"Inexpensive" Systems

I got a refurbished system from HP 4 months ago for $370. It has good specs. WD 500 GB hard drive, 4 GB RAM, Phenom X3 CPU. I have read that the CPU (an X3 8400) has some "stepping" issues which I may never notice. I was expecting to have some issues with it and get to know troubleshooting and fully expected to invest some time and upgrades into it. It came with Vista x64. I have had almost no issues. Even my older hardware works fine. It seems to me like Vista is rock solid. I have learned a lot from you guys in the forum so thanks. I know you normally get what you pay for but... Has anybody else gone the "inexpensive" route and had it work out?
Product Specifications*

Lol the last PB system I bought was a sale for $200, and it worked great actually (this was back before Vista came out) Since then however, all the original parts are gone, replaced with all new ones over a period of about 3 years.

So overall, that system actually worked out great, and with a cheap video card upgrade it ran Vista just fine.

~Lordbob

I have an open question in "graphics cards" right now. haha I am not clear on how to go about it but that's the only flaw it my system now. Well thanks for the reply....I knew I was not the only one to try this out. It will probably die within a year. LOL

Mine lasted for quite a while before i blew it up.....

~Lordbob

This sure seems solid for the $$. I process a lot of RAW images and do photo editing and with all sorts of other stuff running, it seems to do a good job. I wonder how many people are willing to take the risk. I back up everything onto my old computer just to be safe but I'm glad I got it just for Vista alone.