For what it's worth I'd steer well clear of all the package deals on offer from the corporate big boys , that includes Compaq , Dell , IBM , Hewlett Packard , Acer etc as they charge you top dollar and their systems are all brand dependant to varying degrees .In other words they all use their own components that are unique to their respective systems which means you are pretty much hamstrung when it comes to fixing glitches with your software or upgrading .Having their own components(and hence- drivers) and brand specific Operating systems* is bad enough but they will only supply you with "product recovery" discs which means that you can't just do a file search on your windows disc and fix a corrupt file when you get your first "blue screen of death" or the whole thing freezes, cos you don't get one (and you WILL get it with XP the first time you install some program or utility that XP doesn't like-and they all come with XP these days). Instead you'll have to put in your "product recovery" discs and they will wipe your hard drive and reinstall all the original software thus nuking all your personal files and updates that you spent hours online downloading. Not only that but, depending on the brand ,you may not be able to even add aftermarket components like sound or video cards etc., as is the case with Compaq ,as you can't get into the bios to disable the onboard components.
If it was my money I'd be going to an reputable independant computer specialist store and have them build a system to your requirements.They'll give you a warranty and it'll be alot cheaper initially. As for tech support , I'm sure there's enough computer geeks at her collage that could sort out any dramas she might have if they arise. Tell the shop what you want and how much you have to spend and they can build you a system that will use components that you can easily update and upgrade as you can afford it and as the software updates become available etc. Apart from that the other advantage is that you can nominate what operating system you want to use and you will have a system disc that is separate from the component drivers which will allow you to firstly repair the OS without having to wipe the hard drive and secondly it allows you to add and upgrade components as you see fit and/or can afford to.

As for which Operating system to use there is much debate but personally I'd go with Windows 2000 . It is the most stable of all the OS's and is well suited for a work environment as apposed to gaming. Some may argue that XP is better but I put it to you that W2K has been released alot longer than XP and therefore has had most of the bugs ironed out of it where as XP still has a ways to go on that score plus there is still the compatability issue to look at .There are many programs (especially older ones that simply won't run on XP where as just about all software will run under W2k. If you choose to go with XP at least with the retail version you will be able to upgrade and update easily . As an example ; a friend of mine bought a Compaq system recently with Compaqs version of XP home on it and I tried to do a simple upgrade to a retail version of XPpro but the whole system went haywire as none of the drivers were compatable with the Compaq hardware so in the end we were forced to use the product recovery discs and start again.
As an aside ; my mate has had to start fresh half a dozen times so far because his Compaq OEM version of XP home has crashed or frozen and he's only had his computer 4 weeks!!

Well , that's my 2 cents worth . I hope it helps.




*All the big brands get Windows that is slightly modified and tweaked to suit their own hardware thus making it impossible for the buyer to upgrade or switch to another OS as a retail version will always be missing critical drivers and software specific to the brand.

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The Wombat : eats roots and leaves.