Quote Originally Posted by redGT
Couldn't have put it better myself. People just go into best buy and assume that just because its on the shelf it will be fine and sometimes that is the case but most of the time its not. I always build the machine based on the machine.

I got mine with:
CD/DVD-RW
Vista
1 gig of ram

and upgraded from there. I now currently run 3 gigs and this thing is a beast. Like I said my only issue now is storage. I only put a 80 gig hard drive on here and I think after I get my D40 next year I'll spring for a 1 TB hard drive.

big key things to research before buying a windows machine:

- cpu: intel or amd, duo/dual core/x2, etc... very important differences from how much processing power to cache. best thing to do is research the models you are looking at to find out what cpu they have and then look for benchmark testing

- memory: depended upon motherboard many mother boards accept multiple memory versions ddr 2100, 2700, 3200, dual channel etc... many companies will put the lowend memory in the machine to save money. put in the highest grade memory you can and same model is also a plus.

- harddrives: what is more important speed/size? that should determine wether you want that 7200 rpm small drive vs 5400 rpm large drive; how much cache 8, 16mb, etc?

- OS: they now have different flavor vista models for end user... look up the differences and run the best for you... more features doesn't mean it is better - it just means it requires more memory