-- I'm also certain this is in the wrong forum, and I do apologize. However, I am in quite a rush, so thanks to whoever move this to the appropriate section.

I'm thinking of buying either one of these two packages, so I was wondering if you could tell me what the big difference is between the two. And what one is more value for money, please.

PACKAGE ONE - COST: £399.00/ $763 (roughly)

Intel Pentium 4 541 3.2GHz 800MHz 1MB Cache Processor

1GB DDR2 533 DIMM PC4200 Memory

160GB (SATA) Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 Hard Drive

ECS P4M800Pro-M Motherboard with onboard 3D graphics

8 x USB2.0 Ports

Ethernet LAN Port

Silver & Black mATX Mid Tower Case with 300W PSU

16x DVDRW Dual Format Double Layer Drive

52 in 1 Flash Card Drive

17" AOC LM-765 LCD Monitor, 8ms response

Keyboard & Mouse

Stereo Speakers

Microsoft Windows XP Home


PACKAGE TWO - COST: £500.00 / $957 (roughly)

Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 1.86GHz CPU

1GB DDR2 533 PC4200 Memory

250GB Serial ATA300 Hard Drive

256MB PCI-Express NVidia GeForce 7600GS Graphics Card

16x DVD+/-RW Double Layer Dual Drive

52 in 1 Flash Card Drive

Core 2 Duo Motherboard

7 USB 2.0 Ports

10/100 LAN

6 channel (5.1) audio

Black and Silver Tower Case

17" AOC LM-765 LCD Monitor

Keyboard, mouse & stereo speakers

Microsoft Windows XP Home

1 Year on-site warranty



Thank you.

It all depends on your money. I like the more expensive one, but that's me.

It appears the only differences are the graphics card and the size of the hard drive. The hard drive difference in price is minimal -- you can buy a 250 gig hard drive in USA for about $75.00

So that leaves just the graphics card. Do you like to play a lot of games on your computer? Many games require high-end graphics cards so you would be better off with the more expensive computer. If you do not, then the cheaper computer is for your.

Hello, thanks for replying.

No, I don't really play any games on my computer. And if I do, they're hardly any that require a powerful graphics card.

Bearing this in mind then, I may indeed go for the cheaper option.

Thanks


- Anymore input would be appreciated.

Go with the cheaper one if you dont play games that require high amount of graphics.

Extremely hard to tell which system is better value for money.
Not only don't you tell us what you want to do with it but the specs are incomplete as well.

Personally I'm extremely wary of on-board videocards. They cost you main RAM, most of them will reserve 128-256MB RAM for themselves exclusively so effectively your 1GB is reduced by 12.5-25% right there.

The second system doesn't list things like make and model of the motherboard. If that's significantly better than the one in the first machine that alone would make it more than worth the extra money, even without the bigger harddisk and far superior videocard with dedicated highspeed memory.

Specs for the second system don't mention the powersupply in that case either, but it can't be less than the 300W in the first which for a modern machine is puny to say the least (I've seen the first kilowatt PSUs on offer and most machines now come with 450W or more as standard).

Might not be a problem at the moment, but if you ever think of upgrading the machine with another harddisk or adding a videocard or second DVD drive you will be in trouble with only 300W available.

In all, for only a hundred pound extra I'd say you would almost certainly want to go for the second machine for those reasons alone.
The machine should be more capable now as well as more capable of being upgraded over time to stay current for several years to come instead of ending on the scrapheap being replaced by a new one next year or so.

It all depends on what you need your PC for.

Package 1 is ideal for office/IT/text processing usage.

Package 2 is for games/3d CAD software usage.

If you're not a gamer, I say package 1.
If you are 3d graphic designer, go for 2
Package 2 has one flaw. LAN. 100 Mb is old news. Don't go under 1 Gb. (not stated in first package)

I suggest that whatever you choose, google it to see if ppl are complaining about it. Especially motherboard. Just in case you've chosen some buggy piece.

My mistake was GEIL memory module. (no customer support)

This is highly personal, but I always recommend that you spend as much money as you can reasonably afford on a computer. This doesn't mean just throwing away your money, because you of course want to consider the important specs. CPU (I'd go with the Core2, if for no other reason than to future-proof the machine a little), RAM, Video (I'd avoid onboard video if at all possible; part of the reason has already been mentioned), Power Supply, Motherboard and drive space (adding a drive is so inexpensive these days that this isn't as critical a consideration as it used to be).

You should always buy as much computer as you can afford. Some will advise you to base your decision on what you PLAN to do with the computer; I have to disagree with that and say that you should just buy as much power as you can. The reason is, it's not as important what you plan to do with the computer at the time you're buying it as it is is what you might discover down the road you will want to do with it once you start to use it and as new software/hardware/technology hits the street.

As an example, some years ago, I decided to save twenty bucks and buy a motherboard without an AGP slot. Well, guess what....

Really, it doesn't matter... it all depends on what you use it for.

For what you want Package 1 winds hands down. You shouldn't have any problems with the speed and you can upgrade to package 2 if you every need to for little extra than it would cost to buy package 2 now.

If I were I would def buy package 1