My free Windows 8 computer that is costing me $$

So a friend of mine just built himself a very slick and powerful new computer, and feeling really sorry for me and my ancient beast of a PC, gave me his 'old' computer which is miles faster than mine ever hoped to be.

The upside, I can now play pretty much any PC game that is out now and run them at near full specs. Also he installed Windows 8, so I just jumped up to the modern world from XP.

Unfortunately my printer and scanner don't have drivers available to make them run. Shoot, there weren't even drivers if I had only bumped up to Windows 7. So I've been shopping for a sub $100 all in one, think I've settled on another HP since my nearly 10 year old one is still kicking, except for the Windows 8 thing!

I've also gotta get a monitor. This 17" 4:3 Samsung aint cutting it, neither for Windows nor for games. So I've been scouring eBay for these 24" Samsungs that are refurbs, but at nearly $100 less than retail. So there's another $130+ I'm looking to drop.

And then, because of Windows 8 and how it is really designed for touch gestures, I'm looking at either getting the Logitech t620 mouse, or the Logitech t650 touchpad. I'm hoping the mouse that is up on eBay continues to stay cheap, cause nobody has the touchpad at a discount and that thing is 70 bucks!

My big dilemma right now is the monitor though. Samsung has two 24" monitors right now, the B300 and the B350. They're essentially the same except the B350 has 2 HDMI inputs over 1, plus a bunch of others 'cause it is also has an HD tuner and speakers built in. At first I thought I only really needed the monitor only, but then I got to thinking I could hook up my PS3 to it on occasion, and that is appealing. If you've seen this thread of mine http://digitalpinballfans.com/showthread.php/3413-The-lesser-of-2-evils you understand why that is!

My budget also went up slightly as I had an unexpected extra $100 fall into my lap.

So here's my question to you guys...If I could score the B350 for say $150 on eBay as a refurb unit from a seller that has a 99.6% rating and is moving a LOT of refurb Samsungs, would you go for that or drop $200 at Costco for the same, thus getting full warranty? That extra 50 would go towards the mouse of a slightly better printer. Or should I just go for the B300 which I can "buy it now", also a refurb, for $124 and then I can get the Touchpad?

What say you Windows 8 users?

Sure... rub it in.

Seriously though.... those built in speakers might prove to be a handy feature, so there's an adventage to tip the scales. If it also has DVI you can hook up a blueray player and get supercrisp movies. Good times.

I like hooking my vizio 47" to a pc through VGA or HDMI. do some re-search its 7-8 years old.

Okay, so after much gnashing of teeth and almost pulling the trigger on the Samsung t24B350 at Costco for $200, my buddy who gave me the new rig pointed me over to newegg. Turns out the Samsung had no DVI input, just VGA or HDMI. So I wound up ordering an Asus VH238H which is a 23" monitor with speakers. Pretty screaming deal too.

Regularly $199, but newegg has it at 20% off, so $159. Asus has a $20 rebate through Feb, so it's essentially $139. And then on top of all that, newegg had it on special with an additional $20 off so $109!! Granted, tax and California tech recycling fee put it back up $15, but free shipping AND since they are located within 15 miles of me, instead of 3 days for delivery I should get it tomorrow.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...-021213-Latest-_-LCDMonitors-_-24236117-L013C

So now I gotta get my printer, and I'm watching the price on that touch mouse to see if I can get it cheap. Also gotta keep my eyes open to see if I can score a deal on one of those wired Xbox controllers for the PC.

I swear, I'm gonna be so set for TPA on the PC when that time comes!

Asus makes great monitors. I have the 27" model. Got it on sale last year. It's nice being able to bring my PS3 into the office when my wife's hogging the TV.