If i were shopping for a computer to do the sort of things you want, i’d definitely take Shagnasty’s advice and avoid getting the fastest processor available. The price premium is just too great.
If you already have a monitor and stuff, then it might be worthwhile checking out refurbished computers, like those at Dell outlet (i’m not trying to shill for Dell here; just giving you a sense of what’s out there).
This one seems like a good deal for the specs:[ul][li]Pentium IV 3.0GHz, 800MHz FSB[/li][li]1Gb DDR SDRAM[/li][li]160Gb SATA Hard Drive[/li][li]128Mb PC Express ATi Radeon video card[/li][li]16X DVD ROM Drive[/li][li]16x DVD +/- RW w/dbl layer write capability[/li][li]a whole bunch of the usual Dell-type software[/ul]All for $639.[/li]
This computer gives you a pretty fast processor, heaps of RAM, and two optical drives, one of which can burn both DVDs and CDs. I know you said you don’t want to do flashy video stuff, but you might change your mind later, or you might decide to try out some more advanced games, so it’s nice to have a separate video card rather than on-board video. It also means that your system RAM isn’t being taken up by video processing.
The above computer is almost identical in specs to my own (which i purchased about eight months ago for a few hundred dollars more). I use it for internet, email, word processing, webpage creation (Dreamweaver), digital photo processing and manipulation (Photoshop), video encoding (TMpegEnc; TMpegEnc DVD Author; VirtualDub; DVDShrink), music ripping and listening (CDex; WinAmp), watching DVDs, and a whole bunch of other stuff.
It is fast enough for everything i need to do, and lets me run multiple applications wthout a problem.
Of course, you don’t have to get a Dell. Lots of stores offer display models or refurbished computers for cheap, and they are often especially good deals if you already have your own monitor. And if you want to buy new, you should be able to get similar specs for a couple of hundred dollars more. CompUSA, for example, has some HP Pavillions in the same spec range, including Pentiums and Athlons, for around $800-900.
I know that a laptop is handy for portability, but you’re not going to be able to get anywhere near this sort of computing power in a laptop for a similar price. You also won’t get as large a hard drive.
I’m not quite sure i agree with Teelo that 160Gb is overkill. I used to think it was, but i decided to get a 160Gb hard drive just in case. And you know what? If you take very many digital photos, and if you like to have some music on your computer, it’s amazing how quickly hard drive space can begin to fill up. My music takes up 30Gb by itself on my hard drive. Nowdays, hard disk space is pretty cheap, and i’m even contemplating adding another 160Gb hard drive to my computer. If you can get a computer with a large hard drive within your budget, you may as well do it.