So I am helping a friend at work invest in a new PC to replace her six-year old Dell. Her budget was $2,000, and together we managed to score the Dell 2405FPW for just under $900 after tax. Now she needs a nice new PC to go with it.

I'm suggesting the eMachines T6524 or T6412. They're well within her budget, quite capable of what she wants to do (mid- to heavy photo work mainly), and seem to offer much more value for the money.

Unfortunately I'm not the only one she's consulting on this (you know what they say about too many cooks). Her other friend dismissed (as she put it) the eMachines ideas without much to say. Then this morning she sends me this email:

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can you take a look at these? i think i'm consulting too many people on this computer purchase. the 2nd one is a bit of a stretch for me, but if i economize (ie eat at other people's houses) i think i can get by on whatever's left over after the purchase.
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And "these" were a couple of Dell systems at $1,000 and $1,500. We're trying to keep it below $1,000.

So what is the way to go with pre-built OEM systems? eMachines? Gateway? HP? Dell? IBM? Am I on the right track?

Oh yeah, her friend has told her to avoid graphics cards with shared memory. He probably meant integrated video, but in any case no HyperMemory or TurboCache cards for her. My idea is to make it easy, get one of the eMachines (pickup or delivery) from Best Buy or CompUSA (or delivered from eMachines itself), and in addition get an X700 or X600 AIW from one of those stores fairly cheaply within budget. No gaming here.