Reet, my mom, a 60 year old computer illiterate woman, wants to buy a PC or laptop with the main purpose being to use a web cam so she can see my son once he's born and he can see her as he grows up and will also be used by her boyfriend so he can "Compose music" ( for some reason a 60 year old man who hasn't worked in 10+ years seems to think he can become a musician) and also to adjust his fantasy football team online so we're not talking about getting an UBOR gaming rig just something that isn't unbearable slow such as a Vista machine with 1 GB of RAM.

She's asked me to try to help her as she knows nothing about PCs and she's just looking in the paper at deals so I'm wondering if anyone knows of anything to steer well clear of or any sites/shops that she should try. I've said straight away that she doesn't want a laptop to her though a second opinion on that may be worthwhile as although the whole all-in-one ness of a laptop is appealing I hate that when something on a laptop breaks you're pretty buggered and I don't want her to get ripped off on repair costs etc all the time, plus pound for pound you'll normally get a bigger screen on a desktop and as she refuses to wear glasses despite needing them I'd say that's a fairly important point.

I've suggested Dell and HP though I don't really know what tech support for these companies are like as I never even consider calling them but guess my mom might at some point. I absolutely hate the idea of her going in to a shop and having some slimey little wanker sell her a load of crap she doesn't need so I want to give her an exact machine/bundle to get.

So any of you locals have any ideas on what's hot etc at the moment? I've never really looked in to buying a mid/low spec PC before with ease of use being the priority.

Although I usually steer away from the big corporations when buying PCs, someone like Dell might be good for your Mum. However, http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk use quality components and do a collect and return option for the first year for £5. http://www.chillblast.co.uk have just suplied me with a new pc and I'm not disappointed. Have you looked on the Dell site to find out how much a bog standard web browsing pc is?

In this situation, a Mac would seem ideal.

No viruses or spyware even exists.

Video conferencing is literally 'one click' in iChat.

OS X is *very* easy to use for the inexperienced user (but is Unix so is ultra stable)

You have Garageband music software for free, which is amazing. More and more bands are recording in it. (Or something like Logic Express for less than £100, which is literally Pro quality).

Support wise, you have an 'Applestore' in most towns. If there is an issue, your mother could just nip to an Applestore, and they can fix and advise on the spot!

A Macbook these days is around £699 for the 2.1ghz C2D, 120 Gig HDD, 1gig RAM model.

The other good news is that it can also run Vista and XP natively, so you have the best of both worlds!

I bought my Mum a MacBook Pro a few years ago, and she has never looked back even though she never used a computer before then. Email, video conferencing to see her grandchildren in Holland, photo stuff, you name it... and hardly any support needed from me!

Imho, they get a bad press from geeks who like to tinker, but for the situation you describe, a Mac would be great.

I think his Mum is more in to drum 'n' base

With Beans for a son she's probably more into hardcore deathmetal tbh

I hate to say it .

But In this instance maybe a trip to PC World would be the best bet. The PCs are pretty resonable in price and would more than cover the things they want it for. Also "if" anything goes wrong they have a store to visit to complain/get it repaired rather than an unmanned help line. It also means you dont keep having to be on the phone to em trying to offer a fix yourself.

Aye, agreed with xui, with you not here I’d say Pcworld or the like.
Would probably be the easiest all around

Hp does some good mid/low end machines, as i know a few people who've grabbed them for their kids, save their main machine getting trashed on the net.

There's no chance in her getting a PC from PC World, if it's one thing she's picked up from me over the years it's that PC World are robbing Arsenal Supporters and she'd think I were crazy if I went back on that now.

I've had a look at DELL and they seem fairly decent 2GB RAM and Vista Premium and a widescreen 19" wouldn't be too bad for less than 400 quid. Mac is certainly something I've considered too as although I've never done much with one my Brother-in-law is a graphic designer and has spent over 10 years using Macs every day and although he lives in the other end of the country he'd still be in a better position to offer advice.

Only thing putting me off a Mac is it's price, I'm trying to do this on the cheap for her so that it makes her visiting me in the US more likely. Though it's definately worth some more thought.

She mentioned some systems in her newspaper and one of them sounded a like the Dell Inspiron 531 which I may just recommend to her though she'd then have to buy and configure a webcam etc which although isn't rocket science I'm not sure how well she'd manage which is why a laptop with one already built in could be a bonus.

I looked at HP and found their site to have bugger all worth looking at which is a shame as I bought my wife a HP machine 3 years ago and it's been problem free despite her installing all manner of crap on it.

Many thanks for the responses.

2GB isn't enough for Vista.

I'll actually side on the mac side here. Don't get me wrong, I love my PCs n' shit, but for someone who's no experience, mac wouldn't be a bad choice. I've been thinking of supplying one to my own mother, to dodge out of the PC Support Centre I seem to have become.

I have no issue on 2GB

2GB is fine for browsing etc on Vista, 1GB on the other hand is utter shit as I know from the work Vista box and also my in law's.

Yes you do. You're always crashing an blaming your graphics card