[limetwist]

Hey all! I'm in a conundrum. My handy upgraded to death PC has finally met it's demise. I've been collecting gift cards for Best Buy from various things and I've got about $400 worth. Rather than build another PC I want to go ahead and use this money at Best Buy towers... but I want to ensure that it's upgradeable, doesn't have all built-in components, has a case big enough to fit my hand in, etc. I have monitors, mice, keyboards, etc. Don't need a "media" style PC. Don't need terabytes of space. Just need something to do some movie and audio editing, website work, occasional gaming, downloading tv shows, maintaining the family iPods, etc... I don't want it to be a wuss. I don't need bells and whistles. I have enough of those laying around from other pre-made pcs.

Unfortunately I haven't really stayed on top of things since the 90s when I managed a small network of 286s and 386's! I feel dumb, but I don't know the latest on processors and such. If anyone would take a bit of time to peruse BB's site and give your opinion, I would very much appreciate it.

kelly

[Advertisements]

For $400 you're not going to get much. It will work but, it'll be s-l-o-w.

Out of the two they have listed for $399.99 ...

http://www.bestbuy.c...04533255&catId=

... the eMachines would be a bit better than the HP.

[SpywareDr]

For $400 you're not going to get much. It will work but, it'll be s-l-o-w.

Out of the two they have listed for $399.99 ...

http://www.bestbuy.c...04533255&catId=

... the eMachines would be a bit better than the HP.

[limetwist]

Thanks for looking. I can spend $600-$700. I just kind of backed myself in a corner having to get it there...

For $400 you're not going to get much. It will work but, it'll be s-l-o-w.

Out of the two they have listed for $399.99 ...

... the eMachines would be a bit better than the HP.

[SpywareDr]

http://www.bestbuy.c...56154099&catId=

?

[limetwist]

hey man, thanks for looking. Any of the 3 jump out over the others? I'm not sure what I should be looking for either as important or stay-away-from. thanks again.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=cat13504&type=page&pageIdentity=searchDriven&useProductString=true&productString=1218159864699*1218204529495*1218202472755&unProductString=1218204533385*1218202473164*1218130500566*1218202945679*1218198437877*1218200370733*1218130488734*1218202474716*1218156154099&catId=

?

[SpywareDr]

Go with the fastest you can afford, (which would be the one with the i5 in the above link).

If you didn't have to purchase at BestBuy, you could get pretty much the same setup in a Dell but with a 1GB ATI Radeon HD 5450, (instead of on-board video) and a Wireless-N PCIe Card for $14 more, ($763.99 vs $749.99):
http://configure.del...id=inspiron-580

[limetwist]

I'm seriously looking at this ASUS CM5675 in the respect that it seems upgradeable and has decent parts. I'm not sure if the price is expensive or not - HP's are considered 'budget computers' and these aren't.

[SpywareDr]

Yep, that's the "i5" I was referring to above ... and, IMHO, it's the best they have available in the $500-$749.99 price range.