I picked up an IWill Mini PC for my last upgrade:

http://www.iwillusa.com/products/Pro...ID=154&CID=172

The box, 1.7G celeron, and 512MB ram chip cost about $300. Add a new hard drive if needed for about $50.00 more to get an excellent low end internet/office work pc.

I got the mini pc for $180 and both the processor and ram chip were about $50.00 each. Don't upgrade! Start over with mother board, processsor, ram, and probably hard drive. They are cheap if you buy year old tech. Just buy new year old tech every two to three years. Spending three grand on top of the line home pc tech is a waste unless you really need it. Heck, I got five years out of my old compaq with a pentium 166 until web pages eventually became to complex and taxed the processor. Going from a 166MH to 1.7GH is a really nice change.

PS, I can attest to the fact that the celeron is useless for gaming. So if you game, spend an extra hundred for a P4.

 

First off, let me explain why I pick the 100 dollar parts. My computer is not a machine that I buy right away. It is a constant project. I have been adding parts for a number of years. I have recieved many parts as a gift. The upgrade before last, I was abe the get my memory, cpu, and motherboard all for free. I have a case that was 45 dollars, add a 30 dollar power supply that was in the last case. I have no need for a modem. If I needed one, I would use my 166 laptop. The ethernet is built onto the motherboard. Cabling comes with the motherboard. The monitor was a gift. My memory costs 60 dollars per 256mb, and I have 512. I use the software that came with previous machines, that goes for the operating system as well. My printer was going to be thrown out when all that it needed was to clean the toner out from inside. Cost to me, 5 bucks. My warranties are on the parts themselves. I got my video card on sale at Compusa for for 100 dollars. GeForce4 Ti4200. I got the speakers 3 years ago for 45 dollars. The mouse and keyboard were both gifts. Floppy disk came from a retired machine at my house. CD-RW was a gift, DVD-ROM I bought for 20 dollars. I have no need for Tech support. Those idiots couldn't solve any problem that I can't solve. I also buy components that will make a decent gaming machine. If I was to build a system for someone who does word processing, and internet, I would not spend nearly as much as I do on my own machines. As you can see, it is better for me to buy the 100 dollar components than to replace them more often. When you buy the complete system at wal-mart for $500, the components are of lesser quality, and they load up the machines with useless crap that I would never need. It is cheaper, and easier for me to build my own system. The same may be true for the OP. If he is not sure on how to do it, there are many books out there that will walk him though putting a machine together.