Advice on pc purchase

[4zm4r3d02]

I'm getting ready to buy a new pc. I built my last two, but I don't feel like going through the hassles involved, so I'm thinking about a pre-built system. I worked with Dell's at my last job, and I found them to be a pain to upgrade. They only had one bay for mounting a hard drive, and the drive cable only had one connector!

My brother has a Gateway, and it seems to be designed with upgrades in mind. It has a toolless case, and a space for mounting an additional hard drive. I'm thinking about this one http://www.circuitcity.com/ccd/productDe...oid=207699 , but I have a few reservations, and I thought I'd ask the experts here at GB-PVR for their opinions on this system.

I would be using the pc for analog sd video capture from a Win TV PVR USB2, and editing and converting the files to avi for playback on standalone dvd players. I'd also like to be able to play hd files that I download. I'm not into pc gaming. Thanks for any advice you can give.

[Deusxmachina]

Not into gaming makes things a little easier. This is mainly a subjective question, though, largely based on paying more for lesser equipment in return for potentially saving time. With prepackaged computers, for the time sometimes spent deleting all the extra crap software that comes on them, I question if installing Windows from scratch isn't similar or even easier, and the warranty horror stories I hear don't inspire confidence in buying to have a warranty.

One thing of note which, if true, probably axes this deal:

"Available PCI slots 0"