If you can find this Quad-core Gateway for a good price (I bought mine as a refurb), I suspect you will be very pleased with the speed, features, and build quality of this mid-tower desktop.  The Intel CPU has power to spare, the 3 gig of memory is more than adequate (and would be fairly easy to expand to 6 gig), the 500 gig hard drive is plenty big for most people's need (and there is room for another drive, easily installed in the nifty, single-thumbscrew-accessed drive cage).  The graphics system (as in nearly all PCs of this class) is spartan, but that's easy enough to upgrade, with a free slot and enough room for a full-length or extra wide graphics card.  The tool-free case is easy to use, well made (almost all metal), big enough for expansion without being a whale, and handsome without being overly showy.  It also has some nice extras, such as a card reader, a firewire port, plenty of USB ports, and 5.1 sound.  The included keyboard and mouse suck, but that's typical (fortunately, it still has PS2 keyboard and mouse ports, unlike many other brands that have eliminated these in favor of USB, so you should be able to bring over your favorite clicky legacy keyboard if you want).  This machine has a lot of power for a small price, and is upgradable in many ways.

HairyLime

Wichita, KS