I hope for your sake that Dell has started using somewhat-better hard drives. We had to replace the original 40GB on my family's 2001 machine after a year or so of use when it randomly bought the farm, and I suffered through the Click-o'-Doom on my 2004 Optiplex's 160GB drive for a few months last year before finally giving in and replacing it. At least the rest of the system has run reasonably well over its lifetime; before I get around to building my own system, I'll probably throw some more RAM and a new video card in here.

Hunter wrote:They are also doing a system for the same price, without the monitor but with:

Intel Core 2 Quad 2.4Ghz (2.4GHz, 8MB L2, 1066MHz FSB)
4GB (4x1GB) 667MHz DDR2
500GB SATA II
Radeon HD 3650

Tempting..

Ah, found my monitor- http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/22-Neovo ... -DVI-Cable

I think it's a really good one.

Myself, not sure on the HD3650 - it's a pretty old card - and if I were you I'd be tempted to hold off just a little bit. Once Intel release the i7 series, the Quads should come down in price.

Personally, I'm thinking of upgrading to a 9800 GTX+ soon, as Scan.co.uk are doing a good deal today (£130 or so).

Hunter wrote:Windows Vista

Ewww... I suppose with 4GB you'll want it for the 64bit-ness, but I have a friend who has a computer that has that much RAM in his computer, and none of the games he plays (even newer ones) use all of it. Unless you're going to do some heavy duty video rendering, I wouldn't get it.