The processor sounds good for the purpose. I agree on the speed. I don't think the the others will give you enough extra performance to be worth the extra cash. I have a 3 Ghz dual core AMD. Plenty fast.
should I go with new windows 7 or stick with Vista for now.
Definitely go with Win7. The real choice is whether to choose 32 or 64 bit. 64 bit allows access to more memory. On my system, 32 bit Vista could only access 3.12 Gb of ram. A 64 bit OS may have some compatibility issues if she has any older hardware that will never get 64 bit drivers. My opinion is that the large scale move to 64 bits is (finally) on, and that it is the way to go now.
OFFICE SOFTWARE Microsoft® Works 9
Microsoft has turned works into an adware laden product. I suggest not even worrying about this. When they get the computer, install Open Office. It's free and does nearly everything MS Office does. It is compatible with the MS file types (.doc, .xls, .ppt) but you will have to change the default save types, as it defaults to it's own open-source formats. Takes all of a minute or two.
SECURITY SOFTWARE McAfee SecurityCenter, 30-Day Trial
Dump it and install the free version of either AVG or Antivir. There are some other good free anti-malware products out there, but these are the two I have used. I am preferring AVG, as Antivir gives me an advertisement window everytime it updates it's database.
Otherwise it all sounds like a decent configuration and probably will be hard to outdo for that money.
Message edited by author 2009-11-28 13:14:26. |
