xxlowongxx: A techy person could tell why a video card is worth it or not, a big deal is the bitrate. My video card runs at 128 bits a time, that is 2ce as fast as the external video card that you have listed, and mine is onboard. Lots of people would say, wow onboard video cards suck! But not all onboard video cards these days are 64MB @ 32bit.

eLeeThax: My comments:
First, a graphics card does NOT improve the visual quality of the machine. What it really improves is frame rates, and the time it takes to render a frame.
Actually, PCI cards are not even produced anymore. Its all about PCI-E nowadays. Perhaps you can find an AGP card or two, but those are practically long gone.
Integrated graphics are not a card, its an integrated chip on the motherboard.
Actually, bitrate is not necessarily more performance. That is just measuring the speed of the data stream. What you should be paying attention to is the amount of SP(Stream processors), Core Clock, Shader Clock(Some older cards may not use this), Memory Clock, Memory type, amount of Memory, and what type of core it uses. I would suggest that you take a look at Hard OCP (www.hardocp.com) if your about to buy a card, and look at the graphics card reviews.
Obviously, the sales rep wants you to buy more stuff, and spend more money. That probably is a factor in that comment. nVidia / ATI cards cost more money. And, Intel does NOT make graphics CARDS, only integrated CHIPS. The chip is located on the motherboard, while the card is in a peripheral slot. Almost all motherboards come with an integrated Intel GMA chip. It is the decision on whenever to buy a graphics card that really matters. If you were to want to play MS, surf the net, watch some flash videos, play some flash games, chat, etc., a Intel GMA chip would be fine. However, if the point of that computer was to attempt to play Crysis or something similar at max graphics, a high-end graphics card is a must. For Crysis, the only cards that actually does anything at max graphics, and around 1650:1050 or above would be the nVidia GTX275, GTX280, GTX285, GTX295, ATI 4870, 4890, 4870x2. Of course, SLI or Crossfire combinations of earlier cards may work, and provide better framerates than one of these cards. It all depends on what card, and what clock speeds it is set to.

Chickenz: In the graphics card section you should mention that 8600GTS cards and up require a 6-pin connector to supply more power. :0
...

Dweomer: As a note, when I was buying my laptop last August the sales rep was very, very clear to never buy any graphics card made by Intel.

eLeeThax: On the hard drives section, I would recommend a 500GB or a 1TB hard drive, they're so cheap now that a 500GB can go for $40-50, and a 1TB can go for about $70-80, all depending on brand, model, and design. Of course, if it is just a personal use computer, the difference between 80MBPS and 50MBPS is probably not noticeable, except in benchmarks, which is not the point of a personal use computer. BTW, 1TB = ~1000GB
Again, those prices are outdated. For the price of that 750GB, I can get a 1.5TB WD Green. Not really much more to say.

eLeeThax:
Uh, for the RAM section, a decently priced desktop computer, about $700-800, usually now has about 6-12GB RAM. Computer manufacturers seem to think that we really need that RAM, and that putting 12GB of 400MHZ or 667MHZ RAM really does something except make the buyer go "OMG! THERES 12GB OF RAM! MOM, I REALLY WANT THAT COMPUTER". Except, 4GB of RAM probably is enough for now, except in benchmarks and virtual machines. But, if you were the type to run 5-10 virtual machines at a time, or a be obsessed with benchmarks, you probably will know how much you need.

iMicrosoft: And for processor make sure its compatible with your motherboard

eLeeThax: Actually, there are also tri-cores, obviously, with three cores. Only AMD makes these, they are designated as <AMD Phenom II 8xx>, or <AMD Phenom X3 xxxx>.
Also, different CPUS can use different sockets. For example, some Pentium 4, all C2D, and all but one C2Q use LGA775. Some Pentium 4 use socket 478. Most current AMD CPUs use AM3, AM2+, and AM2. Of course, this doesn't include server CPU sockets, seeing that if you run a 1U or 2U rack server, you probably will already know all of this.

N0dleBandit: ... The application uses all cores to lay out it's work on the 4 cores so there's less stress on 1 core.. You can't just buy any processor without knowing if your motherboard fits the process size like that processor is based on the 45nm process which only work on newer motherboards and only on Socket 775. If you don't know the difference between Core 2 Extreme and Core 2 Quad don't get it. If you don't play hardcore games, overclock, do DivX encodes, Photoshop etc don't get a Quad. And people who play Maple don't need a 8800 or even a dual core since Maple will only be using 1 core of the CPU then.

tacocrusher: AMD Processors:

-Cheap
-Used to overheat in the past; newer cpu models come w/ liquid cooling so they stay cool; can't overclock above like 3.5% without a crapload of fan noise
-The speed compared to a similar intel one is unnoticable
-Use it if you're on a budget

-Cheapskate 2.2 GHz one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103199 (adequate; one core) [$40]
-Very good 2.8 GHz one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103228 (decent; two cores) [$163]
-Very good 2.5 GHz one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103249 (good; four cores) [$235]
-t3h uber smecks 3.2 GHz one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103228 (good; two cores) [163]

I basically just copied what you wrote :p

eLeeThax: Again, about those monitor prices, a 22" can go for anywhere between $150 to $500. It just depends on what kind of features the monitor has, the response time (anything less then 6ms is fine, not really noticeable), refresh rate (some monitors will support only up to 59HZ, some may support up to 120HZ, the higher, the better. It is just how many times the screen refreshes per second.), and overall quality. What monitor to pick really just depends on the use of the computer. A higher refresh rate and lower response time would probably be good if you play CS: Source or something similar all day. That extra 1-3 milliseconds could mean that you get to shoot that terrorist in the head first, or if you get shot first. However, if the purpose was to play Maplestory, a similar RPG, surf the net, chat, etc., you can save some money by going with a monitor with higher response times and a lower refresh rate. Maplestory and other RPG games don't really care if you start moving a couple of milliseconds later.

XxSparkehxX: ...my personal favorite Graphic's editing program, it's called The GIMP and i find it to be a great tool and im pretty sure it's open source.
Gimps homepage = http://www.gimp.org/

Wikipedia:
* Standard Shield — Real-time protection
* Anti-rootkit — Built-in protection
* Anti-spyware — Built-in protection
* IM shield — Instant Messenger protection
* P2P shield — P2P protection
* Internet Mail — E-mail protection
* Outlook/Exchange — Microsoft Outlook/Exchange protection
* Web Shield — HTTP protection (localtransparent proxy)
* Script blocker — script checker (Pro version only)
* Network Shield — basic protection against well-known network worms. Acts as a lightweight Intrusion Detection System
* Audible alarms — vocal warnings such as "Caution, a virus has been detected!"
* Boot-time scan — through the program interface, a user can schedule a boot-time scan to remove viruses that load during Windows startup and are therefore difficult to remove. A very important feature especially for viruses written to shut-down the virus protection as soon as Windows starts.
* Self-Protection — Prevents malware from terminating Avast! processes and damaging Avast! files.
* Skinnable — Program is skinnable GUI.
* Virus definition updates — Avast updates its virus definitions on a regular basis (sometimes multiple times a day), and this process is automated by default.
* The virus chest is quarantine folder where "infected files" can be stored. The chest causes the files' usage to be disabled and is meant to prevent them from causing any harm. The virus chest also stores vital system files to prevent them from virus damage. They still can be run, but the access to the file by any source or other program is blocked until it is removed from the chest.

Registration (Home Edition)

Avast! needs to be registered after the first 60 days of use. After registering, a license key is e-mailed and can be used for only one year. After one year, the user is required to re-register. Despite registration, the program is still free for home use.

Wikipedia: Less protection - AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 8.0 provides only base level protection against viruses, spyware and safe searching. It does not provide safe surfing (drive-by download protection) nor protection from hackers, keyloggers, spam, phishing attacks and malicious file downloads that can come through instant messaging and attachments from seemingly friendly sources. This protection is only available in the commercial versions of AVG products.

Wikipedia: # PC Tools's Spyware Doctor ( one free edition doesn't remove anything but protects, the other free edition removes but protects partially and uses a limited database)
# DriveSentry (free version (3.1) will remove spyware)

Wikipedia: ...real-time protection and anti-virus protection are not included with this version. Real-time protection and other advanced features are available in the paid versions of Ad-Aware 2008.

tacocrusher: MB (Gigabit lan, sound, video [dx10]): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131172 (I got it on a sale before; now $70)
Processor (2 cores, 2.8GHz, 2MB Cache): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103771 ($122)
HDD (160gb, 7200rpm): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822210004 ($45)
Power (Atx, 480w): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817170014 ($13)
Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811156085 ($24)
Edited: Forgot to put cd/os
CD (sata, cdrom): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106038 ($14)
OS (XP Pro OEM): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116400 ($140)
Total: $427... you might want to upgrade the hard disk and cd drives



This is all from one site, but you can probably get it cheaper if you search multiple sites.
And this is pretty good if you have a tight budget ($427).

ultracheese: You should add a link to the Free Software Directory up there. It has a lot of great alternatives to the software you listed and they're all free and open source. Some of them don't have Windows versions though.