Ahh wellll... You live and you learn.

First, you learn that any cheap PC is a piece of crap. (Not that an expensive one necessarily isn't.)

Then, ironically, you learn how to build quite a quite decent rig for the same price (or perhaps just a little more).

Heh, you've just reminded me of my first PC. It wasn't a pre-packaged PoS Dell, Compaq or anything quite that bad, but it was pretty bad!

And yes, it had integrated graphics. Because integrated graphics is a wonderful thing.

Read through some threads in the Apothecary, and you'll learn a lot about building a half-decent machine on a modest budget. It won't be state-of-the-art, but really, who needs state-of-the-art? My dream machine currently runs at 2.1GHz (CPU: Athlon 2800) with an ATI Radeon 9600XT video card. It is decidedly mid-range... But it does the job perfectly, and at an affordable price.

Ultimately, it all comes down to research and knowing the right people.

A.