Shoutbox

lol she isnt going to use linux she isnt crazy!! but you could get open office for windows anyway then you wont have to pay for it.
in answer to your question it depends what you want it for but basic. just a Pentium 4 2Ghz/Athlon XP 2000 (Athlon is loads cheaper and better IMO but some people only trust Intel because they are stupid) 512 ram 40gb HD Ati

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Originally posted by Demz

at the Minimum ur gonna need atleast a 2500+Cpu or a intel 2.6 or more with atleast 512MB ram, 128MB Vid card an a decent size HDD

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2500+ Minimum, she wants a simple computer!...It may be just a secondary computer in a study or bedroom for work, which means it isn't going to get used for heavy resource hogging stuff!

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Originally posted by traxor

AMD Athlon XP 2600+ (2.6GHz)
512Mb - 1Gb RAM

that would be a bitch of a computer, and will do all of your basic needs...

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Yeah, it would...but really, it depends on what she's going to use it for...

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Originally posted by Hobbes
500 mhz is NOT enough.

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I have Windows XP and office running on a 500mhz computer, it's a secondary computer that is used quite a bit for things like work, programming and just to use MSN and browse the internet, in private (and no not for pr0n, it has a filtered connection ). For those needs it works fine, just a little slow to start up...I just beefed it up with a bit of RAM a few years ago, that gives it a cheap boost.

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Originally posted by Hobbes
She probobly wants to play some computer games. Who doesnt play

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Workstations at Schools and Workplaces don't need to be played on, so why would she need to if it is a very simple computer she wants?

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Originally posted by Hobbes
Also to watch stuff like episodes from the internet.

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Like downloaded TV shows or DVDs. Ok it is best to consider that, but with these things it's more a matter of if you actually close all the unneeded applications they work fine on older PCs, but you may need to get a DVD Reader\CD-RW for DVDs and a CD-RW because it is useful. Get a 16mb graphics card to render images more accurately and install a resource friendly media player and the codecs, then it'll work fine on a low-spec PC...

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Originally posted by Hobbes
And i dought u can still buy those kind of computers

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I think people have forgotten the art of hanging around car boot sales, you can pick them up there cheaply and they still do the basics...Or Build it as chris100 said. Or even go on eBay.

As for going Linux, it has it's up and downs.
You can get a resource friendly version, which is good on lower-spec computers.
However some people find that just putting on Windows is quicker, and you can always make sure that you have the right software to run Office properly, as many people like to.

Xpirdwingz, would you mind telling us what you're going to use the computer for (in as much detail as possible)? That way we can tell you exactly what the specifications you will be able to get away with minimum. Cheers

Thanks everyone! Didn't expect to get such a great response It's not for a computer I want to buy, its just something I wanted to know for my i.c.t. class. I'm writing a user guide and wanted to know the basic requirements that a user should have to use the application i made in excel.
No need to go into the detail, I think the answers you gave are plentiful. Just enough to be able to use Excel and maybe the internet is fine, and whatever other basic things.
Oh, I've heard of LINUX, but you're right, I don't need that, lol, but I am crazy, hehe

Here are some good specs for a low end pc, that is sure to play basic games, and some more advanced ones aswell. I have somthing near these specs and I am able to play nearly every game. It costed around $500 dollars (with software included).

• Processor Intel Pentium 4 with a lower end clock speed, such as 2.0GHZ to 2.4GHZ
  
• Memory 128MB DDR RAM Is acceptable. 512MB or higher is probably way higher then what you need, but i highly suggest pushing for 256MB.
  
• Graphics Card NVidia GeForce or ATI Radeon. Make sure the card you get is AGP based. Even the lower makes of those models i suggested will work fine on most games, but not all of them work on new games.
  
• Sound Card Settle with a basic sound card. Unless you want surround sound, an onboard sound card will get you just as good sound quality as any other.
  
• Operating System If you are looking for cheap, get Windows 2000 edition. However i highly recommend you get Windows XP Home Edition at minimum. If you can, borrow professional edition off a friend, because the professional edition serial codes can be used multiple times.

If you want a higher end system that is able to play any game, and is extremly fast, try the specs below. They will suit anyone perfectly but can get rather expensive.

• Processor Intel Pentium 4 with a clock speed of at least 2.6GHZ. I highly suggest Hyper Threading. Also try to go for the Extreme Edition as well, as long as you get a good coolant system such as a pure copper heatsink or a water coolant system.
  
• Memory 512MB DDR RAM will do nicely, but you could probably get up to 2GB for bigger games.
  
• Graphics Card NVidia GeForce 6800 or higher. Dual GPU and TNL support is a must. Cards that require external power (look for a white plastic port on the backside of the card) are usually higher clock and better preformance cards.
  
• Sound Card Creative brand cards with surround sound and dolby digital support.
  
• Operating System At least Windows XP Professional. You could also upgrade to Windows 2003 edition.

i personally belive a 512 MB with about 2.4 GHZ and a AMD Athlon Xp is a good buy, but if you want my adive buy a media center pc.. those are cool and you can actully buy a Pentium 4 but i think thats a waste of money, not rlly seing the difference between pentium and amd ..

For a real basic computer (No high end games)
I would go for:

All in one motherboard     (You all forgot that..And its better than buying PCI Cards like your talking about, because they become expensive)
At least a 40gb Hard Drive
At least 512mb RAM Although you could use 128 if you really need to save money
A decent processor (Id go for a Celeron D)
A CD Drive
A Floppy Drive (If needed)

OS: Whatever you need, Newest would be best but if your comfortable with 2000 and whatnot you could use that

As for your Excel Question.. Look on the box.. System specs

I have to agree with Anubis, a 500mhz computer is great for just using excel and doing basic tasks like homework on. As for Excel running on all versions of windows - Office 2003 requires windows xp so if your going to use that you will have to use Windows Xp.
On a 500mhz system Xp will run fairly well with 256meg of ram, or you could just install windows 98 and everything will be really fast .

A computer like this would be very very cheap and affordable and thats the main thing

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Originally posted by xpirdwingz
Just enough to be able to use Excel and maybe the internet is fine, and whatever other basic things.

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MS give this infomation...We had to do something very similar in my IT class, and I just copied and pasted the data over.
Office Standard Edition 2003: System Requirements

To all the people who are saying to go for 2ghz processors and above please could you actually read the posts! She wants a very low spec computer to just run Office

Hehe, thanks again . Plenty of information for my user guide. You're all so great hehe. I can do more work in IT class now! I only wrote a few lines last lesson, I didn't know what to write.