I have been told by many people that the proprietary computers are cheaply
put together, and given my experience with my current computer, I tend to
believe them.  My current computer doesn't seem to have cheap parts, such as
hard drive etc., but I have to wonder about other components, because it's
been unstable from the beginning.  I bought it from Circuit City on one of
the deals you're talking about.  In fact, I only paid $150 for it after
rebate and signing up for 2 years of Compuserve.  That's why I am
considering a custom built system, but obviously, I don't know enough to
know if it's a good system or not.

Maybe I've got a real fluke and other proprietary computers are just fine?
Any other opinions on that?



Yes, I am only talking about cropping and editing home pictures.  I don't
need a fancy, big or fast computer, but I want one that is soundly put
together using good components.  I have a 19 gig hard drive at the moment
and am only using 4 gigs of it, so I really don't need a bigger hard drive.

I do, however, have a newish 400w power source on my current computer, which
I will have put into the one they build, if they build it.
Carol Hanson



If the photo editing you mention involves simply working with home/family
type projects such as cropping, printing, etc., then you might want to look
further at other less costly options such as Emachines from Best Buy or
CompUSA. At times (often) they have very good deals. You can probably get a
comparable computer for under $300 with 512 MB of RAM, 80 to 100 GB hard
drive, Celeron CPU, 17 " Monitor, combination DVD/CDRW, Windows XP,
sound/video/ethernet on-board, and sometimes a free printer which, as a
package deal, has enough to do what you intend. Their prices are after
rebates, however I've used both sources without any rebate problems (6 to 10
weeks to process).

As to your proposed system, I would look for at least a 400 W power supply
in case you want to add a second hard drive for data backup. Also I would
look for a combination DVD/CDRW or a DVD drive in addition to the CDRW.

My opinion. Good luck - there are so many options.

Tom Mayer

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