Buying a new computer

Well, the ancient desktop (bought in 1999? 2000?) is just not able to handle much--all we really need it to handle is Word, internet access, and a few other things. I have all the pictures and music on my laptop, and we aren't much on games. So we think we'll pass it along to someone with a little more patience with slowloading pages, and get something a little speedier.

This will be the computer I share with Bill, so can't switch to Apple, and wonder if I'd rather stay with XP or go to Vista. Also, how much computer do I really need? The problem is that over the years just the basic programs seem to get to be too much. I know there are probably things I could do to clean up and speed up this a little, and I've done some, but it always seems to need the maintenance just when we're trying to do something really important, and need it now. Bill's been pretty content with the Dell we got in Chicago a couple of years ago, and I'm thinking to go in the same direction, but thought I'd see if anyone out there has any other thoughts. I've thought that it's worth it to spend a little more and get one with an Intel processor rather than Celeron or whatever else they have on the really cheap ones--any thought on that, too, would be welcome.

Here's the choice I'm currently considering (of course it's going to wind up being more expensive):

for $699:
Processor:
Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E4500 (2MB L2 Cache,2.20GHz,800 FSB)
Memory:
1GB10 Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz- 2DIMMs
Hard Drive:
320GB5 Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™


for $499:
Processor:
AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual-Core 4000+
Memory:
1GB10 Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz- 2DIMMs
Hard Drive:
250GB5 Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™