You can also save yourself significant $$$ by skipping the ms office suite. OpenOffice (
www.openoffice.org) is more than good enough and has a powerpoint clone to boot. Cost: free for the download.
I have completely banished the ms office suite from all computers here and use OpenOffice exclusively. Have had no problems with word docs or excel sheets my clients forward to me and they have no problems with the docs I send them. Great stuff Put the cash saved into more RAM, better monitor (I use a 21" Samsung and like it lots), or your Porsche.