It is a Celeron. A $500 computer fast becomes an $800 computer when you add a 17 inch monitor, printer, and a legal copy of an OS. The HP probably comes with a bunch of what we would call junk software, but to a 5 year old it's cool.
The only reason I would suggest to the poster to build his/her own in this particular case is if he/she wants to learn, there won't be any savings doing it this way in this price bracket. He/she can't build a more "suitable for the use" machine for the same $$$, that HP should serve the kid quite well for the next 5 years with no upgrades - or until they start making educational software that needs a Radeon 9700 to run
