New home PC

[Binky]

I am planning to buy a new home PC after Christmas and would appreciate advice on what speed/capacity I should be looking for. I need something to surf the net on, word processing, and maybe play music, which is reasonably fast but doesn't need to be top of the range. What should I be looking for in terms of RAM?

Many thanks.

[fo3nix]

RAM: at least 512MB, ideally 1GB. Any more is overkill really for what you want to do.

Processor: anything you buy these days is more than capable of doing what you want it to do.

Tip: try and buy it with XP on, and not the new Vista, that will be released shortly after Christmas.

[Binky]

Thanks very much for the advice. Any more tips anyone?

[fo3nix]

If possible get one with a dedicated video card, because they're simply better than built-in ones that you can buy. Might be useful later on, though you won't notice a difference with just the things you state in your question.

hard drive: simply go for as much as you can. If you're a regular user with some photos, some music, etc., then 80GB or so should suffice. But the more the merrier, it'll end up being filled at some point, I guarantee, so buy while you can (it's cheap storage anyway).