I'll title this one with how most of my posts here end I do appreciate the help you guys give me, and I appologize for bugging you all the time. This time, however, it's mostly for someone else.

My family has been going through a tough time recently due to health issues with my father. It's been scary, but we think we've gotten to a stable point, and are trying our best to look on the bright side of everything. Consequently, my father is interested in getting a new computer, and I'm encouraging him.

I've come to the conclusion that I'm not as familiar with current hardware as I was when I was building my machine, and there are so many options out there it's hard to wade through it all. Therefore, more than ever, I'd appreciate guidance in our purchasing.

A little background is required. My dad is the reason I am a gadget freak. We had each level of PC right when it came out. When I was little, I remember him carrying his "portable" Compaq to the airport to go to conventions, where everyone would ooo and ahh at the tiny amber screen on this gigantic box. He had a car phone when they still needed giant power bricks. He didn't buy recklessly, he would just upgrade when he needed to (maybe a little before), and get whatever was the best at that time.

Despite the fact that the primary use of this computer will be approximately 2 hours of Freecell every night, my dad will not settle for anything less than the best out there. The most processor intensive activity that this computer is likely to do will be either opening Quicken or playing a streaming video file, probably via ESPN.com. Still, we're looking for a PC that will open MS Office programs faster than any other. Understand that his current machine is a five year old Dell that originally came with WinME. It's a 1GHz but it's flaky and the hard disk sounds like it's ready to go (we have the Quicken stuff backed up regularly).

What we're looking for:
- mid-tower case that's reasonably attractive and about as quiet as a Dell. replacement fans are acceptable
- the latest technology, perhaps keeping a tad shy of the very top. so basically, if there's an $800 CPU, and the next one down is $500, then $350 and so on, we'll go with the $500.
- I would prefer to go AMD, preferably 64 bit since my dad is interested in the latest tech (thus my interest in my other thread. sorry for not clarifying)
- we're already pretty settled on the larger of the raptor drives, and we want RAM that will be as fast as possible

Those are the basic requirements. He's going to go all the way with the largest wide-aspect Dell monitor (my discount is great), and he's willing to spend a good amount of cash on the system in general. He considered $2500 to be a reasonable amount (including $800 for the monitor).

I can't tell you how much it would mean to me if I could get some help on this matter. I have a system spec'd out, but I have this gut feeling that I'm not "getting" the technology of the parts I'm looking at, or if they're even the right parts to get (I only understand about 60% of the latest stuff). What should I think about most when building a machine optimized for desktop publishing?

Again, thanks for your time.