Computer Moron Needs Help To Buy A New Computer

Hi,

You'll notice that I have been a long time poster but this is the first time I visited this particular board. I am really in need of suggestions of what computer would be appropriate for my needs.

As a background, I am predominantly a B&M player and refused to play on the net until about a year and a half ago. My computer knowledge is limited to surfing the net, sending/reading e-Mails, Word, little Excel and now poker.

I am currently using a hand-me-down Toshiba Satellite laptop which serves the purpose for 1-2 table games. Yes, I am clicking back and forth between 2 boards and I'm sure you know how much pain in the rear end it is especially when playing 2 tourneys in 2 different sites. Inspite of this handicap I have been moderately successful having made quite a few FT and a couple of MTT wins. And now, I am ready to splurge for a new computer but I have a vague idea of what to go for.

My goal is with a budget of about $1K, I would like to be buy a desktop able to play 4 boards with no overlap, with option to add a second monitor in the future and download some music. I have been looking at some Dell ads but still unsure of which model and options I should go for. Will a 17" flat screen be good enough or should I go to 19"?

This probably have been discussed in the past but I'm not sure where to look.

I would certainly appreciate the help of some of the computer experts on this board.

Thank you very much in advance.

[TheTROLL]

Dell's a good choice. The cheapest new machine they sell will be fine for your needs, none of this work is at all demanding by today's PC standards.

For the screen, you'll find 17" and 19" flat panels both display 1280x1024 dot resolution - the 19" just has bigger dots. A Party table window is about 800x600, so if you want to 4-table with no overlap, you need 1600x1200 resolution - which means a 20" flat panel. Most popular here by a mile is the Dell 2001FP.

You'll get all of this well inside your budget, with money left over towards an additional video card and second monitor if you want to add these later.