Which system for £400

feav66 · 4 Nov 2006 at 09:59

Hi
My niece wants a new pc for Christmas and ive been asked to find the best value machine for around £400. She will only be using it for msn and home work no games.
She is currently using my old advent laptop with a 1.5 Ghz Celeron and dodgy screen, so will need everything.
I have come across these two specs and can not decide which would offer the best value.

Genuine Windows® Home Edition
AMD Athlon™64 3500+ AM2 Processor
with HyperTransport™ Technology
ASUS PCIe Mainboard- nForce 430 Chipset
512MB DDR2 533MHz Memory
160GB Serial ATA Hard Drive
128MB NVIDIA GeForce 6150 Graphics
Sony 16x DVD ROM Drive
5.1 Channel Surround Sound Audio
8 USB, 2x Firewire, GB LAN
Classic Warranty-3Years parts & lab.

£299

Or

Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition
Intel® Pentium® D Processor 915
HT Tech.(2.8GHz,4MB Cache,800MHz)
ASUS PCIe Mainboard-Intel® G946gz Chipset
512MB DDR2 533MHz Memory
160GB Serial ATA Hard Drive
256MB Integrated Graphics (SMA)
Sony 16x DVD ROM Drive
5.1 Channel Surround Sound Audio
8x USB, GB LAN
Classic Warranty-3 Years free parts & lab.

£299

Add to both approx £100 for a tft.

So can’t decide between the AMD processor for better performance now
Or the dual core intel with potential for a Conroe upgrade. Any opinions or suggestions welcome.

Xez · 4 Nov 2006 at 10:26

I would go for the second system simply because its dual core.

There will be hardly any difference from day to day use by its speed. The dual core will make it smoother though.

semi-pro waster · 4 Nov 2006 at 11:42

Welcome to the forums, the first one does also have better graphics capabilities however the second system is probably a bit faster in everyday use due to the dual core. You may want to check the upgradability of the second machine for Conroe also as it may require a bios flash.

Mayhs · 4 Nov 2006 at 12:22

feav whats your email address? i know where you could get a great system for £400

syke · 4 Nov 2006 at 12:25

I would have sid first spec as you can upgrade it in the future cheaply due to the fact its AM2. You can probably get a new TFT and possibly RAM or CPU for around £400

s-

feav66 · 4 Nov 2006 at 13:44

Thanks for all the replies guys. I have to say I am leaning towards the intel spec
If its going to give better performance due to the dual core. The graphics I don’t think
Will make a lot of difference as they are both going to be pretty hopeless for
3D gaming.
I have checked the web site and it dose state that the mother board is
Compatible with core 2 duo so a future cpu upgrade should not be a problem.
I did consider building a system but can’t seem to spec anything similar
for such a good price. It would have been an idea opportunity to practice my first
build before I spend £1000 on my own Conroe rig soon after Christmas.