Actually regarding the E-Cost refurb PC's I bought a HP 645c from them and it works very well. It was an athlon xp 3200+ with 512mb of ram, dvd-rom, dvd+rw burner, 9 different card readers etc. Good deal for just under $500 US. Even with shipping and exchange to Canada it was under $750 cdn. I believe this model is still available.

2xM80 VP180 2xQS8 2xM3 HSU STF3 LG 60PS11 Denon 3808 ATI 1506 LCR 2xATI 1502 Oppo BDP-83