OR A NEW ONE, WHAT'S WOULD BE BETTER?

No diff between a Reformated pc and a brand new one....I reformat my pc once a year, and electric 'spring cleaning.' As long as the reformated pc has all the stuff you want in it (memory,cpu speed, etc etc) and the price is right..cant go wrong.

Before I went into Medicine I was in IT (What a switch huh). Anyway the new PC thing is overrated. Unless your some dedicated gamer, who really need fast graphics then your ok with an old PC. I only use Windows because I paid for it, but frankly for security, and safety Linux is a batter choice. It keeps itself clean, and then there would be no need to format yearly. There are different flavors of Linux and all can be found and downloaded for free. Since you asked this question I assume your not a PC guru, so I would suggest Ubunto Linux since it will do everything Windows XP will plus. It can be found at http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download
IT will also setup all of your present Windows XP settings, something Linux didn't do before. The security is the bomb.

Now if you must have Windows, then I suggest a yearly wipe, reformat that is, re installation of Windows and ALL the programs, new spyware, adware, and antivirus yearly and all of the other things that my Jaguar needs every year.

re-formated computers are like 'second hand cars' you'll find a lemon every so often.. but.. as a whole.. if you're prudent.. you'll find something that's useful AND with a decent life span.. ultimately.. it's a 'choice' nothing more.. both have equal value.. one just costs a lot less!

I have windowsme, and went to the site you mentioned, well now, I haven't got a clue what this is all about, just got a computer, at the beginning of this year, so I am a spud, at this,
I quess, if I am going to now choose what type of computer, for say around 1000.00, what should I get?

today? pretty much ANYthing you want with that budget

reformated or reconditioned

reconditioned is gone thru and any bad hardware is removed

reformated is just clearing the hard drive of easily
accessed data and none of the hardware components are gone thru

most reconditioned computers are returns that have been checked out and fixed by a company related to the seller or the manufacturer

my guess is reformatted is usually a private owner that upgraded
or one that was traded in to a computer service tech.

but i am not sure of that

and new is supposed to be one that has not been in regular use
thus has never really been tested to see if it works properly

my son had a reconditioned comp he used for about five years
and then gave it to his mother and she is probably still playing with it

what i would suggest is making a list of things you want to use the computer for

then think of some things you may want to use it for

then find one that will do the things you want to do

and don't get the cheapest nor the most expensive

if you do not have to have the fastest thing you can save a
little by maybe havuing a little slower processor

if you are buying a vista machine make sure you have AT LEAST
2gb of ram 3 would be better

if you buy from somewhere and have them set it up for you
i would also suggest they clean up all the sample software and get rid of it

have them make you an install disk of your hard drive

then ask them to partition you hard drive so all the programs are on one partition and the content is on another partition

then running a correction or virus program would not take as long

avg is a good free anti-virus and they also have spy-ware as well now

oh yeah

almost forgot

but hey

what do i know



good shopping to you

Get a new hard drive for a reformatted comp. Basically, I look at it like buying a pre-made computer with a slow, used hard-drive.

Hard drives are cheap these days, and I think you can pick up a 500 GB at 9200 RPM at Fry's for like...$89.