Contemplating a new home PC. Whether by the accumulation of cruft or my raising expectations, our home PC is beginning to show its age. Our current setup is a Dell Dimension 4100 (Pentium III 930 Mhz, 256MB RAM, 40GB HD) with a 17" Trinitron CRT. It works, but there are a lot of time when it is just plain slow.

I started by looking at a few Macs, but decided that I really don't need the hassle. Nathalie and I are both very used to Windows, and there is no reason to have to get used to a new UI when we don't have to. Yes, I could use Bootcamp to run Windows, but adding in the cost of an additional OS license to the already high price of a Mac... no, I couldn't justify the additional hassle and cost just to be cool.

Now to find a PC. I had seen a few positive reviews the of new HP Pavillion PCs, and I did like their design. There are a few good possibilities there, marred mainly by the inability to configure the system! If there is a way to customize a system before buying it, I can't find it. Some of the base configs are OK, but I would really like to be able to tweak the config a lot more. Still, a possibility.

I checked out the Sony site after seeing a nice all-in-one at the local Sony store. Nice, but pricy, with a lot of TV-related features that I just don't need. I also couldn't find the all-in-one Viao's though the menu system, which leads be to believe these are being discontinued.

Next up, Dell, where I was able to price out an updated version of our current setup for about $2000: Intel Core 2 Q6600 2.4GHz Quad-Core with 4GB RAM, 320GB HD, and a 22" wide LCD display. Nice.

After that, though, I couldn't think of any other companies I would want to buy a PC from. Gateway? Toshiba? Acer? For some reason, I don't trust them enough to buy from them. Here is where the brand plays hard, since for all I know the machines are all coming out of the same factory in China, with a different company logo silkscreened on the front. But as far as brand goes, outside of Dell, HP, and Sony, I don't feel comfortable spending our money.

There is a very good chance that we'll end up going with a Dell machine, although I think the HP units have a slicker look. I have no problem going with either of these systems. I was hoping, I guess, that I'd have more options, or rather, better options.