Richard, I'm in the midst of this problem now as I work on home built. It looks as if the hardware is ~$900 for good stuff and software, XP Pro (OEM) and Office XP ~$300. I can match this price easily with a brand name but I don't think it will come with the Plextor CD-RW drive, Soltek board, ABIT graphics card, etc. BUT I may be wrong:^(( I think that's the difference, when you build it yourself you choose the items you prefer. When finished and the software is loaded, I can decide if it was worth it. BTW I'm using an existing monitor but if I bought a ready built I'd get the monitor too, so I suspect this not a way to save money especially with the software overhead. Bob Warasila [log in to unmask] (home) [log in to unmask] (work) ----- Original Message ----- From: "Richard F. Bolha" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Tuesday, July 16, 2002 11:46 AM Subject: [PCBUILD] Will it be better to build your next PC? With Microsoft's deadline fast approaching. What is everybody doing? Licensing seems pretty costly. I am now wondering, if building your computers from parts will be cost effective? The cost of a single XP standard OS at retail is $480.00. The upgrade price of $240.00 is only good for Win2K units. At that point, why not buy ready-made units with XP or greater included? I wonder how long I could run Win 2K pro and office 2000 and Office 97? Most users are happy with them. The cost of doing business is getting out of hand. Comments? Ideas? Richard F. Bolha PCBUILD's List Owners: Bob Wright<[log in to unmask]> Drew Dunn<[log in to unmask]> Do you want to signoff PCBUILD or just change to Digest mode - visit our web site: http://freepctech.com/pcbuild.shtml