Which Processor?

Ed_Jogg

Desperately need to replace our 'ancient' PC. Have decided on a Dell (partly because I've been using them at work for years), but I'm getting confused by the processor specs...

I had geared myself up to get a Dell Dimension E520, 'as TV advertised' (but somewhat customised ) but then noticed elsewhere that they were doing a free memory upgrade to 2GB, apparently on the same machine....

Closer inspection showed that the 1GB->2GB upgrade was using a different processor, but it looked like the overall price would be similar.

SO, should I go for a "3 GHz Pentium D 925 Dual Core" with 2GB memory, or a "1.86GHz Core 2 Duo E6300" with 1GB memory (can't afford the extra £95 to buy it with 2GB :sad:).

Secondly, is the 'Home Premium' version of Vista worthwhile? To get this I would also need to buy the 'Viiv' version of the processor (whatever that means) - the combination adding nearly £50 to the price tag. What are the differences from the basic Vista? Will either version work with 'only' 1GB of memory?? (anyone else remember wordprocessing on a 64k BBC micro???? )

I am trying to 'future-proof' as much as possible, as I don't want to end up with a PC that can barely run Vista and will need upgrading in future.

I want the PC for the usual web stuff, but also: eBay selling, kids homework and recording audio from a stereo system. (I don't need a top-flight games machine, even if the kids think we do! - but I do get impatient if pages don't display quickly!!)

wolfman

Get a Core 2 Duo without a doubt.

It's a newer and much better chip than the Pentium. It runs cooler, uses less power, yet outperforms by quite some way.

1Gb Ram will be fine. You can always upgrade to 2Gb in 6 months or so.

Vista will work on such a system without a problem. And if Dell sell you such a machine with Vista, then you should expect it to.

Home Premium is much more preferable to the Basic version of Vista. The extra cost of £50 isn't the best price. You could try and haggle a little bit with Dell. In fact you should be doing this already. See if you can get it included for free at least. From what I've read it may not work the first time. You have to keep phoning until you get a salesperson willing to drop that little bit more.

wolfman

In fact, just had a look on Dell's site.

If you select the E520, then custom build it.

Go for the E4300 Core 2 Duo (saves you £30).
Select Vista Home Premium as your Operating System (adds £17)
Remove any support services (removes £140 from the price)
Ignore the Viiv stuff.

The RAM upgrade seems quite pricey. Leave the system with 1Gb for now. You can upgrade further down the line when you have more money.

Comes out at about £516.

Blacksheep1979

Far cheaper to buy the memory yourself afterwards - Dell makes most of its money from customer addons such as harddrives/extra memory.

And yes go for the core II duo

crox

Core 2 duo will also allow you to go for 64 bit.
viiv is the desktop equivalent of centrino for laptops, it's supposed to mean everything with the viiv badge will work together nicely.

Ed_Jogg

wolfman wrote: »

Ignore the Viiv stuff.

Dell will only allow selection of a Viiv processor with the Vista Premium edition.
So, when you say 'ignore', do you mean 'choose it but don't worry about the differences', or 'don't choose a Viiv processor, because...' ?

And will the performance of the E4300 be noticeably slower than the E6300?

wolfman

Yeah ignore as in don't worry about if you have it or not. If you do have to have it because of the selection, that's fine.

And no. Barely any difference. You're probably looking at it being 5% slower (and this is at full load). Depends, £30 isn't too bad an upgrade cost, but do you really need the extra 5%.

I don't know if you can overclock with Dell's, but both are great overclockers. The E4300 I believe is the better of the two. I've got an E6300, and can overclock it by 20% without it even breaking sweat. It's as simple as changing one setting in the BIOS. But as I said I don't know if you can do this with the hardware in a Dell.

John_Gray

Rather unusually the Dimension E520 Core Two Duo comes with four memory slots instead of two.

So in this instance you won't have a problem upgrading to 2 GB of memory if you start with 1 GB in the form of 2 x 512 MB.

But other Dell boxes often have just two memory slots, when this sort of upgrade can be a problem...

John

ormus

as long you are not playing the latest games, doing CAD work, or video editing, then the basic new dell lappy will be just fine.
dont buy the extras, save yur money.

vetfred

I'm running the E6300 with 1GB of RAM and use my PC for audio recording and sequencing samples so unless you're doing something mega complex, I think you'll be ok. And I agree to go with the more modern processors with less RAM if you have to rather than to get more RAM but an older processor.

PeteHerts

Personally i wouldnt buy a Dell. After experiencing bad customer service when attempting to buy a laptop and then noticing that configuring a laptop to the same spec but starting with different specs and then the price coming out with a £90 difference i think is very worrying.
I know some people just have bad luck in some cases but i've read enough bad reviews over good reviews to make me think to steer clear.
Also there are sites out there that will redirect you to cheaper deals on Dells website which makes me think why dont Dell tell you about these from when you first get to their website but i think the reason they dont is because they want to fleece the buyer who doesnt know alot or is not willing to get a deal.
Also being advised to keep ringing to get things cheaper is a good way of saving money but again i find this worrying because again they are willing to fleece the buyer who doesnt know this so again their stuff is overpriced to start with.