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Message: <blockquote data-quote="mps42" data-source="post: 1651833" data-attributes="member: 9571">Building your own$1500??? Where are you shopping?! you gan get a good to VERY good computer with similar specs (and build it your self, which is easy if you're carefull) for closer to $800 if you shop around a bit. I can't tell you how many times I'v had this discussion with prospecive computer buyers. If you want to go buy a Dell or Compaq or something similar, go ahead. Just be aware that you are most likely NOT getting a system that you can upgrade in 5 years when you are ready to play that awesome new game or run that new office app. On the other hand, the job of "matching" all the parts has been done for you and it's built, ready to go. If you go custom-built, YOU have to do the research to mach all the componants and sometimes build it yourself (which is easy as long as you're carefull). HOwever, you get a system that is (in theory) EXACTLY what you want and, in general, you get more for your money. As to the question of "how har is it", I've built literally dozens, if not hundreds, of PC's and I can say that, as long as you're carefull about grounding and making sure you plug everything in the right way, it's EASY. Now, in my opinion, the REAL question is "what should I buy?" which no-one can really answer but you. I am assuming you want a system that can run office apps, a few games, internet, etc, yes? If so look at the following system I priced in about an hour on the internet:Case: Aspire X-Dreamer II (with 350W PSU) - $52CPU: AMD Athlon XP 3000+ Barton Retail - $144Cooling: included Retail HSF - $0Motherboard: MSI K7N2 Delta-L - $63Memory: 512-MB (2x256-MB) Corsair PC3200 DDR - $97Hard Drive: 200 GB Western Digital SE  - $151Video Card: ATI Radeon 9700 Pro 128-MB OEM - $184Sound Card: SB Live! 5.1 OEM - $25CD/DVD-ROM: AOpen COM5232 Combo Drive - $45Communications: Onboard LAN - $0Mouse: Microsoft Intellimouse Optical - $15Keyboard: Microsoft Multimedia Keyboard - $15Operating System: Windows XP Home - $81Floppy: - $6Total: $895 Now I didn't price a monitor or speakers since I assumed you had those and shipping would be extra but, even so, that is a VERY nice system for the price. You just have to put it together.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /></blockquote>

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