which dell pc should i buy please help

wilson1973

I have seen 2 dell pcs on the dell site that fall in my price range they are both priced at £329 but one has been dicounted by £180 to £329 but all that glitters isnt gold and maybe it has been an unpopular pc hence the discount,i wont be using my new pc for gaming or watching dvds (mainly for surfing)but it will be running on vista premium,so if anyone out there knows about computer specs and has some genuine knowledge and could advise me which would be the best for me i would very much appreciate that heres the spec

Inspiron 546 £329 after £180 discount

For all-round performance delivery at an attractive price, look no further
AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual Core 5200+ (2.7GHz, 512Kx2)
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium SP1 - English
Display Not Included
512MB ATI® Radeon™ HD 4350 graphics card
3072MB 800MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [3x1024]
500GB (7200rpm) SATA Hard Drive
DVD +/- RW Drive (read/write CD & DVD)
1 Year Limited Warranty - Collect & Return

Save £180 now £329


Inspiron 545 £329 after £60 discount
Pentium dual core performance together with integrated graphics & generous storage to power through everyday multimedia tasks.
Intel® Pentium® Dual-Core E5200 processor (2.5GHz, 800MHz, 2MB cache)
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium SP1 - English
Display Not Included
Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3100
2048MB Dual Channel DDR2 800MHz [2x1024] Memory
320GB (7200rpm) SATA Hard Drive
DVD +/- RW Drive (read/write CD & DVD)
1 Year Limited Warranty - Collect & Return
£329

terakris

Although i personally always have Intel processors, the first one does look pretty good compared to the second. The fact that it has more memory and a dedicated graphics card will be better in the long run. Vista really does eat memory so the more you have the better it will run.

Psychofly

I think the Intel is a better option since it's not "end of life" technology like the AMD processor is which means that you have more upgrade options in future if necessary. If you're genuinely not going to be playing games then the onboard graphics will suit fine. In fact to be honest the dedicated card in the first system is very very very poor anyway and worth maybe about £30. The Intel system has more power and also more upgrade options in future if you need them.
Having said all that however both machines will do what you want them to do and there's really not much in it performance wise so I don't think you can really go wrong either way. If it was me buying it I think I'd be drawn slightly more to option 2 though. As is usual with this kind of thing though there will be someone else along in a minute or 2 to give an equally valid counter-arguement lol.

macman

I would have to go for the 546. Slightly faster processor, 50% more RAM, bigger hard drive, separate graphics card.
For your purposes either machine will do the job perfectly well, but you are getting a higher spec machine for the same price with the 546, so for me it's a no-brainer.
The extra RAM alone makes it worth opting for this one.

Strider590

It does depend entirely on what you need to do with it

If you just want to browse the internet, play music and the odd movie, then both of those are over spec for your needs

spakkker

I ,personally, wouldn't ever buy a Dell.
Dell sell v. cheap basic systems and overcharge for any improved spec. They also try and trap you into their supply chain by using their own mo/boards, psu's etc.
I don't understand why they haven't matched the ddr2 memory in the first option- is this an amd quirk?
The fact that 5200 is mentioned in both is meaningless- or it's a ploy by dell to sell old tech as newer tech - the e5200 is a new 45nm efficient dual core cpu and very easy to overclock if you have a suitable motherboard - upon which subject Dell is keeping it classified, top secret.

Psychofly

It's not a ploy by Dell.. the AMD X2 5200+ was a very good chip but is now overshadowed by the newer Intels but manufacturers are using their old stock of end of life AMD processors to build powerful budget systems.
The 3GB on the AMD system I think is just the old marketing ploy of "we have bigger numbers so must be better". I think it's there to increase the memory but remain short of the problem 4GB mark where they'd need to bundle 64bit with it or get constant support calls asking why Windows says they don't have 4GB.