3 Computers, which one is the best?

I'm fairly new to this, but have been reading up of late. Without having tried any of that, but read, I would say the difference in price is due to the graphics card. The ATI in nos. 1 & 2 is somewhat higher end than the Nvidia in no. 3. So it really boils down to what you want to do with the PC and whether the extra money for the better graphics is worthwhile for your needs.

1 & 2 are fairly similar systems, so, again, it's a matter of what you're going to be doing and what is more important to you: the RAM or the storage space? particularly bent on an AMD or a petium?

I don't think you've got an absolute best option among the three, it's more a matter of what your needs are. They are essentially offering the same value for price, methinks.

Anyway, my newbie 2 cents, for what it's worth...

Answer depends on what you want it to do, 2 is much more capable for gaming.

I´m not into gaming that much. I just want a fast computer that wont go slow if I do many things at a same time.

I would go with number 2........as the processor is better and more likely to be OC'd. the P4 is going to be very hot and use a lot of power........so imo thats what I would do...

$38.99 LITE-ON Black 16X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 16X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 24X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2M Cache IDE DVD Burner

$81.00 Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 SATA NCQ 3Gb/s ST3160812AS 160GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

$159.00 SAPPHIRE 100129FBSR Radeon X800GTO 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 FireBlade Deluxe Edition Video Card
Not the fastest but will play anygame just not the highest settings

$99.98 CORSAIR VALUESELECT 512MB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM Unbuffered DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) System Memory
price is for 1gb ram so you can enable dual channel

$79.99 ASRock 775XFire-eSATA2 Socket T (LGA 775) Intel 945PL Express ATX Intel Motherboard

$261.00 Intel Pentium D 920 Presler 800MHz FSB 2 x 2MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Dual Core Processor

$719.96 Total plus tax and shipping

Dual core is the way to go with multi tasking. either x2 amd or d intel.

I didnt ask but this is US only through newegg.com

what many "things"? To be honest, I have come to think that dual cores are still a bit of an overkill for average systems, as there is not a lot of software that can take advantage of them. It is the future, though, but I'm hoping that by the time the future arrives (ie. the software), prices will have dropped considerably. I find that for midrange systems the cost is still somewhat outrageous.

No. 2 is a good choice. I misread earlier, thinkin no.2 had more ram, but no.1 had more storage. upon re-reading i see that no.2 has both, so I guess that if the graphics card is important to you, then it's the way to go.

StrangeStranger: If I would buy another 512MB ram, would it be better?

Is there any standars on ram memory? PC-3200? or anything like that?
Because I´ve read if you put 3 fast rams, and 1 SLOW,
they all will run at the same speed as the SLOW one....?

Of course no one mentioned the odd amount of RAM in machine number2. Its the fact that its an AMD machine and that's all that matters in these forums.

Can´t I just put in 1 more 512MB?
So it´ll be 4 x 512MB?

Yeah it´s pretty odd why everyone loves AMD.
In Tomshardware (swedish version), I saw that AMD 4000+
is only faster and better when it comes to games.

I have amd becuase its easier overclocked, fewer problems overall, and they can seriously out preform intel per dollar you spend. As for multi tasking i would look at an x2 or a 165 opty. The opty is just going to be a better buy becuase its easiily overclocked, and it takes a lower voltage, so it stays cooler. When I'm looking at my budget, 3/4 of all my money goes into 2 spots, the processor and the video card, everything else is just options.

now, now people there are already enough amd vs intel threads.


to answer the question yes it is better to have 2 pairs of ram for dual channel, however, i would recommend finding a comp with either 1 x 1gb of good ram that matches the speed rating of your mobo and upgrade with another 1gb stick of the same ram to get dual channel but also so you can keep a 1T command rate. better yet is get a machine with as little ram as possible and just replace all the ram with some corsair or even crucial ram so you can be sure if the rams quality.