Lots of very useful information. I'm leaning more heavily towards another XP box. I usually end up "customizing" higher end stock boxes and avoid builds, to avoid dreaded compatibility issues that score hours or days of frustration in finding and resolving, but I will take a look at what's available at Frys these days for a scratch build up and scan the web for folks' recent successful build formulas and do a cost comparison.
I'm emotionally allergic to Macs (probably because of some unsympathetic Mac salespeople I encountered in Apple stores way, way back in '81) but I'll take a look at what they offer anyway, because lots has changed since those days when Macs were mainly for 'graphics' folks in search of eye-candy.
Thanks again for all the info. I'm sure It will be handy for lots of zoners and non-zoners who pull it up from Google searches as well.
Geek Speak » in reply to A core Dump of my computer buying philosophy
Thanks