Ok, speaking as someone who did retail sales/support of computers in the past, and who deals with them daily in his job right now (end user support for a Fortune 100 aerospace company)...

My first question would be "what do you plan to use the computer for?" The reason I ask that is because often you think you need the latest and greatest in power systems, but you're only going to be doing email and the occasional writing. So a power system is not the way to go.

With that said, the second question would be "how much are you willing to pay?" Are you wanting a laptop or a desktop system? Are you looking at keeping some of your current hardware or going for new completely? A decent system will run about $1500, including the monitor. That'll give you a dual-core processor (either Intel or AMD), 2gb of memory, a 200+gb hard drive, a decent video card and associated programs.

If you're looking at a notebook, Dell has the new Vostro line... which can be configured with Windows XP as well as Vista, so you might look at that for an alternative. A Vostro 1500 notebook with 2yr warranty can run you just at $1000, and the desktop minitower (with 19" flat panel) will run just under $1100.

But your mileage may vary.