Where can I buy a nice desktop tower for cheap?

[Scott R Nelson]

Your best buys are ALWAYS at Fry's!

I buy my stuff at Fry's. I would look for the best name brand machine for $400 or under. It will be good enough.

And since there is a Fry's in Las Vegas, just buy it at their store. If there are any problems with it when you get it home, they'll take it back, no questions asked.

[Color Me Badd Fan]

BTW, someone mentioned swapping out harddrives? My biggest problem with getting a new desktop is being able to transfer over my software programs I have on this computer. I have software on my desktop that I acquired from my old firm when I was still working for them. Obviously I don't have access to the CD-Roms to reinstall the software if I get a new computer. I would certainly like to because my desktop is five years old and is running XP.

[Color Me Badd Fan]

Oops double post.

[U-Ute]

BTW, someone mentioned swapping out harddrives? My biggest problem with getting a new desktop is being able to transfer over my software programs I have on this computer. I have software on my desktop that I acquired from my old firm when I was still working for them. Obviously I don't have access to the CD-Roms to reinstall the software if I get a new computer. I would certainly like to because my desktop is five years old and is running XP.

If you need to transfer all of your data from one drive to another and have access to the disk space, you can use something like Norton Ghost or Windows Server to create an image of your hard drive, and then transfer that image to another hard drive. This is a bit for bit copy of your hard disk, that overwrites everything on the destination drive, so you will be running the same OS that was on the original drive and have the same crap floating around the registry, but you also have all of your original drivers and installed applications.

This is also a great way to upgrade a hard drive that has your OS installed on it without having to reinstall everything.

[Color Me Badd Fan]

If you need to transfer all of your data from one drive to another and have access to the disk space, you can use something like Norton Ghost or Windows Server to create an image of your hard drive, and then transfer that image to another hard drive. This is a bit for bit copy of your hard disk, that overwrites everything on the destination drive, so you will be running the same OS that was on the original drive and have the same crap floating around the registry, but you also have all of your original drivers and installed applications.

This is also a great way to upgrade a hard drive that has your OS installed on it without having to reinstall everything.

I would basically have to buy a Windows 7 upgrade for a new computer. This computer is long in tooth and I need a new OS, more RAM, a much better video card and maybe a new processor. The problem with some of my software is I can't update it and it's something that I will absolutely have to update at some point with new forms. At that point, I am going to be buying some new software which will actually cost more than the computer itself. I don't know when that's going to happen.

[old_gregg]

i've also been on the hunt for a decent desktop. i think i'm going to pull the trigger on this one. it's a quad-core with an hdmi motherboard for $350, which is tough to beat.

[falafel]

i've also been on the hunt for a decent desktop. i think i'm going to pull the trigger on this one. it's a quad-core with an hdmi motherboard for $350, which is tough to beat.

Not bad. Throw in a card reader and maybe a blu-ray drive and you've got a nice little machine.

[Shaka]

i've also been on the hunt for a decent desktop. i think i'm going to pull the trigger on this one. it's a quad-core with an hdmi motherboard for $350, which is tough to beat.

That machine kicks the crap out of Dell that costs much more. The only thing I'd do is double the RAM.

[falafel]

What are the thoughts on this deal from Tiger-Direct?

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?EdpNo=645624&sku=B69-0379&SRCCODE=WEM2705C&cm_mmc=email-_-Main-_-WEM2705-_-tigeremail2705

AMD Phenom II 1090T Black Edition Six Core CPU, 1TB HD, Corsair 4GB DDR3 memory (only 2 slots), etc. $349 (but $395 out the door, with a $33 mail in rebate).

[old_gregg]

What are the thoughts on this deal from Tiger-Direct?

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?EdpNo=645624&sku=B69-0379&SRCCODE=WEM2705C&cm_mmc=email-_-Main-_-WEM2705-_-tigeremail2705

AMD Phenom II 1090T Black Edition Six Core CPU, 1TB HD, Corsair 4GB DDR3 memory (only 2 slots), etc. $349 (but $395 out the door, with a $33 mail in rebate).

having a motherboard with hdmi out is a pretty big deal to me.

[falafel]

having a motherboard with hdmi out is a pretty big deal to me.

Why? Are you connecting it directly to your tv? Can't you just buy an hdmi card or something?

[falafel]

Now that I look at it, I don't see that it has a video card.

[old_gregg]

Why? Are you connecting it directly to your tv? Can't you just buy an hdmi card or something?

because of the weird size of our apartment, my desktop will connect directly to the tv via hdmi rather than going the media center option.

you could always buy a graphics card, but for a budget box that's going to add another 20% on to the price.

[falafel]

because of the weird size of our apartment, my desktop will connect directly to the tv via hdmi rather than going the media center option.

you could always buy a graphics card, but for a budget box that's going to add another 20% on to the price.

Yeah, I thought that was sort of odd. I would sort of expect it to be included.

[falafel]

Cam, what do you think of this one? HDMI mb.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.672755