First thing first, you should know what you will doing with that PC, whether for office work only or into multimedia and gaming. The thing that most important before you buy a new PC is to look at the : 1. CPU 2. RAM 3. Hard disk drive 4. Graphic card 5. Motherboard. The other thing like monitor, casing, mouse and keyboard is all up to your taste.
I prefer PC with at least 2 GB RAM (or at least 1 GB RAM). Go with Windows XP as OS (not with VISTA). DON.
The most important thing to consider in buying a pc is the CPU and memory. More memory really makes your whole pc experience a lot smoother.
I always look for the largest memory size rather than the processor speed. I'm also particular about the graphics card as I love watching dvds on my laptop. Going to get a new one sometime early of next year
It kinda depends on what you're going to do with it. Personally, I think Dynashox should have put the motherboard at the TOP of the list If you buy the wrong motherboard, then your upgrading possibilities can be severely limited. 1. Motherboard that has a decent amount of "future proofing" 2. CPU 3. Video card 4. A case that can handle quiet/silent cooling (BIG heatsinks, BIG fans etc) Get these right, and you should have a PC that you can use for 10 years - with a few basic upgrades every few years. Don't worry about storage or RAM too much, HDDs are so cheap these days that you can easily add another internal or external drive when you need more space. Same with RAM.
I'd say check to see what you want it for.... if you only want to surf the net and check email etc... then consider getting a netbook... if you want to use a lot of programs edit videos etc, then i'd consider looking at high specs such as min 2gb ram, dual core (even consider a quad core) processor, at least 500 gb ram (for a lot of files etc), i'd seriously recommend a graphics card, and advise staying away from intergrated ones.
Every pc parts you are buying, including motherbroad, cpu, fans, ram, harddisk, power, pc case, CD-rom, screen/monitor, mouse, keybroad Check you budget and find out the most competitve and cost-effective items. Comparing the price takes your much time.
perfer, buying latest motherboard RAM, processor and then install XP professional, dont got vista ( os ).
in my country, i always full load the ram, cause after three year my ram worth more then my PC .... like my current p4 2.6 with 4 gb of ram, when i purchase it was 150 for 4 gb, now each gb worth more then 80 My choice of pc, i always go for one model below current top model, prices is huge different but spec not different by much