I have never bought a new PC in my life. I have never felt the need to have state of the art graphics cards, mega memory etc. The most I have paid for a second hand PC was £300. The bundle consisted of the tower, monitor, printer, audio hardwear, all relevent CD's, manuals, it even included Windows Genuine Advantage CD worth £95. Family and friends throw their faulty PC's my way when they buy a new one. I am a retired refrigeration engineer, and find tinkering with PC's an inexpensive, absorbing hobby.
I'm now venturing into laptops. I have just repaired the first two I was given. one was a little Clevo notebook. This was completely dead, no lights, nothing. I went on the net, and was told that it was probably 'static' they explained what to do and it was repaired in 10 minutes.
The other one was a large Clevo laptop which I repaired by formatting and installing XP with my Advantage CD. I had to buy a 2.5 external enclosure to do this.
So, Chelseaman, if you are wondering what to buy me for xmas, I suggest a Windows Genuine Advantage CD for Windows 7