My mom and grandmother bought my sister and I a $2500 (ripoff) HP Pavilion computer when I was about 12 or 13. I've since upgraded some parts here and there, but now it's back to the stock hardware it came with (in my sig), and then recently I bought, built, then shortly after a month, sold a $600 rig for $700 (quite proud of that actually). I currently have ~$3000 (and counting) saved up for car+expenses and a new rig, hopefully a Phenom-based system, if that ship sinks, then I'll be waiting all the way till' January for the Q9450.