Questions for new home office PC

[InflatableBuddha]

I'm helping my girlfriend's mom look for a new PC. She will be using it for basic office/internet use, managing photos, etc. No gaming. She just needs something reliable that will still be fast enough 5 years from now.

Budget is $700 CAD after taxes, including OS, but if it can be done for cheaper, still with good quality, that's great.

She already has a monitor.

I've read threads on higher-end components, but I'm not sure about budget components.

Questions:

• Is it better to go with a custom built system (from NCIX, for example), or an off-the-shelf system from Best Buy/Staples, etc.? The off-the-shelfs go for pretty cheap nowadays.
  
  What brands are recommended (Dell, HP, Compaq, etc), if she goes with an off-the-shelf? Are refurbished systems ok?
  
  Are business systems (e.g. Dell Vostro/Optiplex; Lenovo Thinkcentre) a good value for her or are home systems a better value?
  
  OS - Vista Premium or XP? That's pretty much a given if she buys off-the-shelf. Or is it worth it to go with a business type system or custom built, so she can still get XP? She has never used Vista but she is willing to learn. Just wondering if there are speed, reliability, or usability advantages with Vista for novice users.
  
  CPU - Is a basic dual core ok (Pentium Dual Core or low end Athlon X2?). No brand preference.
  
  Hard Drive - 160 GB or more should be plenty.
  
  RAM - 1GB or 2GB?
  
  Video - I want to avoid Intel IGP. Would Nvidia or AMD onboard graphics be ok, or should she get a basic discrete card (e.g. HD Radeon 2400 Pro)?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Blain]

Dell...

 

[InflatableBuddha]

I've heard good things about Dell, but I still have some other questions. The consumer PCs all seem to come with a monitor - is there any way to get a model without a monitor, or do you have to order a business model PC?