How much did you pay for your computer?

When my wife get's a new machine from her employer(every 2 years), she passes her old machine to me. So I get a decent laptop free every couple years. It works out nice for a househusband like me.
Cheers,
BV

I set several goals for my pc,the main goal was 'built-in upgrade-ability!

I basically wanted to have my own style of 't-vo' and be reasonably sure that in 5 years I could still be in the running with the industry.
Here are the specs;

Motherboard
Asus p4p800 FSb deluxe
3.2 ghz Prescott processor
512 DDR3200 ram

130 g hd
120 g hd

ATI All-in-Wonder 9600 AGP

I can pipe the sound through my DTS system via a fiber
optic (SPDIF)connection
and
I have as soon as I finish studying about the WiFi transmission connection I will experiment with that protocol.

I have dyslexia and I orginally build my computer to 'read' to me. (I'd like to pass my English courses, or any courses that require reading, for that matter)

I am currently in the 'sunset' years of my life and have literally 'grown' up with the computer industry.
and at my age I have developed a MAJOR nose for a computer bargan!!! My whole system came in a a price of only 1500. spread over a 10 year depreciation rate, I think I made out like a bandit!!!

And,
Thanks for asking...Have a great day...I really enjoy your column

It's a DELL 4700...Intel P4 3GHZ HT...Intel 915G Chipset...2GB DDR2 RAM....ATI Radeon X300E 128MB....
Creative Labs X24 Live...Windows XP Home 2002 SP2... Internet Explorer 6.0 / SP2, and I think I got a good deal. This is My 5th DELL, onward and upward.!

$1,000.00 Custom built by Bug Byte computers.
I prefer win 98se. cd/cd burner/ mega ram/ all the B.S. But could be faster. Next time I'll build it my self.

Toshiba Satellite M35X-S161 purchased 02/22/2005
Have had no Windows XP Home problems except when tried to install Service Pack 2 that was the original update downloaded directly from Microsoft. The update caused the Printers utility to stop functioning entirely.

i paid 657.00 with tax for my hp pavilion 4 years ago and i love it.
linda

Second hand PIII 800mhz COMPAQ Deskpro off ebay. No regrets aside from the fact that the moterboard's onboard sound, PS2 dont work only about two months after I brought it.

Paid $240AUD, brought over other systems pimarily becuase a full, legal unpirated copy of Win XP came with it.

I can't say because I build my own and they are constantly being updated. Everything matches, works well and I always can reach my tech service

Computer HP Pavilion 7905.

I loved this question!
My 5-year old pc was obviously over-priced by today's standards, but the question reminded me of the farmer's axe. "This is the best axe I've ever had", said the farmer. "It's had 3 new heads and 4 new handles, but it's the best axe I've ever had."

After replacements of memory, hard drives, floppy drives, keyboards and modems ... the the addition of USB ports, optical mice, an auxiliary hard drive and add-on CD burner ... I have no clue what the thing has cost. However, I do knowit is the best computer I've ever had!

Al

Two weeks ago this Compaq was advertised at CompUSA for $299.00 after rebate which included a monitor and printer.

No one - I mean no one - can build a PC any cheaper cause the parts listed anywhere in the world cost more than $500.00 without the 17" monitor and HP Printer.

You know when folks say they built their own for less than $500 they can never list where and how much each part cost.

So, with this 80 Gig HD and DVD Player I can watch movies while cooking my Cajun Gumbo.

Sir Gary @ New Orleans, Louisiana

I bought parts only and built my own. Everything new except where noted. I got all this for less then $500 aprox 2 years ago:
Intel P4 3.02GHz
2GB RAM (2 x 1GB sticks)
Gigabyte MB that supports ATA, SATA, ATA raid and SATA raid (up to 12 DVD/CD/or Hard Drives total)
200GB EIDE new
160GB EIDE used(on the ATA raid set to std. ATA the other two HD's and DVD drives are on primary and secondary IDE)
120GB EIDE used
2 Memorex 8x DVD+-R drives
1 1.44MB Combo floppy/ 7 in one flash reader
An add in PCI 8 port USB card for a total of 14 USB ports on board.
128MB ATI Radeion All in Wonder with TV Tuner
on board sound, on board NIC, on board modem
Black Wave Master case by Cooler Master
6 80mm low noise case fans
480W Power supply (About to be replaced with a 600W Noisetaker.
Windows XP Pro.
All the above for just short of $500 by shopping all over the net one piece at a time. It took 4 months to get all the parts I needed but I did stay with in my budget. Everything external I already had, wireless keyboard & optical mouse, 19 inch LCD I got in trade for wireing a freinds office to network 4 computers and a $200 set of speakers I already had, and lastly my 4 year old HP all-in-one printer. All in all not to bad for $500

I have a good source of parts and enjoy assembling or ypgrading my own computer.

Thermaltake Xaser V Damier case & Butterfly 480W PS, MSI K8T Neo Mainboard (with onboard everything), AMD64 3200+, 1.5 Gb PC3200, (2) 74Gb W.D. Raptor HDD, (2) 250Gb W.D. HDD, (1) 120Gb W.D. HDD, (2) Lite-on Dual Layer DVD Burners, Creative Audigy2 ZS sound card, ATI Fire GLX1 & ATI Radeon 7500, Zip Drive, Floppy drive with built in 5-way card reader.
Unless you count the (3) LCD monitors, then the price doubles.

Mine cost me only $475 as I had a pet computer techie who built mine. It's fast, lots of grunt, loads of RAM, but I wish she used a Pentium chip instead of a Celeron. But apart from that, there's no problems.

no regrets at all I built the system myself

the DiVa !

$45!
Regrets... well, you get what you pay for.
It is an ex-government unit, pent.2, running windows98 of all things. It's a bit slow but it does what I want it to and I think if you keep that in mind when purchasing a pc you can get some great deals.

$1,200.00 - dell

I had my computer built to my specification because I have a mini dvd camcorder and I wanted specific things in it so I could download and edit my videos and I wanted to make sure that I had lots of memory because video takes up a lot of memory. Also I paid that much just for the tower. I already had the monitor, keyboard, speakers, scanner, printer, etc. etc.. So I didn't need all that stuff. I had to replace the hard drive in my older computer so I did that and gave it to my son (who also had all the extra stuff) so I figured I would spend the extra money just for the tower so I could have it just the way I wanted it! Even so I have still added a few things since I had it built.

I purchased the parts for approximately 5000 SEK (that?s about $600) and assembled it to a very competent computer, now serving as the server of my Home Network

Hello everyone,
I think I paid somewhere around $600 or $700 to build this one.
Usually when upgrade time rolls around it's just a matter of moboard and CPU. But not this time..Oh..No...somebody decided it was time to turn computers black, I love it, why not 8 years ago??

Fortunately I worked at the local computer service place for 9 months last year and got the "employee discount", I think I'll get a job at the local car dealership this year...

Got a P4 3.2gig and an Asus P4C800-E, run it around 3.5gig, no stability problems st all.
The local shop price is $37 for burners and $27 for players, regardless of color, plus I got the discount, same with the floppy(now black) for around $10.

Went to SATA this time-
When is somebody gonna integrate SATA into the regular BIOS? It can't be that hard!!!
Why we gotta wait an additional minute for POST when it's just another hard drive??
Maybe that's why their called HARD drives, 'cause they're so HARD for the BIOS to figure out.
Have a nice weekend,
Kevin G.

$480 is how much. That's what I put into a list of components. Why get rid of good parts for a shinny case?

I have learned to not buy the lowest priced or the hottest components. I spend time to research what is the best combination of the things that are a quality upgrade for me. I buy enough to last me 2-3 years before I'm obsolete and enough has changed. I nursed 98-2e until a year ago. I waited until XP-sp2 was out long enough to see how stable it was, I tried 'M E' and regret it.

I'm good until "Longhorn" has been out past it's first upgrade/service pack.

Tiger...$2,400.00 that is enough.

I bought my computer from a company called Jump in Spain. It cost me

Sounds like the bottom line here is: The Alienware is good a large percent of the time but if you get a lemon and have to deal with tech support you are going to go through HELL! I wish I knew how to build my own but don't have the time to learn.

home build cost me around 760 british pounds (do your own dollar conversion) athlon 64 on asus board 2gig ram. 200 gb seagate drive.there is a big difference in component prices in the uk.

Less than 500. Built it from barebones kit. Works great. Less trouble than any of the factory models. Have had 7 of those and none can match this one.

I bought a Systemax ascent with the AMD 64 bit processor, 160 Gig drive, and 1 Gig memory. I like it a lot, 2.20 Ghz so its pleanty fast. can burn video, listen to streaming audio, and play games without even comming clost to using up memory.

Well, this is not the first computer I have ever purchased. The one I am using now is a laptop. Matter of fact, it is an HP Pavilion ze5170 with a 2Ghz Pentium 4 desktop processor in it and it is running XP Home. I bought it at auction from UBid as a manufacture refurbished for $1,200.00, about 2 1/2 to 3 years ago. Quite a find at the time. It has served me well, although the battery life has left much to be desired. Usually a little over 2 hours, but those are a strong 2 hours, not the dim monitor and everything shut down.
As for a Desktop machine, I build my own. Sometimes I wonder why not go to Dell Or Gateway and have them build me a state of the art machine for less than I pay to build my own. Then I find out that the machines they build can rarely be upgraded, and that they use proprietary parts even on some motherboards. Then I remember why I enjoy, and need to build my own machine. I can start out at lets say Dell with an $800 machine and by the time I have added all of the options I need for it to be a viable machine for me, I am well over $2000.00 . This is usually just the CPU, no monitor, printer, mouse or keyboard. Since I like it the way I want it I feel I am just going to have to keep building my own so I will have the best machine I can afford, that is upgradeable and somewhat future proof. You can not put a price on a machine you can upgrade that you don't have to buy a new motherboard just to be able to install more RAM.
So until I can afford something like Alienware's line of machine that are upgradeable from the factory, or Falcons line that will let you send your machine in every once in a while for a system upgrade, I will remain the system builder, network administrator and the Tech support for all of the problems along the way. And there have been a few. With the help of forums such as the one here and at PCMag, Maximum PC, the late great TechTV and a few others, I will continue to build and learn. Thank you guys for all of your knowledge with past problems and for future times when I am unable to boot! Yes I have had very long nights learning about computers, but I do enjoy this hobby and my friends say I am good at what I have done for their machines. I hardly ever charge, that is probably it...
As Always Your Friend, todde_