So, I'm a horrible judge of such things

[kierthos]

Is the computer currently being wooted off a piece of shit or not? (For some reason, this thing is being extra special stupid with links today. The computer is at http://www.woot.com)

Comments

[egearman.livejournal.com]

Given that it's refurbished and not new, that's not much of a deal. And being refurbished, there's a decent chance it had or has something wrong with it.

[the-paco.livejournal.com]

Worth that price new... kinda.

It is an HP, a point against it.
Also AMD, but since it's not cutting edge anyway, no worries.
No video card. Meh. Dunno what that board supports, might want to research that. SLI or the equivalent is the big hype of the day, but want at least 32 channel support for it.

I'd say spend about $600, get yourself a new motherboard with pci 2.0 support, 1333 fsb with ram timed to keep with it, one of the new intel penryn-based quad-cores that have the smaller die, heat signature, and larger L2 cache, and one of the new geforce 8800 series cards.

I'd say do most of your research on which video card you want, since it will be carrying the bulk of the load during gaming (if gaming is what you're after), else go for a decent midrange card and the system they sell will be decent. The parts recommended later can make a PC that's pretty well future-proofed for the next year or five, depending on your needs.

[mithras.livejournal.com]

It's crap.

Ok, what's your budget?

[kierthos.livejournal.com]

Probably between $700 and $900, but if it comes to it, I don't really need a new monitor. (The issues I was having with my current monitor cleared up.) I'd like to get a flat panel monitor with the computer if possible, but it's not necessary.