, I bought a refurbished eMachines from them, which promptly failed. They replaced it, so, like a sucker I bought a Great Quality (just like the linked system) from them. http://lonewacko.com/blog/archives/001415.html

I bought additional Kingston RAM since then. Also since then it kept failing to fully start up for some reason. I switched the two RAM chips, which seemed to have worked for a couple weeks. Until earlier today when it restarted itself a couple times.

So, it might be a RAM problem, or a software problem. It might also be a problem with the GQ motherboard.

GQ is also built in (mainland) China. And, bear in mind my GQ is a higher model than yours. It cost a whopping $299 or so.

I don't know if there would be problems installing XP over Lindows, but you'd (presumably) still need to buy XP, so you might be better off just buying a system with XP pre-installed.

256megs of ram is enough. The potential problems come from drivers. Write down what video card, sound chip, network chip, modem, etc, that you have and make sure you can get XP drivers for them before you format. Otherwise you will be trotting back to the store to buy said accesories that have drivers and waste the ones you have. Some of these cheaper deals are designed only to work with Linux or Lindows. I have a mother board with a special UDMA chip and can't get XP drivers to work on the motherbd. It recognises my hard drive but won't boot. So I'm stuck with '98 or ME, or Linux to run faster hard drives. I've been trying beta drivers but nada works.I hate to frisbee the MB, but I'm close.

Another option is duel boot. Its nice to have a backup if everything crashes. At least she could get her e-mail until you reinstall.

We started building computers from components, mostly purchased from tiger direct. We've had very good luck with all but a couple of little things. One CD-ROM died, but not for a couple of years. Very dependable machines.
For what some people spend on prebuilts, I could build, well, monsters.

I wish I had the money people spend on Dells.