Buy it or Build it?

Welshjim As confirmed by two others in this thread, Dell supplies a full version of Windows XP with their computers.

Other companies supply an image restoration recovery disk set. Dell gives a full version of Windows.

 

Anytime you do what MS calls a "Repair Install" there is a potential for things to go horribly wrong, lose data and programs. Almost every Repair I've done has worked as advertised, but a few have gone south. Fortunately, XP is so stable, that this extreme is rarely necessary for an experienced user. Other options available with XP Pro are the Recovery Console and ASR. With the new pocket USB drives, saving data is a snap.

Johanna

 

Welshjim Apparently Dell supplies three disks: Windows, Drivers, and bloatware.

 

Dell only offers only Intel and NO AMD Processors at all.

 

Buy or build?

By all means build. You can upgrade at will & don't pay for excess Bull(expletive) that you don't have a need for or never use. It also serves to expand on your existing knowledge because you have to do your own bench testing.