Expert: Karl Zick - 11/19/2007

Question
hi karl could you help i would like to buy a desktop computer and use it for gaming, internet, music&movie downloads and pay bills on line. i would like to play call of duty 4 the max price would be $1000.00 i would rather buy a cheaper computer and have more power any help would be appreciated  paul

Answer
Hi Paul,

If you log onto geeks.com and go to desktop computers, you can find awesome deals from one day to the next on ACER, Sony, and Dell desktops.  The best deal I have seen lately was yesterday for a loaded ACER AMD Athlon XP 64 bit 3500 with Vista for $259.  Today they are out of stock.

Also, Circuit City and CompUSA also come up with some real deals - but you have to keep your eyes open.

I would stay away from Compaq, eMachine, and HP.  

The AMD processors are the best bang for the buck and the only thing you usually need to upgrade is the RAM.  1GB is enough, but if they come with 512MB you can usually find a 1GB DDR2 board at Geeks or someplace for $35 to go with it.

If you need a monitor, CompUSA has their Envision 19" flat panel models on sale for $139 from time to time.