Buying My First Computer- Please Help

[TLC]

Hello all- happy holidays and I appreciate you taking the time to give me some good advice. :-)

I am buying my first desktop computer. I have had 2 computers in the past- both hand-me-downs. Currently I have a Compaq Presario from 2000. Here's what system properties says: "x86 Family 6 Model 8 Stepping 3." When I researched this I came up with: (Geniune intel: X86 instruction set. Family 6 : Pentium 3. Model 8 : These cores run from 600 to 1000 MHz. Stepping 3: I think is either 700 or 800 MHz.) It runs Windows 2000 and has 129,584 KB RAM and 18.6GB hard drive capacity, a 3.5 floppy drive, and a standard cd-rom drive.

I am looking to spend about $650.

I will be using it for: surfing the net, some gaming (my current computer cannot play games newer than about 1996!), music downloads, photo sharing and editing, movie and video downloads, maybe some limited video editing, storage of several word doc, adobe acrobat, and final draft files, cd burning and dvd burning.

Any guidance you can give me on manufacturers, processors, memory, etc. would be greatly appreciated. What should I be asking for and what should I be looking for? I really don't know where to start.

Thanks so Much!

[PatioFurniture]

are you looking to buy pre-built or build your own?

[TLC]

pre-built, don't have the tech knowledge to do it myself.

[TLC]

OKAY-

I've done some more research poking around this great site and I think I've come up with some specs that will serve my purpose- can you tell me if I'm on the right track?

CPU
-Pentium D 930 Presler
-Athlon 64x2 3800
-Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 or E6400

MOBO
- NO idea

RAM
-Patriot 1GB ket PC2-6400 DDR2-800
-Corsair ValueSelect 2GB kit PC2-5300 DDR2-667

VIDEO CARD
-Radeon X1300 or X1600 XT PCIe x16 256MB
-GeForce 7300 or 7600 GT PCIe x16 256MB

HARD DRIVE
-120 GB sata 300???

PSU
-400w ATX 3.0 spec???

***Do these officially move me into the 21st century?

[geekorfreak]

Allright well i'll tell you this. In my own opinion pre-built computers are crud. If you are looking for a good pc, build your own its not hard. If you are looking for a pc that is going to play todays computer games you are looking to spend some decent money. 650 dollars is not going to get much unless you find a really good bargain. I can do some looking for you.

[geekorfreak]

http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/computer_can_series.do?storeName=computer_store&category=desktops&series_name=a1650y_series&tab_switch=true&a1=Usage&v1=Music%2C+photos%2C+and+movies&tab=specs

[TLC]

Thanks so much, geekorfreak. Went on the HP website and put this together for about $750. I decided that I don't need a top of the line video card- I don't do that much gaming, and don't play anything current. I can always upgrade later- but I do want to download and burn a lot of music and movies- so I need something that will satisify that need.

Review your a1650e series:

-Operating System Genuine Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005
Processor AMD Athlon(TM) 64 X2 3800+ dual-core

-Memory 1GB DDR2-533MHz dual channel SDRAM (2x512)

-Hard Drive 160GB 7200 rpm SATA Hard Drive

-Primary CD/DVD Drive LightScribe 16X DVD+/-R/RW SuperMulti drive

-Front Productivity Ports 9-in-1 memory card reader, 2 USB, 1394, audio

-Removable Storage 3.5 in. 1.44MB Floppy Drive

-Networking 56Kbps Data/Fax Modem for dial-up Internet access

-Graphics Card 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 7500LE, TV-Out, DVI, VGA

-Sound Card Integrated 7.1 channel sound w/front audio ports

-Keyboard and Mouse HP Keyboard, HP Scroller Mouse

-Productivity Software Microsoft(R) Works 8.0/Money 2006/MSN Encarta Plus

******
As long as everything is expandable- does this seem like a good machine?