Ben

iTrader: (33)

watch bestbuy for a clearance deal. I have a friend who works at one (as geeksquad) and he tipped me off when they had a 2.5GHz Core2Duo/2GB RAM/250GB HD/Vista Premium/TV tuner/8 channel sound card/DVD burner, etc for $300 from $1200. They had 3 left; he got one, his roommate got one, and I got the thrid for my dad.
I then got him that 22" widescreen from Circuit City you tipped us off on.

Other than a driver problem with the sound card, which was resolved with a phone call to tech support, Vista has done an excellent job of not doing anything wrong with my not so tech-savvy parents doing their best to make it crash.

The last desktop I bought for myself was kind of the same deal: clearance from BestBuy. It's not so spectacular spec-wise because it's a couple years old now, but it was a AMD 64 bit with XP MCE, a dual layer dvd burner, 1GB ram, 200GB HD, etc for under $400 including tax, a 17" flat panel, and a cheap **** printer.

Newbsauce

iTrader: (2)

How about you buy my mediaPC for 125 bucks and call it a day

neogenesis2004

iTrader: (12)

I can get you trend micro antivirus and spysweeper from work for like $9 each.

cjernigan

iTrader: (13)

What do you think of AVG antivirus and AVG antispyware, the free versions? I've used them successfully for a few years now. Atleast the AVg AV, just recently started using the SW software.

neogenesis2004

iTrader: (12)

I don't have any personal experience with them, at the GS I am more involved with removal that prevention. I do use the two above pieces of software daily in the removal process though, and both very successfully. Of course we use a bunch of other **** too. From my personal and professional experience TM and SS are both very good programs.

I'd have offered to test out those two programs for you at work a couple years ago, but they have really cracked down on us for using "unlicensed" software. Being a business we aren't even allowed to use free trial software. Sucks, I used to use the panda online scanner back in the day all the time.

y8s

iTrader: (8)

there's not much to it but it does catch the 2 things a year I might be infected with. it auto updates so that's nice.

really though, if you have half a brain cell, you can avoid 99.99% of the viruses out there with no protection. I calmly await the jokes.

firedog25

Dell can eat my ***, they facilitated the identity theft for my wife. Here's the rundown of how it went.

Shitbagthief: Yes, I'd like to purchase this equipment for my business, my aunt said she would pay for it. Here's her social security number.

Dell: Okay, here's your equipment. We'll Fedex the bill to your aunt.

...a couple of weeks later..

<doorbell>
Fedex: Sign here please.

Mywife: WTF? I didn't buy $10,000 worth of computers.

Dell: LOL@U.

samnavy

iTrader: (7)

^You can eat MY ***. Go back and read the first post in this thread... and then go away. Everybody has a story about how some company ripped them off. I'm sure there's even somebody out there who will talk bad about Begi. I'm buying Dell, end of story... I just need a little help/direction in picking the right one.

Everybody else, thanks for all the advice and hard work. The wife informed me she thinks we really need a desktop... so I'm back to the original plan. I'm gonna take a week or two and hit the Dell outlet a couple times a day to see if there's anything to be gained by being vigilant. If nothing tickles me, I'll buy a base Vostro and call it a day. Thanks again.