The computer moron has another question
 

I am going to replace my home computer in the next month or so and thought i would delve into the depths of knowledge known as the cellar.

I don't use my computer for much. just email, pulling photos from my camera to send to the inlaws, a little surfing, visiting the cellar, and the occasional word processing. i don't game at all, don't care about having the newest and best (as i wouldn't recognize it anyway)
I use Moz for all of my normal stuff, my wife has to use IE for her real estate business, so an effective popup blocker would be good. i do want to be able burn cd's and that is about it.

what do i need? i don't want to be a schmo and have the salesman sell me crap i don't need. so i'm looking for a basic out of the box setup that has what i need, without all the crap that is necessary to you all, but just shiny stuff to me. oh, and what should i pay? ballpark figures of course.

The default CD on this one is a read-only. Don't forget to upgrade to a read-write.

You might also consider a DVD player so you can play DVDs on the computer (games/movies/education software).

The cost of adding a DVD writer is now less than $100. Or should be - the street price for the cheapest of them is under $50.

Excellent free pop up blocker from panicware. :)

Stick with Firefox and you won't have to add another program at all.

Anytime you can avoid adding stuff pays off in the long run.

I just bought the Dell Dimension 3000 for my parents for Christmas. They use the computer for the same reasons as you, Lookout. I did upgrade to the rewriter CD drive for them also. I did some homework when looking for a new computer for them and I think that was about as good a deal as you're going to find for what you need it for.

Oh, and there's plenty of free pop up stoppers out there for the taking!

Well, I got the grandaddy of all cheap computers, a Compaq 1200NX with a CD burner, 40 gig drive, and 256 MB of memory. Without a monitor this cost me $199.

Of course you have to spend $40 for another 256MB of memory to support a virus scanner and firewall.

This baby has 4 cards slots for compactflash, smartmedia, SD, and MS cards, and fireware and USB ports.

It already has an NIC card for LAN/Internet.

And it had an AGP slot for my video card.

Keep the desktop. Supplement it with a laptop. Use the desktop as a fixed workstation, a data backup archive, and for other hardware features.

Laptop should have no floppy. It should have a CD-ROM minimum - preferrably a DVD-RW. A wireless card providing 802.11B and G. A network port. Conventional modem. USB. 80 Gb disk minimum. 512 memory installed all on only one SIMM - so that the second SIMM slot is available for a future upgrade (some laptops provided 512 by using the spare SIMM slot for two 256Mb).

To print, backup files, etc, the connection to desktop can be wireless or hardwire. IOW the laptop can be used adjacent to the desktop or in another room. Floppy diskette is also accessed via desktop machine.

Internet access also can either be via the wireless router or via ICS and the desktop. Numerous advantages to this.

Laptop should include that 'rubber eraser' to act as a mouse. It tends to be faster than the touch plate. But where the laptop is mostly used, a USB type mouse can be used. IOW when the laptop goes mobile, the mouse stays at the usual laptop workspot. Laptop can use any of the many nice mice sold by Logitech. One that looks like a stick to others with trackballs, and the conventional mouse that instead uses optics. All are better than the old style rolling ball mouse. IOW when the laptop is used in its usual work area, then a better mouse makes laptop easier to use.

And don't forget the pen drive.

Solution
or for an all-in-one package for not much more try this
No Spyware
No Virii
Quality Components
No continual flow of shitty OS bugs and security flaws.
Seamless Updating
Perfect set of software.
Best UI around.
Comes with CD burner standard, DVD burner for +$100

hi jag - how the hell are you?

Busy, but keeping half an eye on this place.
Now, go buy a mac, you'll thank me later.