Quake3World

My friend needs some help finding a good computer. He isn't into serious gaming, but more into video/photo editing. I told him a custom computer would be cheaper and work much better, but his parents are the one doing this and they don't like the hastle.

Requirments:

Good for video/photo editing
must come with monitor, keyboard, speakers, and mouse
Less than $1,000

There are obviously a lot that meet these requirments, but I can't find the BEST one.

I'd actually recommend getting a pretty low-end off the shelf unit with a warranty, then sticking some extra ram in there and bolting on a better keyboard and mouse.

It'll do what he needs and there's no 'it's fucking broken and your fault' 2 years down the line.

I agree with Foo. Just march down to a big box retailer and pick something off the shelf that's on sale with a decent warrenty.

For that price (U.S. I'm assuming), I'm guessing you should be able to pick up a core2duo or AMD X2 with a GB or two of RAM and a 320GB HD (including monitor). That's off the top of my head from what I've seen in adverts recently.

I know some people with disagree with me here, but if he's really into production quality video and photo editing, he may want to look into getting a Mac.

If they want to avoid issues down the line get an off the shelf and spring for the extra warranty at a major retailer, as Foo and Obsidian suggested. Custom PCs are great for those of us who know our way around hardware but IMO end up being a pain in the ass for the average user.