I am tired of slow loading pages, computer freezes, not responding, and failure to boot with my current computer. It's time for a new one and i don't want to spend alot of money, about $250-$500.
In this price range i am looking at emachines, Acer, and Dell
Also for chips: Intel dual core, Intel Atom, and AMD
For OS my choices are XP Home SP3 or Vista with a free Windows 7 upgrade when available.
I am going to use it for mainly for web surfing, itunes, and photos.

Any pros, cons, or suggestions?

you get what you pay for.... But if you are going to cut corners and only want to improve performance you might look at http://www.dell.com/outlet and just buy a new tower after you look at some of the models on the regular website.

1st what are the spec of your old machime?
A simple clean out, on any old p4 with at least 512 ram for a general work station running XP will have it run a fast as most high end p4s

Hell this machine Im on at the moment..email general surfing is one I built back in about 98/99 a p3 866 512 ram XP and for general use its near as fast as my P4 2.8 2 gig ram.
You would be amazed what a good clean out, remove all the task bars, crap etc , clean up tmp files makes.

The ones you're looking at with the Intel Atom processor, and xp home, are what they call Netbooks. These machines are low end computing devices that are really made to just be used for very very light computing; like internet surfing and email, etc. General use computers are going to be a little more expensive. If that's all you do with it, you might just consider what Step is talking about, cleaning up your old one.

What are your current computer specs? or brand / part number? Here is one I found just doing some quick searches, it has pretty impressive specs for the price.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883113100

You might just be well off doing some upgrades to your current computer, just depends on what you have. Unless you are just itching to buy a new one. Its gonna be difficult to get something really nice in that price range.

My current machine is a Shuttle SS51G with a P4 2.4 Ghz and 750 mb RAM running XP pro SP2. There is nothing running in the background. The speed is fine. The problem is its unreliable. It has failed to boot many times in the last couple months and i have had to restore the drive. I have replaced the HDD twice. And I can't get SP3 or any critical software updates (don't ask/don't judge). I have considered upgrading the RAM but would need two new 1 GB sticks, and new XP software, but then I am near what a replacement computer costs and still think I have some motherboard reliability problems, not enough USB2 ports, no DVD/RW, and general specs of an older machine.

here is a couple I am looking at:

eMachine

http://www.frys.com/product/5945074?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

Acer

http://www.frys.com/product/5945074?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

Dell

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9361157&type=product&id=1218091190691

The problem is its unreliable. It has failed to boot many times in the last couple months and i have had to restore the drive. I have replaced the HDD twice.
All the fans heat sinks etc clean of dust..a reg maint thing...and budget brands tend to have crap motherboards...the thing and componets that EVERYTHING connects together with....would u put crap rods to connect your pistons to the crank?
Go for a genuine gigabyte or Asus.
And they tend to have crap under powered powersupplys (PSU) run a couple usb items and become unreliable...
Up grade the PSU to around a 400W.
And they tend to have crap harddrives...get a seagate.
750 to a gig of ram is fine for XP....unless doing major gaming or video editing etc

Computors are like vechilces...you dont use a Mac truck to do the grocery shopping and u dont use a mini for long distance haulage...or even short distance lol.

And I can't get SP3 or any critical software updates (don't ask/don't judge).Im not judging, but if u dont have genuine copies of software expect issues...and if u dont want genuine and just surf music etc load ubuntu it and all the progs are free....I would run unbuntu on my big machine...if ubuntu supported my CCTV setup at home here.

Buying a new machine...basics
go intel....celron for a office machine, P4 if anything bigger
I dont like AMD etc...to many returns that cut into profit margins..some one whant a AMD..they can go down the road.,, not interested.
1 gig ram on XP 2 gig on vista/windows 7
Asus or gigabyte mother board
450W + psu
Preferablably not onboard video...seaparate card again Asus or Gigabyte brands (I prefer Radion cards, but that is just a personal preference... (Lke going for KB or ACL pistons)
Segate harddrives.
DVD burner...liteon or pioneer thu doesnt really matter, these are 'consumable' items and cheap.

I get a lot of ppl having issues with machines
1st question what do u use it for
2nd question is bring in the old machine will look asset that 1st
9 time out of 10, if and it usually is a p4 anything from a old 1.2 up...
I advise just a good clean out, everything from dust to addons wallpape changes , a few trogens and crap floating around, task bar BS... clean it up, sometime a stick of ram, save them a heap of money, ....and I get a email "this thing has never been so crisp and fast..."
my profit margin is about the same..
And I get their neighboursringing me up ..more work.

James - take a look at the Dell Inspiron 530 or 537 with the Intel Core 2 Duo processor. I just picked up the PC, keyboard and mouse with 3GB ram, 320 GB HD for $399. It has the E7400 2.8GHz processor and came with a GeForce 8600GT graphic card. Most will have a flavor of Vista on them but it screams compared to my old P4 2.8GHz...

Check out this ebay seller http://shop.ebay.com/gamedeals888/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=

and Micro Center... This one has XP on it.
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0312547

Thanks for the replies guys.

Dennis, that ebay seller has good prices, but they don't appear to include a Windows 7 upgrade like the same machine at Best Buy. Also, they are are listed as refurbished, so I guess that means they where returned/replaced under warranty. Because of that, I would probably spend an extra $100 on the best buy one.

There was another thread extolling the virtues of Windows 7, so I would prefer that over Vista.

James I buy a lot of refurbished electronics, if it comes with a full as new warranty why not? Reputable companys put time and effort into making sure refurbished is like new.

I actually had a need for a Vista box, I've been out of work for a year and not gotten any exposure to Vista so this desktop is my training aid so to speak. I would contact the retailers and ask them about Win 7 they may have the upgrade available...

I have had nothing but problems with emachine, and from what I have heard from other people, they are one of the most unreliable computer brands out there. I use to have a emachine and the motherboard fried out within 2 years.

just a heads up from my own experience

I get a lot of ppl having issues with machines
1st question what do u use it for
2nd question is bring in the old machine will look asset that 1st
9 time out of 10, if and it usually is a p4 anything from a old 1.2 up...
I advise just a good clean out, everything from dust to addons wallpape changes , a few trogens and crap floating around, task bar BS... clean it up, sometime a stick of ram, save them a heap of money, ....and I get a email "this thing has never been so crisp and fast..."
my profit margin is about the same..
And I get their neighboursringing me up ..more work.

Hey Step, do you have an itemized "howto" list that you could pass along for general cleanup? I have a couple of machines running slow here at work that I want to try to clean up. Heck, if you know of a good web article that you would recommend, that would help too. I know that it is generally a step-by-step process you want to follow, i.e., remove programs before registry cleanup, disk defrag, etc. Since you are across the pond, I can't just drop the machine off to send you some business, or I would! :)

Shopping the Dell Outlet is a very cost effective way to go. I just bought another Inspiron 15.4 inch laptop from them, and I had to go "refurbished" because I wanted Windows XP. With the Bluetooth and corresponding BT mouse, I was out the door for less than $500.

Hey Step, do you have an itemized "howto" list that you could pass along for general cleanup?
1st backup all mail boxes, user favourites, addreess book, documents and data to usb hard drive....he who made a backup, laughs last

Cleaning out temp files...my computer/tools/folder opitions/veiw tick show hidden and hide protected
windows/temp select all and delete with shift+delete keys
C/Doc and settings in each user /cookies delete as above
/local setting/ temp/ delete as above
/temp internet delete as above
Note some will not delete as in use...re seclect omitting those y get warnings about.
In /windows/ you will se a heap of folders that are back up and install files for updates....delete as above
So far u will have deleted from 20,000 to a couple 100,000 files

Now go into add/remove delete file sharing progs, torrents, task bar addons, wall paper BS and anthing that is not needed.
Reboot
Now run hyjack this
delete entries that obvioulsly have been deleted in add remove above, task bar bs, office and other program entries that that you only run when need to (rather running in the background all the time, and enteries that have "file missing"

Turn off system restore.

Now boot into safe mode.,
Run your virus scanner
Run cwshredder 'mini removal cool web search killer' , fxmydoom fxnetsky, avpvirusclean, antibage. smithfix. do not run combofix unless you realy need to and know what you are doing.
Reboot and run defrag.

Unless you are familar with reg files, dont edit or run reg file fix programs...I have to fix a lot of machines because these have a lot of faluse +ves and poeple screw up a good machine.

There are other stages that invove booting from repair disks that also run virus and virus repair patches, stess ram , cpu, motherboard, video cards, cpu looking for faulty compontents...
Generally if hardware has been ok the top section above will do or damn near what you want to achieve.... Then repeat it all, espec virus scan in full mode
If anything more is detected (a virus/trogen has reloaded its self) removing these takes far more effort....If not familar removing hard to remove items...get someone skilled at it, or format, wipe, and scramble the raw data on the harddrive, reload os and programs and replace the backed up data.

Dont sit there and watch most of the processes, go mow the lawns or polish the camaro.