[muckmail]

Looking for a new system. I have been looking at Sunday's ads at Office Depot, Staples,
etc but you never know what your are getting a box that you buy at those places.
I would like to stay in the 500 range but I might go higher for dual core. I would like
to include a flat 19" monitor but I could live with one of my older monitors if necessary, I want a mother board that is expandable, I have several 120G IDE drives, I want to include an older 3 1/2" floppy drive, 2 internal fix drives (One SATA drive and one IDE drive), I have access to XP and it apears that Vista is going to be a big head so I can liver without I would like to that a nice case that allows motherboard easy access and pull out. Example would be a toolless A-top small tower case but I know there are better cases out there. I want to run Visual Studio 2005 at a reasonable speed and performance.
Should I buy at office depot, etc special or build. If so please spec a system with
reliable good well price venders.
thank you,

[Mulderator]

Well, you are always better to build then to buy because you can get quality components--the flip side is you have to know how to do it and be comfortable with doing it.

[dustyjay]

You can always go to a local Computer Shop (mom and pop as we call them and get them to detail out what you want and see how much they would charge for the system. You would have to specify the motherboard and CPU you want and approve any components before the final assembly to assure quality though.

Or if you are a quick learner you could as Mulder said order and assemble parts yourself. You can always post back with your choices and get someone here to tell you if they will work together or are of good quality. For the most part building it yourself you have to be your own tech support. That is why there are forums like this one around.