Alan,

Trust me on this one - buy a Dell.
I've had nothing but problems with Compaq computers not only at work, yet with some that my friends had also owned, yes past tense, as they no longer own the Compaq - they now have a Dell and LOVE them.

I would also agree on the 19" monitor, DVD, a min of 128 Meg of Memory.

I have 19" monitor, 800MHz PIII with 256Mbytes of memory (and plan on going to 768 Mbytes soon <VBG>!!!), DVD drive, a Sony CD-RW, Internal 250 MB Zip and a 30 Gig Hard drive. I've added a SCSI card that my video capture card plugs into, as well as my scanner. My Microscope is a USB. I'm using a 3-com 10/100 NIC and Hub. Soon to be replaced with router to accommodate a cable or DSL modem.

Regards,

Dick

P.S. Did I mention that I love my Dell!!!