I will try to slip in a stealth donation this evening before the wife catches me. She thinks I spend too much money already!

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Some hints on getting a good computer setup for cheap:

A barebones system will cost you more than a ready-built one. The barebones I'm talking about require you to buy and install your own ram, harddisk, CPU, etc. While you can build exactly what you want this way, you don't have the economy of scale that manufacturers do.

Check Chris' local area phonebook for PC builders. You can get a cheap computer and save the shipping costs from an online purchase. One such PC builder has multiple locations, http://www.pcclub.com

If you buy online, go to something like Dell's "outlet" store. They have refurbished PCs that are quite cheap. Same warrantee as new. I bought several of these prior to building my own PCs these days. I was never disappointed. They usually ding you on the shipping charges, but sometimes they have specials and you can get a real bargain.

Buy a PC that has "integrated video" also known as "onboard video". This can save a bundle and is perfectly adequate for a web surfing machine. Playing games on a PC thus equipped will be pretty much out of the question.

256Mb ram should cover you for just web surfing stuff. 512Mb max. 1Gb would be overkill.

You don't need a fast processor for web surfing. Stick with the cheaper Celeron over the Pentium if you like Intel CPUs. If you prefer AMD CPUs (I do) then stick with their more budget line of Sempron processors instead of the Athlon.

If you can get the new PC without monitor, keyboard, and mouse - do so. Use Chris' old ones. One thing to check however, some new and cheap PC's do not come with the older PS/2 connectors that Chris' existing mouse/keyboard MAY use. Be sure and check. Keyboards and mice are cheap if you need new ones - about $6 each from online places such as http://www.newegg.com

Unless you're planning on storing lots of stuff on the PC, you don't need a big harddrive. 40Gb would be fine. But these days you can have 80Gb or even 120Gb for only a few dollars more usually.

Forget buying an expensive Norton or McAfee antivirus product. Get a free one (WITH updates) from http://www.avast.com/eng/down_home.html Long ago I bailed on the expensive antivirus products and now use Avast exclusively on all my computers. This is a GREAT antivirus product!

Forget about buying a commercial firewall too. Save the cash and install Kerio v2.15 instead. Free, and an excellent firewall. http://www.kerio.com/dwn/kpf2-en-win.exe ZoneAlarm makes a free version of firewall too, but I haven't used that one for years and can't comment on it's current implementation.

If you really want to, I think you probably COULD hit that $300 mark for a new PC. If the funds allow, by all means buy this guy a super-killer computer ... to heck with the purchase price!