Ouch, sorry to hear about your troubles! Few things inspire as much dread or anxiety in me than something happening to my beloved PC.

Sam's Club had those TouchSmarts, too. I almost bought one instead of my HP Pavilion, though I was eventually turned off by the idea of having to touch the screen all the time (acceptable in a tablet or mobile, but didn't like it the idea in a desktop). I also heard the touch capability dramatically reduced the performance, so I'm very curious about what your experiences will be like. On the one hand, touch does seem to trump a lot of other considerations, especially with certain apps and games (hidden objects in particular!).

I think I'll always have as big and fat of a desktop as I can get for my main. I love expanding my computer and fiddling with it (although this can often lead to nightmares as well). Just yesterday I replaced my case fan (it had been making a funny racket). The new model is much quieter and soothing sounding. :) One thing I don't like at all about my current setup is that my graphics card is HUGE (EVA GTX 210, I believe), and I had to really cram it to get it to fit inside my case. I also had to replace the power supply and ended up with one with a huge sprawling mess of connectors, which I had a very touch time cramming inside the case. I learned some tough lessons about case size and such this go round. I'll probably end up building my own system from scratch next time, assuming I am finally able to invest in such a thing. My wife's computer is a very old Dell (probably at least 7-8 years old by now), and the poor gal could really use a Mac for her graphics and design work. If this movie deal works out, maybe I'll be able to get her one.