Thanks for the suggestions. I'd prefer to get Chris something that he doesn't have to deal with personally, service-wise, if something breaks--which it will. He's not a geek, neither am I, and there's a huge advantage to being able to pick up the phone and get someone over to fix it. It's not a good deal no matter how cheap, when you have to take it in to be fixed, then wait until they get around to it. Fine for some, but not fine for "work" when being without a computer just shuts you down. OTOH, no sense paying so much for a warranty/service deal that you could just replace the dang thing.

By bare bones, I am talking about a basic Celeron class computer, 256 MB RAM, standard size HD, etc. not a build it yourself job. As to local built computers, my personal experience with same has been considerably less than satisfactory, as has that of friends and business associates who have tried that route. For better or worse, a name brand with good service rep and warranty is worth a little extra in terms of long term reliability and lower blood pressure. Chris and I have enough challenges dealing with computers as it is. <img src="/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />