Buying a machine suitable for office work

[brammers]

Hi there.

I have a friend here who's moving job soon to set up privately and is therefore needing her own computer. It's for office work exclusively really, and she'd like to buy as a package with nice warrenty and softwear packages.

She'll be needing the whole lot, mouse, keyboard, monitor, speakers and main unit; reliability, price and warranty (that word again!) the major needs.

So, 2 main questions:

1: What's she going to be wanting for general excel/word/access work, with a little bit of net browsing? Go with Matrox for gfx, and a low end P4? 512 ram or 1gb? 2ghz enough? We're really not interested in gaming here at all, but it must be able to handle office stuff ably.

2: What kind of company am I looking for? I'm of the opinion that I can get all this cheaper than Dell, Gateway etc, I've heard you lot discussing a lot of smaller companies but a couple of hard and fast reccomendations would be great. Please bear in mind she'll want XP + Office bundled.

Thanks for your help!

[Flibb]

I have had AST (years ago), Dell and MESH systems. Of them the MESH was by far the best value for money and also had the best warrenty. You get 3years RTB with their systems, they are made of standard components (upgardes are easy) and are well built. For office stuff basically get the cheapest thing they make.

http://www.meshcomputers.com/updated...mat2800max.htm

Just add on a copy of office and some speakers, or maybe works suite as that includes word, does she need excel, powrpoint etc?
The type of printer she needs will depend on what she wants to print. If its all text then a laser, text and some color maybe a laser and inkjet, mainly colour get a canon I865, or one of the bigger canon's. I currently use a laser and inkjet, saves a fortune on consumables. laser can be had for less than £100 now.

[BlackSheep]

I prefer AMD for office work - it just feels quicker in Windows - not that you can notice when you are typing a letter though

Anything around the mid-range mark, Matrox is an excellent choice for 2d quality ... 512Mb will definitely be enough.

If desk space is not too much of a concern I would go for a decent 19" CRT and don't settle for a nasty standard mouse (go for something like a logi MX or one of the new Intelli 4's).

MESH still seem to get some good reviews.

[Butuz]

Low end P4 or Athlon XP (2000-2500), 512MB Ram, 7200RPM hard disk should be all your friend needs. Office work doesnt really need much powwaaaaa so the above should fly in normal tasks.

Cant reccomend any small companies as i only buy from big companies (e.g. dell) - but there is nothing at all wrong with big companies.

Butuz

[Bleek]

Brammers - if your associate is still in the market for a computer then drop me an email, my custom pc business 'EDGEWARE' are able to build bespoke systems with high performance, reliability and super quiet operation for the work place, this includes a fast swap out warranty full warranty.

[BenW]

Dell optiplex?