Help needed to compare desktop PCs

ka7e

I have seen 2 desktop PCs advertised, and don't know enough to tell which is the better buy! The main differences seems to be the cpu (though both are AMD Athlon) and graphics card. The first one seems to have everything I need, but I'm wondering if there is a catch!
1 .AMD ATHLON XP 3200 CPU
80 GB 7200RPM HARD DISK
ASROCK K7S41 MOTHERBOARD
512 MB PC 3200 DDR RAM
5.1 Channel Sound
10/100 Mbps Network Card Onboard
Real 256E 3D Integrated Graphics
Keyboard, Mouse and Speakers
16 x Dual Layer DVD +/- RW - DVD Rewriter, CD Rewriter & DVD Rom all in one
6 USB 2.0 ports including front USB and sound ports.
£245

2. SOCKET 939 AMD ATHLON 64BIT 3000+ PROCESSOR WITH 512KB L2 CACHE
ECS RS480-M MOTHERBOARD
80 GIGABYTE 7200RPM HARD DISK
512 MB PC3200 DDr MEMORY
128MB ATI RaDEON GRAPHICS
16X PCI EXPRESS
10/100 Mbps Network Card Onboard
HIGH QUALITY 16X DUAL DVD +/- RW
MATCHING KEYBOARD MOUSE SPEAKER set
£270

I would be grateful for any comments from those more technically-minded than me!

Browntoa

the second one mentions

128MB ATI RaDEON GRAPHICS

the first

Real 256E 3D Integrated Graphics

but I suspect it is on borad for the price, if it were not then that would be a better machine as it would not steal some of your Ram to function !

CIS

ECS RS480-M is 128mb onboard graphics,the ASROCK is 64mb on board.

For both these PC's,they are more than enough to play most games and way more than powerful enough for general everyday word processing/internet use.

I would go for the cheapest personnaly ,they're jsut about even in performance, but neither mentions coming with a monitor. It looks like you'll need to budget for this as well.

monsterpc

I spend a lot of time reading these forums so its time to give something back!
The question you are asking is something I come across on a regular basis, I build pc's for customers to their requirements via my website and often people say "i can get similar cheaper" so off they go, only to find out the real reason. Now im not saying yours isnt a genuine bargain, but in most cases this is the reason why.
No operating system/trial operating system, something which will cost most people around £100 extra
No floppy disk drive, still needed!
The heart and soul of a computer is the motherboard, these range in price from 20 to in excess of 100
Reliable components are crucial
I have found in my time as a system builder that £450-500 for a base unit will build a good solid unit suitable for most people and will last, players of the latest pc games can double that figure anything less is false economy
These are just my found experiances

flang

64 bit processor is much better then a standard 32 bit therefore i would go for the 2nd one.

monsterpc

I agree if I were choosing then 2 would be my choice.
Can you share the link?

CIS

64bit is only good if you have a 64bit OS and are actually going to utilise the 64bit extensions, otherwise its not too much faster than a 32 bit equivalent, and you can save the it extra money.

In a day to day enviroment, a 3000+ would be more than powerful enough. I have a 32bit , 3.1ghz processor and it handles most things quite easily. Certainly if your just running office/internet, theres an awful lot of wasted processor cycles even on something as low as a 2.4 / 2.6 cpu.

The key is , get what you need , don't get carried away or distracted by the big numbers that makers quote. Big is not always better or more cost effective.

ka7e

Thanks, everyone,for the advice. The system is intended to replace our existing tower (5 yrs old and showing it's age!) and free up my high-spec laptop which is being hijacked by my sons for online gaming.
I'm just hoping for a cheapish tower that can cope with the games they are playing now, yet can be upgraded later, if needed.
They are both from the same seller on ebay

maxamos

Go for No 2. both graphic cards are onboard so they won't be greta for gaming but the AMD 64 will be much more future proof and easier to upgrade.

I don't know much about the motherboard but generally AMD 64 processors overclock extremely well so you'll get a lot more power for your money and ther are a lot of reasonably cheap (£70 - £100) PCI-E graphics cards out at the moment that will play all the latest games if that's what you want.

I've just upgraded from a 3200XP to a 3000 AMD64(Venice overclocked to a 4000) and it runs a lot faster.

Tharweb

monsterpc wrote:

No floppy disk drive, still needed!

Can I ask why?

monsterpc

Tharweb wrote:

Can I ask why?

Rescue disks
Virus removal
Dos Boot Disks
some bios flash utilities
Partition Magic
..........I use them all the time to rescue failed computers, floppys are invaluable (in my opinion) and for the sake of a fiver!

....oh and stick another £100 on top of those pc prices, as I guessed look what I found in the text
THE SYSTEM IS FULLY TESTED TO WORK WITH MICROSOFT WINDOWS XP AND OTHER POPULAR SOFTWARE SUCH AS MS OFFICE XP ETC, AND ALL MAJOR FUNCTIONS / PARTS ARE TESTED. ONCE THE TESTS ARE COMPLETE THE OPERATING SYSTEM AND ALL OTHER PROGRAMS ARE DELETED.