[Blarg]

Usually hard drive too, sometimes memory. Case, too. Sometimes operating system.

But you're right that the amount of things you can carry over is often pretty small and often you don't get that much worth out of it. Like, a 120 gig hard drive might have seemed great two or three years ago, but now many people can fill that in a snap, and bringing it over isn't really a huge value at all.

For me, it's far better to just leave your old computers as they are so you have a fully-functioning back-up computer at all times.

The tricky thing is really knowing what you're looking for in fairly fine detail, whether you buy prebuilt or build your own. It's hard to know where the bargains lie and where the rip-offs are if you don't know a lot about computers.

For that reason it's very helpful to have someone who is pretty up to date on computers(not just a goofy or well-intentioned friend) help you to make your decisions. There are terrific bargains at sales, if you check them every weekend in the Sunday papers, etc. But if you don't know the difference between a bargain and a rip-off, you could wind up with a real disappointment.

If you're going to do the shopping in person by drifting around between stores, I wouldn't do it without a list of minimum specs and features. Most people I know just get overwhelmed and buy something almost out of panic at a store just to get the whole process over with, I kid you not. Their eyes glaze over and they just don't know WTF they're doing, and often wind up with whatever is on sale, no matter how crappy it is.

I'd have a list of must-have's like:

- Hard drive must be at least 7200 rpm(NO 5400 rpm drives)

- HD should be at LEAST 120, preferably at least 160

- Memory(RAM) should be at least 512; 1 gig is far preferable

- RAM expansion -- must have open RAM slots if it doesn't come with at least 1 gig of RAM

- Must have RAM in the slots you have such that you can add RAM to get to 1 gig of RAM without throwing out your RAM that comes with. Example: two ram slots that let you put in up to 1 gig of RAM is fine though four slots is much better, but if those two slots are filled by two 256 RAM cards, you cannot go over 512 to get to 1 gig without throwing the RAM away that you've already got, since your slots are full. Not acceptable -- unless you're willing to throw away that RAM, which is a waste of money. Note: 1 gig of RAM is well worth having these days and will quickly become the norm in the future for games and all sorts of other things. 512 is borderline. Being able to get to 1 gig is important.

-- Video card/expansion: if video is built in, there MUST be an open AGP or PCI video card slot to upgrade the video by plunking in a new video card one day

-- Expansion slots -- should be some remaining, preferably at least two, on your motherboard(what all the parts on the computer are plugged into). Some day you may want to add more stuff in.

-- Drive bays -- there should be at least one open drive bay to add a second hard disk. It's VERY easy to fill a hard disk, and you want to be able to add an additional one later.

NOTHING that comes packaged with the computer is every an acceptable trade-off for what you want in an computer. Printers, doohickeys of all kinds, monitors, whatever -- getting one or a perceived bargain on one is not worth it if you choose an inferior computer as part of a package deal. This is very important and one of the main ways manufacturers get you to waste money is to reel you in with a bunch of accessory crap so they can totally cheap you out on the computer itself. Be wary and not easily enticed by all the colorful add-ons and accessories. You need to get a solid core to your system; accessories are ALWAYS on sale everywhere and easy to get cheaply.