Look for cheap Emachines and Compaq Presarios in the stores for your Christmas shopping pleasure. They’ll each have systems at various price points – $399, $499, $599, $750 – with remarkable specs. Here’s an article with details on the lineups. Example: The Compaq Presario 6320US will sell for $629, equipped with an Athlon XP 2000+ processor, 256Mb RAM, 60Gb hard drive, and both CDRW and DVD drives. Amazing!