Need Help

Our family needs a new computer. We have a decent system from last year (3200+, 7600GT, 2GB), but our second one is a 400Mhz K6 with 64 MB of RAM that likes to crash frequently (i.e. every time we turn it on and try to use it.) Needless to say, it is quite useless. We wish to replace it with something like our current one, which cost between 1200-1400 including OS and monitor. However, this is a horrible time to be buying computer with the transitioning of standards and introduction of new parts. I was wondering if people in the community could help me by suggesting what parts to get and also whether to go Vista or XP. The computer needs to last approximately five years, so bang for the buck is a high priority.

Check out this article, with a tight budget your best bang for the buck is probably AMD X2.
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/0 [...] _marathon/
http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu.html

You can check prices on newegg. Interestingly, in the above article putting in a high end video really boosted the gaming performance of the lost cost machine. When you're on a tight budget you really can't look at the leading edge/latest greatest because it's too expensive. Given you want it to last 5 years I'd go with 2GB of RAM. I agree XP would be better right now, you can always upgrade later. Going with an AMD X2 3800 with 2GB of RAM will be better than the 3200. I would seriously think about a Antec Sonata II case, which come with a good PSU. You could always go with onboard video that would save you about $100 given you wouldn't need a video card, which you could always get later but that would depend on what you want to do. Without a card you're at around $400 or less, with a card about $500. You could always go even lower but it's likely that new programs will require more resources so it makes sense to go with dual core.

You could do either the 6300 or 6400 with the OS and monitor $1200 to $1400