I have just bought a Dell Inspiron 580 desktop PC with an Intel i3 540 Dual Core Processor (2 x 3.06Ghz cores - 4 threads, 4Mb L2 Cache), 4 gb DDR3 RAM, 750gb hdd, 512mb dedicated Geforce graphics card and Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit.
I'm now having a slight panic and crisis of confidence and was wondering whether to spend a little more and ask the seller to replace with a similar model with a quad or triple core processor?
I'm not techy in any way and admit to having got myself totally confused by trying to read various articles about processors and this might be why I am getting myself unnecessarily tied up in knots about whether I need to upgrade the processor.
There are 3 alternatives I could pursue with the seller which are as follows
1) Inspiron 546 with AMD Phenom X4 9750 Quad Core Processor (4 x 2.4Ghz cores), same RAM, smaller hard drive (640gb), blu ray player, marginally better graphics card but Visa instead of Windows 7. Cost £40 more
2) Inspiron 570 with AMD Althon II X3 425 Triple Core Processor ( 3 x 2.7Ghz cores, 1.5Mb L2 Cache). In every other respect identical to the 580. Cost £20 more
3) Inspiron 560 with Intel Core 2 Quad Q8300 Quad Core Processor (4 x 2.5Ghz cores, 3Mb L2 Cache). Identical to the 580 except a smaller hard drive (500 gb). Cost £40 more.
I really don't want to spend any more if there's absolutely no need to do so.
The PC will be used for all the normal home/office uses (office applications, browsing and downloading, watching video, BBC iplayer, photo editing); light gaming (sims 3 and novelty games on Steam) and probably video editing now that my daughter has a camcorder - although having Goggled system requirement info on various video editing software an i3 processor looks like it will be more than up to the job.
So, any simple advice is most welcome, particularly if it is along the lines of "don't worry, for what you want to use your pc for, what you've bought is perfectly adequate so stop worrying unnecessarily!"
Thanks in anticipation.
ITchallenged
I'm now having a slight panic and crisis of confidence and was wondering whether to spend a little more and ask the seller to replace with a similar model with a quad or triple core processor?
I'm not techy in any way and admit to having got myself totally confused by trying to read various articles about processors and this might be why I am getting myself unnecessarily tied up in knots about whether I need to upgrade the processor.
There are 3 alternatives I could pursue with the seller which are as follows
1) Inspiron 546 with AMD Phenom X4 9750 Quad Core Processor (4 x 2.4Ghz cores), same RAM, smaller hard drive (640gb), blu ray player, marginally better graphics card but Visa instead of Windows 7. Cost £40 more
2) Inspiron 570 with AMD Althon II X3 425 Triple Core Processor ( 3 x 2.7Ghz cores, 1.5Mb L2 Cache). In every other respect identical to the 580. Cost £20 more
3) Inspiron 560 with Intel Core 2 Quad Q8300 Quad Core Processor (4 x 2.5Ghz cores, 3Mb L2 Cache). Identical to the 580 except a smaller hard drive (500 gb). Cost £40 more.
I really don't want to spend any more if there's absolutely no need to do so.
The PC will be used for all the normal home/office uses (office applications, browsing and downloading, watching video, BBC iplayer, photo editing); light gaming (sims 3 and novelty games on Steam) and probably video editing now that my daughter has a camcorder - although having Goggled system requirement info on various video editing software an i3 processor looks like it will be more than up to the job.
So, any simple advice is most welcome, particularly if it is along the lines of "don't worry, for what you want to use your pc for, what you've bought is perfectly adequate so stop worrying unnecessarily!"
Thanks in anticipation.
ITchallenged