[jeepnut]

Well, first we will start with brands.

Hewlett Packard - AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE!

Compaq - AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE ON STEROIDS!

Gateway - I have one of these and I'm satisfied. Customer Service is pretty good with Gateway. However, I'm pretty sure I paid a little too much for what I got. So with Gateway, price is my only complaint.

Dell - Dell is comparable to Gateway in tearms of service and reliability. With either of these companies, you can more or less be pretty confident that you aren't getting a piece of junk. Things may break, but for the most part, tech service comes through. I haven't owned a dell but most people I know who have one are pretty satisfied. As far as price between Dell and Gateway go, they seem to go back and forth. Get an idea of what you want in your computer and configure it on both companies sites and find out which is cheaper for what you want.

Unless you have a ton of programs or a ton of music and video files, 80gb should be plenty. I have a 20gb right now and I'm feeling the crunch, but it is perfectly livable. Now if you plan on storing a lot of music on the computer, you should probably step up.

Currently, a 2.0ghz processor is plenty. What you should be worried about is RAM. Make sure you get 256 to 512mb of RAM and then use the left over money in your budget to up the processor speed. A fast processor is great, but you won't notice it unless you have enough RAM.

Also, make sure to check about video, sound, speakers, drives, and ports (i.e. - usb, firewire, and other slots for external devices you have or want.) There is nothing worse than not being able to hook up all of your goodies.

If you have any more questions, bring them up.

P.S. - This topic will probably get moved to the computer forum.