After hours of hard researching, I finally came up with this uber-list for a sub-$1k system.

Athlon XP 1600+ - $54
CoolerMaster DP5-6L11A HSF - $6
ASUS A7V8x - $126
ATI Radeon 7500 64MB DDR - $62
256MB Kingmax DDR400 - $69
80GB 7200RPM Seagate Barracuda IV - $110
OR
120GB 7200RPM Western Digital SE - $162
Sound Blaster Live! Audigy Gamer - $84
Lite-On 40x/12x/48x CD-RW - $57
Antec SX630II Mini-Tower Case - $75
Creative Modem Blaster V.92 56k PCI Modem - $19

Total: $662, $714 w/ bigger HDD

This price doesn't include Windows XP, MS Office, or a mouse and keyboard. I have an old mouse/keyboard, but I dunno if I want to use it...

The #1 priority in this system is stability. Then longevity.

Mostly for surfing the net, UD , the occasional game (I'll probably end up networking these two machines together), and really not much else.

The HDD is actually for me...:rolleyes:...I'm putting one of mine in that rig.

And scratch the case, for I'm buying it over here to save shipping money.

Broadband may be a possibility in the future.

newegg WishList

K guys, check that out. I'm pretty much certain that that's the final revision.

looks like a pretty solid system to me

A pretty solid system, but it may be worth spending that bit extra (and still keeping under $1000), by getting a slightly faster CPU and graphics card - say maybe a XP1900+ and a GeForce 3 or GeForce 4 Ti4200 perhaps.

As for the software, try to get that at the cheapest place possible - wink, wink...if you know what I mean...but that's entirely up to you.

I have 28k Mic. You should know better.

All her vital files are on .doc, and she wants MS Office anyway...

go with a gf3 ti200 for $89, HIGH quality card, won't be outdated for years. Also, i believe and XP 1700 is just $8 more.

The 7500 was $51 Nick...

And I bet it outperforms the GF3 Ti200

haha and im bill gates

Yeah I know it doesn't outperform the GF3. Still, better price to performance ratio.

have fun finding good drivers for it, and having it last more than a year.

Audigy 2 is coming up very soon.
wait until it's out so the Audigy's price will drop.

just one thing,
maxtor's HD last the longest, that's from experience.
if you want to stay with these two, WD is better

I'd go with the original Seagate HD and spend the extra $60 on CPU and Video upgrades as previously suggested...80GB is a lot of space, do you really need 120GB? The HD is also much cheaper to upgrade at a later date IF needed. An added benefit is the Segate drive you listed is about half as loud as just about any HD on the market!
You might even have enough of that $60 left over to upgrade to a better, quieter HSF combo.

you cant do anything with that video card............i mean you can play old games i guess........and yes i know what im talking about

my standards are 1024x768 at 60frames+ on most of the games coming out now...........that 7500 wont be anything at all

get the best u can afford, so it'll last a decade or two, depending on how games improve in future. Remember, Lots of RAM.