New computer help

[Val]

So I got a little ahead of myself with the office 2010 help request as I also first need a desktop, thanks to all how helped on that one.

Its what I call the family computer as I have my own pc for work that I dont let them touch and foc up, the current family one that I am looking to replace is an old HP D530 pentium 4  2.8 Ghz with 3gb ram
It is used for general surfing email and office use with the odd photo editing.
I am looking at this http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HP-Compaq-8100...SwpDdVbHSj
as it is exactly the same size as the old one.
Whats the focer font of knowledge  Should I be looking at something else (i would prefer to keep the sff format )
The seller also sells via their own site and makes a big play on the fact they are an authorised microsoft refurb seller (sounds good to me ) and offer 12 months warranty
Would an i3 2nd gen be better than an i5 1st gen

How fast is your computer depends on the memory. Photo editing on Windows 7 with less than 8Gb will be painfully slow. I'd recommend at least 16Gb RAM. In order to be able to use more than 4gb memory you need processor with 64 bit bus computer.

The above has miserly 4Gb memory. HP is a good brand. The SFF memroy is very expensive. The one above chosen by you support 16Gb memory in 4 memory banks. One 4Gb SFF cost £25. In order to get decent desktop you with say 16Gb memory you need to pay £75 for memory upgrade only.

Better find a desktop with more memory. Unfortunately most good perfromance desktops are not SFF.

Search ebay for "16GB":

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/PC-Desktops-Al...=1&_sop=15

I found this HP for £180:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Barebones-Twin...SwDNdVwcrH

And I would buy this server for this kind of money £170, it will blow the socks off any SFF desktop  :lol

HP DL380 G5 2x Quad Core 2.66Ghz 16GB RAM DUAL PSU RAID

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HP-DL380-G5-2x...W6bdTwuRQw