Maybe it's just me, but does anyone else here build their systems? I have been building my own for over 10 years and have very rarely had any problems at all. I have not yet even tried to build anything w/ Vista due to all of the complaints and negative aspects I've heard. My current system could be used as a gamer's pc, albeit a budget one, but it can handle everything just fine using XP. When you look at the hardware that mainstream manufacturers use, it's mostly cheap junk. I've known several people who paid top dollar for Gateway computers only to have the hard drives fry. Compaq used to use knock off cyrix processors. If you go to a website that specializes in computer hardware and look at the names and ratings and then take a look at what's inside a store bought unit, you will always see the same thing...most of the component manufacturers for the store bought pc's aren't known for individual components. Just my two cents worth.