Processor questions

I am wanting to buy a desktop unit for my kids (all teenagers), to keep them off my company computer in the office.
I have been looking at the cheaper units (under $500) and am confused with the processors available. I see Pentium-D 900 & 800 series, celeron, Anthalon X2 4000, etc.
The kids are going to use it mostly for homework, games and camera/ music things and they will not have internet connectivity. Game wise, they like the Command& Conquer, Civilization, couple flight sims and stuff like that, I will load MS office and adobe photoshop on it.

Since I already have a monitor, kkeyboard, speakers printer, etc, I only need the desktop and allows me to use my budget toward that alone.

I guess I'mjust asking for what processor and so forth I should be looking for in a desktop system and get the most for my money. I'm also open to suggestions as to where to buy it, mail order places or stores.

Thanks for any help you folks can offer.

Brian

 

I've ordered from http://newegg.com for quite some time now with no problems whatsoever. You can't beat the prices.

If you have a little bit of computer know-how, you could assemble the computer yourself from parts- don't worry, we'll be happy to help you here.

You can make your dollar go about twice as far building it yourself.

as far as processors go, you can fine good info at http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/index.html

for music, you want at least 100gb of hard drive space
to make photoshop run smooth I'd say 2gb of ram
processor id say at least an AMD 4000 or an Intel Core 2 Duo

 

Processor
I'd suggest a AMD x2 or Intel CD2 (the better deal probably on the AMD, the performance edge is on the Intel, either can do the job very well)

I'd suggest 2 gb of memory ( good for XP, minimum suggested for Vista, better gaming and multi tasking etc.)

Gaming, it's all about the Video card, ya need a PCI-e based VC, some of the games you listed best played with modern hardware, ya need around a couple hundred bones here (many off the shelf prebuilts will be sub par for todays games, especially the ones under $500, some lack the ability to upgrade in the gaming area)


Under $500 systems can be had at the likes of Best Buy and Circuit City Xmas tis the time for deals ( but ya might get some hardware you already have and may be missing some of what I suggested above)

Check the Web & maybe Tigerdirect for Barebones Kits some assemble & know how may be required:eek http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_tlc.asp?CatId=31

Parts to build your own www.Newegg.com


Maybe someone else will chime in with some more advise or a magical link for a sweet deal:major