Time to buy me Mum a new pC

[Nick]

Ok, here's the deal.

In the past I've built PCs for my mum but now I just don't have the time to do the tech support for her every time she buggers it up.... so I'm looking at getting her to buy a Dell or similar, so she can call them when the latest bit of kit she's bought from QVC has sodded her machine up.

Now, she in now way needs an uber-rig, not for the stuff she does, but I've had a chat with her and she mainly uses a PC for email and word processing. However, she'd now got herself a DV cam and she's wanting to edit movies too.

So here's the spec I was thinking of:

Intel Core2 of some sort.
2 Gig RAM
Radeon X1300 (or thereabouts)
2x 250Gb SATA (NOT RAID, just independent drives)
DVD burner

Sound reasonable with a fair whack of future proofing? Or is it overkill?

For an OS I was going to suggest she get Vista Home Basic, but if she's wanting to edit videos I have doubts about current software working in Vista (Nero 7 is pretty crap).

So I'm thinking of sticking with XP... but I'm not sure, hence the post in here.

Your thoughts on both the hardware and software would be appreciated.

Oh, and of course I'll be getting her some sort of three year on site warranty... How I pity the poor sod that gets her on his patch...

[Mossy]

I would stick to a Core 2 Duo setup which should leave some legroom for future upgrades and also that little extra if she comes to pushing the PC a little further. But if mostly for WP use then your spec seems to be fine, 2GB memory and your laughing really.

[Sprite]

Yeah that spec seems fine, Dell does some good deals nowadays.

And with regards to Vista I would personally stick with XP, the amount of issues we've had installing and configuring Vista on machines recently (work in a PC shop) has been a nightmare. So many compatibility problems and the like. I mean sure it looks nice, but Id just stick with XP, you can always buy an upgrade to Vista if you wanted to in the future.

But for now I'm sticking with XP till all the bugs are ironed out and will probably migrate to Vista next year sometime.

[Funkstar]

How about Vista Home Premium and then she has video editing and DVD creation software built in.

Vista version comparison:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/pro...ns/choose.mspx

DVD Maker
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/pro.../dvdmaker.mspx

Movie Maker (Ultimate supports Movie Maker HD)
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/pro...oviemaker.mspx

[Sprite]

Hmmm maybe you can justify Vista because of the above. Unless they're crap and you have video editing software already.

[menthel]

If she is mucking around with video, perhaps slightly more hdd space may be in order. It disappears very quickly when video cameras are involved!

[Funkstar]

Menthel hight have a point. Although i would be tempted with a big external one instead of two internal. But htats just me.

DV footage is about 14GB an hour in case you were wondering.

[unxetas]

honestly, it doesn't sound like she'll be editing that much. 2x 250Gb is more than enough for someone editing their family videos twice a year

That computer sounds pretty good, even a bit overkill for its intended purpose, but I guess it will last for quite a while!

[hse180]

Looks like a good spec, and it can be upgraded if need be in the future.

[dave87]

IF you are planning to run Aero, consider something slightly better on the graphics front.

I'd get something better than Vista Basic, Home Premium perhaps? if she is going to be using video editing/dvd burning bits.