P.C opinions needed

My mom is on the market for her 1st computer. I dont really know too much about them so I thought maybe you guys can help me out.

I went to this place called OTV, you tell them exactly what you want, and they build it for you right in the store. you can even choose the style of tower, which I thought was pretty neat. My mom wants to do mostly photo editing and to be able to print off pictures. Also to burn dvd's and cds/mp3's. This is where im unsure, if one is better at it than the other....

well this is what I have set up for her at the moment
-intel pentium D 820 2.8 Ghz 64bit dual core 800Mhz, 1MB cachex2
-crucial rendition 512MB PC 5400 DDR2-RAM 667Mhz
-integrated video,PCI-E,dual core, core duo2,MATX
-CDRW 52x32x52
-hard drive sata 80GB 7200rpm 8MB cache
-Floppy IDE 1.44"-why do i need a floppy disc drive????
-tower 'shell' front usb,side and top window,4 80mm fans with blue led
-windows XP home
-2 dell speakers, mouse,keyboard
-17" LG lcd
-3 year warrenty($70)

thats everything the sales rep gave me on the print out, although I forgot to get him to put a dvd burner on it, i will get him too on monday.

right now it at a grand total of $961.26, thats tax included. Now when we put the dvd burner on, im guessing it will be around 100-150 dollars, sound reasonable? I wouldnt doubt if it was cheaper......so lets say $1050 for the entire package. Can anyone tell me if thats a decent deal, or should we keep shopping?
I dont understand most of it, a little clarification would be greatly appreciated.

not a bad deal, but dvd burners are only 50 bucks. I build computers on the side and I could build you a better one for the same price. Much better. Me and my buddy build pcs and sell them on the internet. LMK.

interesting......what kind of warrenty do you guys offer?

yea u can build a dominating PC over a prebuilt.


plus prebuilt (dell, HP, ect) have spyware loaded from the factory.

it's gay. build ur own. its easyi built mine and it's been runnin for well over 5 years.

Minor upgrades and im still playing the new age games.

HL2 runs like a charm. COD2 perfect. BF2142 not a problem

is the dual core really that much more superior to just a regular P4? and what do we need to photo edit? just a software program? will this still play games? im lost when it comes to this stupid language, I'm guessing simplicity wasent at the top of bill gates' priority list........

u dont NEED a dual core processor to photo edit.


hell i have old school stuff and im photo editing. You just need a certain program

we specialize in gaming computers and the benefit of dual core is that we can overclock the computer to make it much faster. much faster. offer all the manufacturers warrantys on components and 1 year on labor. Never had one go bad except for a guy got some bad memory.

what do you do to make them better? more memory? or what. Do you think this will do what she wants

u can get parts cheaper than a prebuilt so its more bang for the buck basically.

better video card, better motherboard. we can basically design a pc to suit her needs. faster memory, software.

I wish I had better memory.....but my computer is ok..know what I mean

this isnt a prebuilt, this is a custom built computer.

everything looks good, except the xp home. get xp pro. or media edition. wait, nvm, this is for your mom, lol, xp home is good.

Since this is for your mom and not for you... I would have to say go with a prebuilt machine from Dell, HP, etc. You can get a pretty decent machine for internet & photo editing for under $500. For the tasks that this computer will be used for, you don't need much of anything. That is unless your mom is a die hard HL2 fan... LOL... Didn't think so.

we were looking at this place called computer trends and a P4 was 750+tax for a prebuilt, the dual core is only slightly more expensive custom built........whats with this 'tv tuner' thing? without it cant you still download shows and watch them?
whats HL2?

I don't know anything about computers....I just got my lap top and it kicks butt! but all I wanted was a word processor that searches the internet and burns cd's...Talk to Moonie about what photo editing software you need...I think she has a mac though....

MOONIE!!!! where art thou?

if you have the tv tuner, you can pipe tv directly onto your computer.

to what advantage? preset and record shows? or just save them........?

I'm right here...

For photo editing, depending on your needs, you can usually get a decent program for beginners with your digital camera software. I think Photoshop is the way to go, but it doesn't make sense when all you are doing is cropping pictures or making them black and white to own a program like that. There are a lot of WAY cheaper programs that you can use, and many scanners also come with a basic editing program.

My dad bought his computer from www.tigerdirect.ca They are Canadian and you can pick and choose what you want, or you can buy packages. Check them out because I wouldn't recommend Dell. They have horrible customer service, and a friend of mine worked there and said the same thing.

If you are gonna go with the one from OTV I'd say tell them to forget the floppy...who uses a floppy these days? That's a waste of money, as far as I'm concerned. Get the DVD burner...DVD's hold more stuff anyway. That's how we store our digital pics.

ya, i dont even know why the floppy is on there.....? but thanks everyone, i think im going to order her the one from otv today. Its local and all, there like 10 blocks from her place.....