What PC to buy?

[steve.ledger]

The best advice I can give is to avoid off-the-shelf PC's no matter the marketting blurb.
The big-name sausage-factory PC's are fine for newbies and offices, but never good for those with higher expectations and specific usage requirements.

If you are comfortable buying, assembling and loading your own PC that's always the best way to go.
If not, find a very reputable local bloke who will build to your requirements.
Never accept cheap and nasty components (buy cheap = buy twice)
For example, the often overlooked case+PSU. Cheap power supply units can be the source/cause of OS and application crashes AND of internal hardware failure. The PSU is the very *heart* of a system (the CPU is the Brain).

Look for good name parts, I agree with raynerj1 on the choice of ASUS who offer 3 yr WTY on thier mainboards which is a good indication of faith in their manufacturing.

My rig is a few years old now, but has never let me down (Though I needed to fit a better CPU fan due to our tropical summer heat and my dislike of home Air Conditioners)

ASUS K8V mainboard
AMD3400+ 64bit (2.4GHZ)
2GB ddr400 ram
ASUS GF7600GT 128MB
XPPro / Vista Ult (Dual-Boot - but seperate drives)
Lian-Li tower with 480W ThermalTake PSU with Active PFC (Power Factor Correction).

The GF7600GT runs a 24" Dell LCD at 1920x1200 on DVI without any dramas.
(Though I have pretty well all Windows effects turned off except styles because I dislike sliding/fading menu's etc).

And get a good quality 700VA UPS to protect your investment.