Hello Mike, Thursday, July 22, 1999, 4:57:50 AM, you wrote: MC> Hi all - MC> I have been asked by a friend to help buy/build a computer for her daughter MC> starting college this fall. The college has provided some basic specs as MC> follows: MC> Pentium 200 or better MC> 64 MB RAM MC> Win 95/98/NT MC> 500 MB free hard drive space MC> Virus protection software MC> 10BaseT network card (either Intel Ether Express or 3 Com Ethernet card) MC> If anyone would like to respond with comments/suggestions on a balanced MC> solution that falls between low cost and longevity that would be great. I MC> don't think anything she gets today will likely meet the minimum standard 4 MC> years from now so I am leaning toward to lower cost approach, especially MC> given the other costs that are coming up right now for them. Intel Celeron 400 - 433 (possibly overclocked) Any BX motherboard with good name, maybe onboard audio (to save $) 8M AGP cheap video (ATI is fine) 64-96 MB memory (the more, the better) 8.6 G IDE HD (Western Digital, Quantum, Seagate) any 15" screen with 80Hz or higher non-interlaced refresh @ 800x600 any mouse any keyboard 24-40x CD-ROM 3.5" drive a NIC or modem depending on campus that's about all... did I miss something? +=-. | Max Timchenko [MaxVT] | [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask] | (ICQ) 238-6792 | | Freelance web and graphics designer | Max Webdesign at http://maxwd.hypermart.net +=-. The PCBUILD web site always needs good submissions. If you would like to contribute to the website, send any hardware tech tips or hardware reviews to: [log in to unmask]