Celeron is best if just doing spreadsheet, word type stuff. Would go with Intel with Intel board (no overclocking to speak of, but unless you can basically build your own computer - you dont want to deal with overclocking). If you are comfortable with buying online - I have bought over 20 computers from http://www.cyberpowersystem.com/ and have not had any problems except when I strayed to non-intel motherboards to overclock! Prices are very good. Would definitely spend the money on possible 2nd monitor and definitely memory... My 1.8 on Intel motherboard with 512mem is almost as fast as my 2.8 with 1.gig mem. Of course, using P4 on 1.8 and P5 on 2.8 so a bit different software usage... Good luck