[richlevy]

I broke down and bought a new PC today at Staples. It's a Compaq Presario SR1200NX. It has a 2.8 Ghz AMD Sempron, 256MB of memory, a 40 GB hard drive, a CD-RW, a 9-card reader, and not much else.

It was $250 with a $50 rebate. I figured that $200 was my price point for a new computer since I didn't want a new monitor or printer.

I intend to add 256MB of memory. I've already bought a CD +/- R/RW drive for it. I bought a 160 GB external drive for my laptop, so I can move media files back and forth and won't strain the 40GB hard drive. I bought a cheap Mad Dog Predator 5.1 sound card for my ailing Presario and never installed it. I intend to buy a cheap 128MB video card.

With all of these upgrades, I'll still be a few hundred dollars below what even the cheapest equivalent Dell would cost me.

I am scrapping the Presario 5700T. After installing updates for Windows 98, it would only boot to safe mode. I suspected a failing sound card. The PC has the following parts for salvage:

DVD-ROM drive.
CD-RW drive
Belkin Ethernet card
Memory - I'm trying to remember, and I think there are two 128 MB chips.
NVIDIA RIVA TNT card

I will be keeping the hard drives. If anyone wants any of these or just the whole computer, let me know. Some of these issues occured after a power surge, but the computer was working until I installed updates for Windows 98. It still boots to safe mode. I'm pretty sure that the issue is with the sound card.