MyMindIsGoing and others - E-store to advise and configure a system?

[John Feeney]

So I was reading this thread where Ray asked for feedback on his system. I need a new system (still on Win 98, with about a 12 gig HD!) and, though it may be more than I need, MyMindIsGoing has sold me on the advantages of getting quality parts, even if it means slightly less speed etc.

My needs are pretty simple, I think. These days it's mostly just surfing, writing, emailing and working on a website I'm putting together. (Being new to that I decided to use some blogging software - Wordpress - that's semi-usable "out of the box.") I expect to create another site or two in the future. (These are not poker-related.) I'm no expert, but I don't thing most of that require muchs from my computer. It's just FTP'ing, downloading some backup files, and so on. But I'd like something durable, unlikely to die on me down the road. (My current system has lasted 5 years, but my previous one suffered the dreaded hard drive crash, destroying everything on it. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img])

Perhaps I should just duplicate MyMindIsGoing's system which he described in that thread. I suspect that would much more than meet my needs. Maybe that's good as it would be plenty for me over the next several years. Or maybe I should try to tailor it more to my specific needs. Hmmm... Open to suggestions here.

In any event I've not heard great things about the shops in my area, and these days I'm not close to a large city with lots of options. So I'm leaning toward using an online store that offers advice and will configure it for me. Follow up service is of course also an issue. Has anyone here used such a store you can recommend for this purpose?

I know Dell is a convenient option, but I've heard enough iffy stuff about their quality and service to be wary. I hear their service has returned to a higher level recently, but I'd rather pay an extra couple hundred for a system that won't break down than take my chances that they'll actually get someone to my home on short notice and be able to recover what's on my HD, etc.

Thoughts? Suggestions?