Soulhuntre, I had my rig put together and running within 4 hours so its doubtfull you're saving all that much time with Dell or e-machines setup. I would be interested in seeing a screen shot of your task manager displaying the 53 items that are running in the background. Based on your render time, it seems that you would have been perfectly happy with the performance of a properly configured PIII 450. But then again, you would lose the certain satisfaction that comes from spending $2,500.00 on a new computer. You also mentioned e-machines. Aren't those throw-away boxes in that they can't be upgraded? You recommend them? I noticed that Dell and e-machines are underscored and highlighted in your post. Are those direct links to their advertising pages? To be fair, you should post a link there to take them here to see the results of our tests. I just clicked on them....they ARE links! How much are they paying you?