dell core 2 duo

lil_chooa

seen this offer from dell for 430 pounds:

Intel® Core 2 Duo E6300 Processor (1.86GHz, 1066MHz, 2MB)
Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition (Incl Operating System Re-installation CD)
Dell 19" Value Flat Panel (E197FP)
512MB Dual Channel DDR2 533MHz [2x256] Memory
160GB (7200rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive with 8MB DataBurst cache
48x CDRW/DVD Combo Drive
Integrated Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 3000
Integrated Audio with Dolby Digital 7.1 capability
Dell 2 Button USB Wheel Mouse - Black
Microsoft® Works 8 - English
Resource CD - contains Diagnostics and Drivers

is this a good offer?? i know the graphics aint too good but i would like a system in this budget to play games like need for speed carbon etc at reasonable performance, would this system be acceptable for this ?

chuckles1066

lil_chooa wrote:

seen this offer from dell for 430 pounds:

Intel® Core 2 Duo E6300 Processor (1.86GHz, 1066MHz, 2MB)
Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition (Incl Operating System Re-installation CD)
Dell 19" Value Flat Panel (E197FP)
512MB Dual Channel DDR2 533MHz [2x256] Memory
160GB (7200rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive with 8MB DataBurst cache
48x CDRW/DVD Combo Drive
Integrated Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 3000
Integrated Audio with Dolby Digital 7.1 capability
Dell 2 Button USB Wheel Mouse - Black
Microsoft® Works 8 - English
Resource CD - contains Diagnostics and Drivers

is this a good offer?? i know the graphics aint too good but i would like a system in this budget to play games like need for speed carbon etc at reasonable performance, would this system be acceptable for this ?

no, the integrated graphics lets it down.

Plus the monitor is analogue not digital so the response times will be slower.

lil_chooa

so is it worth paying an extra 47 squid for the 256 mb graphics card?

chuckles1066

lil_chooa wrote:

so is it worth paying an extra 47 squid for the 256 mb graphics card?

depends whether the graphics card has a dedicated 256mb onboard memory or whether it's leeching it off the motherboard.

If it's the nVidia 7300LE turbocache card they're offering, then it's a leecher!

A decent dedicated 256mb card will set you back about £75.

lil_chooa

hmm dnt realy wana stretch to over 430
could go for that offer of the core 2 duo or the Intel® Pentium® D 915 Dual Core Processor (2.80GHz, 800MHz, 2x2MB) with the 256MB ATI® Radeon® X1300 Pro graphics card for around 420 quid .
what would be best ?

chuckles1066

lil_chooa wrote:

hmm dnt realy wana stretch to over 430
could go for that offer of the core 2 duo or the Intel® Pentium® D 915 Dual Core Processor (2.80GHz, 800MHz, 2x2MB) with the 256MB ATI® Radeon® X1300 Pro graphics card for around 420 quid .
what would be best ?

If it's primarily for games then the D915 processor is plenty quick enough and the Radeon Pro is a grown up graphics card as well

The benchmarks will tell you that the Core 2 Duo blows away all the opposition but the D915 will do what you want.