>>Some are below $500. Some have Windows 2000 or Windows XP Pro (maybe 10%). Many have a reasonable amount of memory, say 256K.
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>>I might want to upgrade soon and I can't spare a whole lot of money. I don't have many specific needs because it is for home and I don't work at home. If the price is low, I could afford to upgrade again in a year or two and make this one a Christmas present to someone.
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>>But I don't want to spend 3/4 the money for 1/2 the hardware. That can happen easily with used computers. Part of what you pay for with a new Dell is the ability to customize, which is not available with the refurbished systems. But that doesn't matter to me if I get a pro operating system and enough memory.
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>For my money.....$500 is good if you're getting a P4....otherwise I can point you to local vendors who can sell what you specified for $636 with P4 1.7Ghz, 256mb ddr ram, 32 MB video mem, on board 100 lan card and 80GB hard drives....no monitor, keyboard, mouse, windows XP home (add $64 for pro), etc.....

On Dell.com, $500 seems to buy a Celeron, generally. I have been advised that even a PIII is much better than a Celeron. I may also end up with few expansion slots and on-board video. But I don't own an operating system, and I want windows 2000 or win XP pro, not home. The etc..... you mention is usually the problem when trying to keep the cost down. But if you can point me to a website or something, I can have a look.