Get a loaded HP gaming desktop for $599 shipped
The infamous HP Pavilion M9350F returns, this time for a lower price--and it's new, not refurbished! That means you get a 1-year warranty instead of just 90 days. Gold.
Remember the HP Pavilion M9350F from back in January? That post elicited a ton of discussion (nearly 150 comments), in part because it was a uniquely awesome deal, and in part because of a little controversy. More on that in a bit.
The original deal was $619.99, plus $30 shipping, for a refurbished model. BuyDig has the HP Pavilion M9350F, new, for $599 shipped. If you're in the market for a desktop, get out your wallet: It doesn't get better than this.
I say that as the owner of this exact system. Although I did suffer a couple months of frustration owing to a hardware glitch (the machine would slow to a crawl for hours at a time), I eventually tracked down a hard-drive firmware update that solved the problem. The M9350F has been a gem ever since.
As I said the first time around, the specs on this thing are unreal: a quad-core AMD processor, 6GB of RAM, a 750GB hard drive, a 512MB GeForce 9800GT graphics card, a TV tuner, and 802.11n wireless connectivity.
It lacks a Blu-ray drive, but I don't need one. I'm happy with the LightScribe DVD burner. If you do decide to leverage its media-center capabilities, you'll appreciate the HDMI output (via DVI adapter) and Windows Media Center remote.
In short, this system is loaded, and it's $50 less than it was five months ago. Plus, you get a full one-year warranty instead of just 90 days. (Speaking of which, I dealt with HP technical support a couple times, and they were surprisingly efficient. I even got follow-up calls to make sure my problem was resolved.)
Indeed, despite my rocky start with the M9350F, I have no qualms about recommending it--especially at this price. Just make damn sure you install that firmware update.