>Hiya Troops,
>
>Well, I've finally made the decision to upgrade my poor old P200/MMX at home to a newer machine. At this time, I'm in the process of shopping for the new one (mainly on-line). I've already checked out Gateway. Dell's out of the picture because they don't have a line of machines with an Athlon processor (the P4 is not ready for primetime IMO). So the question is this: Do any of you have any recommendations other than these two manufacturers? Any good things to recommend? Any horror stories?
>
>One last note, URL's would be particularly helpful.
>
>tia,

I've always had my machines custom made (by an outfit that's been around 10 years now and provides a 1-3 year Parts/Labor warranty).

Last time though (about 6 months ago), I "impulsively" decided to go "off-the-shelf" and bought a HP P733 from a chain store (didn't want to wait the 7-10 days to have one built I guess). No manuals to speak of, wouldn't run W2000, "teeny box", integrated graphics (ie. no video upgrade path), etc. etc. ... which I only figured out "afterwards".

Best of all, the P733 would totally freeze up when doing "intensive graphics operations" in VFP (which were impossible to reproduce). Of course, since I couldn't swap out the video or even replace the W98SE OS (due to it's "user/idiot bullet-proofing"), I really had no trouble-shooting options.

I took a chance and went back to the store, who took the machine back (less 10% after 3 months); HP washed their hands. I then had this same store "build" me a P800 using mainstream parts that were all "rated" as W2000 compatible, etc. Basically, all stuff that was also on their shelves; they even gave me a (volume) price discount.

I now have a machine that works (all flavors of W98 and W2000), lots of manuals (yes!) and installation disks, a "full tower" case (ie. inside elbow-room) that runs cooler and has extra bays, and in general, a "better" machine for little more than the original P733. And since I already had all the OS's I needed, I also didn't "have" to take and pay for an OEM version OS.

I do not think I will ever go with "ready-made" again.