I bought an HP Pavilion for $300 at Best Buy. I know it must be a piece of crap because the salesman tried to talk me into a more expensive machine. It takes 11 seconds from "power on" to my Windows log-in screen. It is the fastest computer I have ever owned, and the least expensive. Of course, I wonder whether the more expensive machine is faster - but I know it isn't cheaper!

Extra money spent to customize a computer might not be worth it if you use it for mundane tasks like word processing and surfing the net.