Which of these 2 desktops is best?

BB1984

Hi,
I'd be grateful if you could advise which of these two desktops is best value for money.

#1:
Packard Bell iMedia D3318, £380

• Intel® Pentium® E2220 Dual-Core
• (2.40GHz, 1MB Cache)
• Genuine Windows Vista® Home Basic
• 2GB DDR2 memory
• 320GB SATA hard drive (7200rpm)
• 256MB NVIDIA® GeForce 7050 graphics
• Dual Layer DVD Rewriter
• 6x USB ports (2x front, 4x rear)
• 10/100 network LAN port

#2:
Packard Bell iMedia A3317, £400

• AMD Phenom X3 8400
• (2.1Ghz, 1.5MB Cache)
• Genuine Windows Vista® Home Basic
• 3GB DDR2 memory
• 320GB SATA hard drive (7200rpm)
• ATI Radeon HD2100 graphics
• Dual Layer DVD Rewriter
• 6 x USB and 1 x Firewire port

We need it for basic stuff like typing, powerpoint etc (will buy MSO separately), internet browsing, iTunes, and no doubt my OH will want to play Championship Manager....! So nothing too taxing.

Thanks for your help

BB

Jaffa.

Out of those 2... I would go for the first one however the second one has 3GB rather than 2 and firewire... Both of them have no Aero features due to home basic
I think the Phenom X3 was a 4 core but the speed dropped with 4 cores so they made it a 3 core... I think thats the story behind that anyway

Do they come with monitors? If you a student > http://www.software4students.co.uk/ for office

BB1984

Do they come with monitors?

Both come with a 19" TFT.

Thanks!

gbradders123

Which ever one has the prettier case, for what you want to do you not notice any differeance really.

i would try and avoid vista basic though.

penrhyn

I would also avoid PC Dixon's Curry world, and probably buy from Dell.

www.dmxdimension.com

BTW If you don't desperately need Microsoft Office, you can download Open Office which is both free and compatible.

DatabaseError

I'd buy the intel machine (1st one) and add another 2gb of RAM...you won't use all of it due to the limitations of a 32 bit OS...but it's so cheap it's not worth mucking around with 2 or 3 gb.

Safe to say though, they both define "mediocrity", which is ideal for what you need

Mobeer

How about one of these from the Dell web site:

Inspiron 545 MT
Pentium® Dual-Core E5200
Windows Vista® Home Premium SP1
1 Year Limited Warranty
Microsoft® Works 9.0
2048MB RAM
320GB Hard Drive
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3100
DVD +/- RW Drive
19-in-1 Media Card reader
Keyboard & Mouse

£329

Mobeer

Jaffa. wrote: »

I think the Phenom X3 was a 4 core but the speed dropped with 4 cores so they made it a 3 core... I think thats the story behind that anyway

Close - The Phenom X3 processors are originally manufactured as 4 core processors, then when one core is found to be faulty, it is deactivated and the processor sold with 3 working cores at a much lower price than a X4. This lets AMD sell working processors that would otherwise be dumped as faulty.

BB1984

Thanks for help.
It was a bit of a rushed decision as our old computer packed up so we needed something pronto!
In the end we went for this one:
http://www.comet.co.uk/shopcomet/product/522074/COMPAQ-SR5707UK
Nothing special but ok for our needs, and came with Vista Premium. Plus we negotiated £20 so not a bad price.

Thanks for the advice,

BB

DatabaseError

that's the worst of the 3 (4 inc the dell)....but up to the task required.
E1400 celeron FTL