>Not looking for the best, or the cheapest, but something pretty fast, dependable and a good value. Would like to have wireless already installed. Mostly going to be used for running Quicken, Word and browsing the internet. Any recommendations from anyone who has recently purchased or researched? Thanks!

From looking at the other messages:

- you're looking for a desktop
- it's for someone else, not you
- you don't want to build one yourself
- wants XP, not a power user or gamer

The only remaining significant question I can think of is whether he wants some version of MS Office on the computer along with Windows XP. If yes, Dell is almost impossible to beat. If no, he could consider another name brand from Best Buy etc.

I've researched this several times over the last 18 months or so. Dell gets a very good OEM deal from Microsoft on Windows and Office. Yes, a white box vendor can give you better prices on hardware, but you have to pay full OEM price for Windows and Office, so a white box so equipped ends up more expensive than an equivalent Dell. Then, with the white box you may have to install Windows and Office yourself, and support it yourself as well.

Dell's so-called "e-value" deals are usually pretty good value. You need to avoid the temptation to upgrade the processor, RAM etc. from these value configurations because the upgrades are quite expensive. You can upgrade RAM yourself much more cheaply, add a secondary optical drive etc.