thanks tof.....this ^^ captured my profile in a NUTshell...i would never buy a bimmer with i-drive

Here's the result of my trip to our local Micro Center, a great small (~21 stores in major metro areas across the US) computer & electronics chain that has a store about 10 miles west of us. After the reminder from a friend at a meeting last night, I surfed their website and had pretty much scoped out my purchase....verified by a knowledgeable sales rep:

*DELL Optiplex GX520 (refurbished), 3.0GHz Intel Pent 4 processor, 4GB RAM, 500GB hard drive, 8 USB ports etc, std m/s keyboard & mouse, 90 day wty. (i'm guessing that this was lightly used in an office environment that went bust, or upgraded to something else ?]

*Pre-loaded with Windows XP Professional Edition

*ACER 19" LCD Monitor (basic but ok, and on sale )

*M/S ACAD Office 2007: Word, Excel, Ppt, Outlook

*ESET NOD32 Antivirus 4.0 (recommended as better that MacAfee)

*Datadrive Tornado (USB-USB data xfr device....hope it works )

*1 year exchange warranty (bring in GX520....take home another one)

Total $699 + Peeay 6%= $742....thanks to the "refurbished"

I'm excited and will start some of the install tomorrow....probably getting some help from son Ben, who will be home from DC this weekend.

Any advice from y'all about the install....caveats, etc? I haven't done one since December 2000....only a year after buying the first Silverstone S The Tornado noted above should help with moving normal files, but I'm not so sure about how to move my extensive email files from Outlook Express

 

Jerry,

I love shopping at MicroCenter. They are headquartered in Columbus.

I've bought many printers and whole systems from them and never have been disappointed in their pre- and after-sale service. They even maintain a consultant who will give free hardware & software advice on anything they sell. You can even bring in your computer and the consultant will try to scope out your problem. Again, all this is free. Their in-house brand of generic PC's are the PowerSpecs and I have bought 3 desktop PowerSpec PC's in the past and never had any problems.

 

I switched all my biz boxes to Premio's.

You can actually replace stuff, support is local and parts are always on hand. You don't throw old boxes away, you repair them.

Interesting concept. modular construction..you can repair things, rebuild things, replace things, upgrade things. fast same day service.

I've had all the others, I like these from every standpoint.

Have you custom build you one.

fltsfshrpremio

 

Build your own, or get a geeky friend to do it for you. You will get a better machine for same/less money
www.newegg.com - everything you need

 

thanks for the advice, guys....but the "die is cast" as noted above.

now all that i need to do is install the software and do the data transfer....

someone earlier also pointed me to www.newegg.com but it looks like you really need to be a geek (and i am not )