[PLUG] PC Purchase

[tonyr]

I'm no expert, and others will no doubt have other opinions. I usually
go to http://www.pricewatch.com/ and look under Computers/Notebooks
to see waht the spread is. Low end w/winXP seems to be about $450-700, 
which gets you 2+GHz (single core), 512-1Gb mem, 60-250GB HD, nice 
graphics with dedicated memory, but no monitor. LCD monitors seem to be 
about $150-$250. There are also PCs with No OS, if you're looking for
something unspoiled on to which to install Linux. The CPUs are
comparable, but the mem/HD configurations tend to start out smaller.
On the upside, the prices start at about $200 (still no monitor). And 
there are outfits like System76 <http://system76.com/> that sell PCs 
with Linux installed.

This is just a starting point. Dual core/64bit architectures are taking
over, at least from the advertising standpoint, and there doesn't seem
to be much of a price hit, if any.

Good Luck.

- tony

Jeme A Brelin wrote:
>
> So, if I were to buy a new PC to put in someone else's house and want 
> to find that nice fast/stable/cheap saddle point, what would I be 
> buying these days?
>
> Out of the loop,
> J.