>>BTW, I'd just opt for an Athlon XP 1800+ with 1 gig of RAM, 80 gig HD, DVD-ROM, CD R/W, 17 inch monitor, 56K modem and color printer for $1,700 (US).
>
>Getting mighty ambitious aren't we? Actually, the box I picked out for myself at the new office (Compaq 5300, 1.1GHz Celeron, 256MB/20GB, CD/RW) without monitor came in well under $600; adding another 256MB SDRAM, Matrox G550 dualhead with the TV tuner, XP Pro, dual 15" NEC flat panels, WebCam, decent speakers, DVD and NIC still came in well under $1,400; while I don't have the biggest, baddest, meanest box on the LAN (the joint venture management types who play with Excel and Solitaire if they're working at all got the fastest Dells they could get their hands on, and are now moaning that if they'd waited a few days they'd have 2GHz P4s instead of measley little 1.7GHz boxes...) I've got more than enough for my purposes, and unlike them, I can have both monitors going and snag a feed from the cable TV or a DVD in one corner on one of the screens if I'm not chilling out to Radio Free Virgin's 128Kbit Blues channel and slaving away at code. Since all the real serious iron is available
>either under Terminal Server or Citrix anyway, I get by OK.

< s >Well, some of us don't upgrade as often as you. What with two car payments and the youngest going off to college next year, I'll be lucky to able to upgrade in another 4 or 5 years. As a result, and given Moore's Law, I tend to go "top-shelf" when I do upgrade.