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#21
I build my own...
Reasons?
Pick your own parts. The sky is the limit.
No 'restrictions'. I mention this in contrast to DELL. I buddy bought a dell i7 box recently.
Couldnt load XP on it. A BIOS restriction? I dont want any proprietary garbage embedded in my BIOS. Plus.. that dell BIOS had about 4 SETTINGS. You can't tweak anything.
Plus..if he put any other OS on it other than what shipped. You 'break your warranty. Open the case? 'break you warrenty'.
BITE ME DELL!!
I prefer to build my own..and do with it what I please.
Just my .02
Recently I upgraded my TV pc. I swapped out an ol' celeron cpu/mobo for a Wolfdale 2.8 'duel core pentium'. Ya right.. Its actually a C2D with only 2MB of cache. For a machine thats only going to do TV duty, it works out great.
That upgrade? CPU/MSI mobo/4GB of corsair XM2 800Mhz memory..
Total - $159.00 (not counting tax)
Got the mobo/cpu on sale at frys. $82 bux. Memory..67 bux at CompuUSA
Now THAT is what I call a budget build...
Loaded up WIN7 Ultimate.. works like a charm.
Of course I used the existing case/PS. Also have a wireless RF gyration mouse/keyboard.
They only thing I may add later is a better discrete video board.
The intel x3100 video does the job..but its 'intel video'..and sucks..just cuz its intel. To many problems with that chipset. It can't properly pick up the DDC id from the 52" sharp LCD... (Stick to CPU's intel! You SUCK at video!)
Plus... The dynamic video memory allocation fails to give up more than 256MB of memory for video under WIN7. When testing with XP, it gave up 384(IIRC).