Monkey_Puncher

Yeah, unfortunately even if you were to buy the very top kit for every part of your computer there's no way to guarantee that it will be able to run the next generation of games with everything turned up to 11. Certainly I'd expect one of these - Area-51 ALX Desktop Overview - to be able to at least run them, though. Quad core is probably a good starting point for your new system.

Very useful - i'm always forgetting to stop my USB stick, generally when in a hurry, and get really ticked off waiting for my knackered laptop to install its windows updates and actually shut down. thanks.

I'm assuming the one port router doesn't have 802.11b/g. If it does you're fine because you can buy a wi-fi card for the laptop. [if not you might find your net use a bit restricted (I assume that it'll mostly be plugged in to your folks computer). Of course if they only use the desktop occassionally you'd be OK to have the port most of the time - that's how my brother has it arranged at home.

I use firefox. With Xp its more functional the IE although I think IE looks better.

Sophos is the software used and distributed to students for free by my uni (oxford), although thats hardly a professional recomendation. With that behind Zone Alarm and with frequent spyware scans I haven't had any problems. Also, it seems to be quite gentle on system resources (useful if you're using a low RAMmed Celeron laptop with a tendency to overheat). Thanks for putting me onto SAS, guys - sounds good.

I've got a similar problem - XP taking 3+ minutes to boot on a 2.4Ghz Celeron w/ 512RAM. Startup loads sophos auto updater, zone alarm, and broadband connection software. So nothing much. The laptop was fitted with a new HD in October, but is otherwise 3 1/2 years old. Oh, and I get a message saying my mousepad drivers are not synaptics approved, even though I've rolled them back to factory settings. Is there anyway to get rid of this?