Attn: techs and wizards
 

So, I am going to upgrade my desktop, what is the best deal going on?

I don't do gaming, and I don't own Photoshop so I am not running any resource hogs besides ICQ and Firefox.

To be honest, I have never owned a propriatary system before. Should I build my own? How much would that run if you were doing it?

Depends really on what you want to do with it.
If your just surfing the net and shit just go with a dell or something(stripped generic parts).

Now if you want a powerfull pc I would build your own. You can get a real nice system for around 1k-1.5k

i was gonna buy a new computer too,
but i just bought this one last year and a friend is into hardware so he's gonna help me upgrade and save money instead.. tomorrow im buying a lcd monitor tho my eyes start to hurt :(

I build my own, but if I didn't, I'd be shopping at www.alienware.com. :)

You can get all the components you need at http://www.NewEgg.com. Way more fun and a great learning experience building your own PC. I usually spend about $2k, though if you don't need a lot of horsepower, you could do it for a lot less.

For that kind of money I would probably just upgrade a Dell.

What kind of specs are you talking for that kind of money?