My 7 year old Gateway dinasaur is ready for the trash. I think I'm purchasing a Dell 4700 . I'm not into gaming , just the internet, word processing and burn a few music CD's So this is what I have come upo with: Pentium 4 processer, HT technology 2.80GHZ. 800FSB, 512MB Dual Channel, DDR SDRAM 512M4 at 400MHz, 80GB Hard Drive. I'm not sure about the moniter, whats the difference between a Analog flat panel and a Digital Flat panel? Also which of the following should I get?
Singel Drive 48x CD-RW/ DVD-ROM or
Single 16x CD/DVD BURNER (DVD+/RW ) double layer write capapability or
Single Drive 16x DVDD-ROM or
Single Drive 48 x CD-RW Drive
Any and all opinions welcome, I'm pretty much computer illiterate and just want a machine that works, nothing fancy. Many thanks!

Well, if you want to go with an out-of-the-box option, go with another dell. Or you can be adventurous and build your own stuff from scratch. Sometimes it helps to build your own sometimes not. If you're going to go for a good burner, i'd just jump to the DVD+/- RW. I'd jump your hard drive a little bigger if you're into music, because it starts to take on some serious space the more music you get. I have 2 40Gb hard drives full of music and am running low on space. I'd say try 120Gb for the HD. I'd also think about the sound card and speakers, are you playing music on your pc? Some out-of-the-box pcs have bleep for sound cards, or are built onto the motherboard of the system. Analog and Digital Flat Panel? I'd say that the digital would give you a clearer crisper picture than analog, but i'm not an expert on FP monitors... i'm either CRT or Plasma... and since i'm poor, it's CRT all the way. Many ppl who are computer illiterate become more literate by building their own systems and maintaining them. If i confused you even more you can yell at me.

P.S. Dont trash your old pc, try to see if you can donate it to a charity that takes in old pcs for less fortunate ppl. There are a lot of organizations that'll do that. Here's a good site to look at for donations.

http://www.techsoup.org/resources/index.cf...le&set=products

I have a CD-RW 52X/32X/52X and a DVD-ROM.

What I should have is a Single 16x CD/DVD BURNER (DVD+/RW ) double layer write capability &
not get rid of the CD-RW for "backup". The one above will do all a CD burner does, though.
PLUS burn DVDs (with, of course the right software...Nero come with it?)
Oh, and get the floppy drive, anyway, if ya' can.
Sometimes that little nearly worthless item is just what a guy needs.

I have a 120GB & a 40GB doing basically what you are (and intend to)
and I'd probably enjoy 2 120GB's (or more) considering the price
of ATA/133 units.
Many things can be done with two drives that one alone just will not allow.
Can a guy have two HDs in that DELL?
Most all cases, even those of "ready-made" PCs are built for two.
I need to check on that detail.
BTW: SATA/150 being "cooler 'cause they're quicker" also means more money so we the trailing-edge technology consumers win again.

Check the fine print on the warrenty, too.
About self-maintaining the hardware.
You should be able to open the
case to blow the dust out.

Add a video card.
A sound card.

A guy might want to set up some speakers to enjoy that aren't sold by DELL, ya' know?

The 2.8 Ghz processor is the centerpiece.
Everything is built around it.
Next item of importance is RAM.
512MB Dual Channel, DDR SDRAM 512M4 at 400MHz,
Like the design name implies,
Dual is meant for two.
the 512 is one.
You want two 512MB Dual Channel, DDR SDRAM 512M4 at 400MHz,
so that your total RAM is = 1 GB (1024MB = what they call One Gigabyte)

That little extra you'd never regret adding on,
doing what you do (and will do).

WinXp uses a lot of resource(s) and about 2GB of drive space
all by itself.

Some software, not just games, can demand a lot of RAM,
especially when you "multi-task" ... have the music going,
editting it perhaps, while working in a photo editing project
and not wanting to close the windows open in your browser
cause you're having too much fun reading the
bleepingcomputer.com articles and google searching
for details while you're busy...MULTI-TASKING.

The computer you plan on buying WILL DO IT.
Nothing fancy is also what I have.
It'll do it, too... but who
knows what tomorrow
may bring?

The flat panel monitor can be either a CRT (cathode ray tube) which looks like the teevee set, or a LCD (liquid crystal display) that's truly flat. "Flat" refers to a screen that doesn't look like a dome. Unless you want to spend a bundle, I'd go with the old-fashioned kind. LCD is nice, but the good ones are still spendy.