Joe, a technician here tells me at about 5 years, have everything saved, because this is the beginning of 'self-destruct' time.
Mine is all saved on a LaCie mobile hard drive- they tell me this is advisable anytime. But I have the cd burner and more memory than I will ever use. Everything important is on cd as well.

I am hopeless with computers, my daughter hand led me through the additions and upgrades.

I am partly in the same boat, my Dell is 5 years old. The other way is rebuild-replacement, which is not always costly, since there are shops (at least one here) where technicians assemble to order. One told me the basic structure of my old Dell is as good or better than the new- just old and should be re-built. In the meantime, have everything backed up.

Dell has opened a sales-demonstration booth in at least one of our local shopping malls. Not pushing Dell since I can't compare, but they have given me good service and no trouble with their machine. It has been upgraded a couple of times. Haven't talked 'turkey' with them. Their top desk assemblies are about $1100 Canadian, and go down to $300 and change.

The Dell web site recommends XP Professional, which is what I have; no discussion of Vista yet.

Joe, get satellite broadband, if you are in the boondocks. My older daughter and her husband, living rural, have it, using one Gates (needed for business programs and applications), and one Apple. In town, our computers, TV and telephone are all handled by the same broadband provider.