When it comes to buying a desktop computer, we suffer from too much, rather than not enough, choice. Well, to help wade through the morass, here are my recommendations on the computer configuration an average small business user should be looking for at this time.

First of all, plan to spend about $1000-$1200 for a computer, monitor, keyboard and mouse. While you can certainly buy a decent computer for under $1000, I'd rather spend a couple hundred dollars more to get a setup that will really sing and last longer.

When it comes to the core part of your computer-- the computer processor, my bias is to buying higher end chips. These days, this means an Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon processor with a clock speed around 1.5 gigahertz. And if it's a Mac you want, look for a G4 processor with a mid-level clock speed . By buying a high end, but not top-of-the line processor, you can feel confident that you will have a computer that will be able to keep up with the newest applications for the foreseeable future.

Since it really does not cost much these days, do not skimp on RAM or the hard drive. I would go for 256 megabytes of RAM. With that much RAM, you should see no slowdown when using multiple applications. And look for a minimum 20-gigabyte hard drive; one that large should give you plenty of room to store space-hogging music and video files. For fast access to your hard drive, look for one that has a rotational speed of at least 7200 rpm.

And don't forget Internet access. If you will be connecting to the Internet via DSL or other high speed access, make sure your computer is equipped with an Ethernet card and network connection. Otherwise, a 56K modem needs to be added to your configuration for dialup access.

Software-wise, make sure you are equipped with the requisite office applications and a copy of antivirus software as well. If you have your choice of operating systems, I prefer Windows 2000 over Windows XP since it is the more mature operating system. Mac fans will have the very niftily designed Mac OS X to use.

Accessorizing your computer? Look for a 16X-speed rewritable CD drive (CDRW) drive. While CD ROM drives are available and less costly, the ability to burn CDs is a terrific feature, particular for backing up key files. Of course, your computer should also be equipped with a sound card, speakers, and a graphics card for the full multimedia experience.

Need a monitor? 15-inch LCD monitors have come down dramatically in price, which makes them worthy of consideration. However, traditional CRT monitors probably still provide the better overall value at this time.