Power-Spec at Micro Center. A 2.4Ghz Athlon W256K L2 Cache,256M DDR Ram,40G hd, 1.44 Floppy, 52x32x52 CDRW, intergrated nic, vid, and audio, and windows XP Home for $450.00. Comes with an ok keyboard and a crappy mouse so a Logitech MX-310 for $32.00. Now pick out your video card, and maybe another 256M DDR. Under $650.00 less the monitor depending on the vid card.
**Practicing the dark art of turn signal usage since 1976.**
Just try and get a motherboard with 8x AGP Support, 3200 Series DDR RAM Support, and the new NForce II Chipset. Youll be in awesome shape if you have that. Upgradable for the next year or two.
If your looking to actually talk to someone about PC's i've found that either going to a local computer shop is best. They seem to know the most. I have also found that CompUSA can have some very knowledgable employees. Just try to avoid the entry level sales assistants
I would also suggest visiting http://www.tomshardware.com for product reviews before you go and purchase anything. He puts stuff to the ultimate tests
Though the employees at Comp usa may know what they're talking about, i wouldn't buy there if i were you. I bought all the parts for my comp at fry's for a good price too. I highly suggest you go to Fry's Electronics to get what you want, they'll custom build it for you i'm sure.