Hey guys. I could use a little advice. Gonna buy a cheap 2nd computer for the bedroom, and want opinions on which of these following 2 is the best fit for me. I don't really use my machine for comp. gaming other than a little old school emulation. I'm more of a console gamer and haven't even done that for 2-3 years at least so that won't be a concern. I do want it to handle 1080p video though. My current pentium4 3.0ghz chokes on anything 1920x or higher which is becoming more common. So I want it to handle that at least. Other than that that's realy all I need. Don't run too many cpu-intensive apps. Just surfing, Youtube, basic stuff. Here's the 2 choices I've narrowed it down on Newegg to. 1) A HP DC7900 Core 2 Duo 3.0GHz with a 2tb hard drive 4gb ddr2 ram & win. 7 pro 64bit http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883280586 or 2) A HP 6005 Athlon II X2 B22 2.80GHz with a 1tb hard drive 8gb ddr3 ram & win. 7 pro 64bit http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883280507 I like the 2tb hd and higher ghz on the 1st one, but the 2nd one has twice as much ram (also ddr3 instead of ddr2) and it has a 3 year warranty instead of 90 days like the 1st. Also I think it'a a newer model too. Opinions anyone? Thanks in advance.
Neither of those. I would go with a quad core processor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA4GH1NX2719 -Quad Core Intel Xeon W3530 -8GB DDR3 RAM -2 TB HD
The first one has a bit of a better processor, but the second one's RAM wins it for me. Plus, I'm sure 1TB of HD space is plenty for your purposes. #2
No card. Integrated graphics. And it's XP so it's no longer updated. So the 1st one has a better CPU?
Get a solid video card. That way it wont use much RAM from your computer. 1gb or 2gb video card should do the trick. RAM and a good processor would help, but the external video card will do all the work probably.
Yeah I hear that a lot. Only thing is that replacing/adding ram is one of the few things I'm comfortable with doing myself. Also swapped out DVD drives as well. But the cpu & hd are pretty much there to stay. I can live without a 2tb hd so it basically comes down to newer ddr3 ram and a better warranty vs cpu. I've been hoping some would weigh in on the Athlon II X2 B22 2.80GHz vs Core 2 Duo 3.0GHz aspect. That's really the only thing keeping me from getting the newer (at least I think it is) ddr3 model. I've been Googling Athlon II X2 vs Core 2 Duo and the opinions seem to differ. I don't know enough to rate them so I asked here. If I don't get any responses here telling me the Core 2 Duo is better/much better I'll probably go with the Athlon & newer ram. And thanks to all who have replied here.
When it comes to the Athlon II/Phenom II vs C2Duo/Quads era of CPUs, they're pretty much neck-and-neck. I'd say you won't notice any performance difference between the two unless one's 2.4GHz and the other's 3.4GHz. Now, if we're talking about Phenom II's vs iCore Intels, then iCores will win hands-down regardless of how much Gigahertz the AMD ones have. Single-thread performance wins with iCores. If you want smooth performance, I would opt for a small SSD for the boot drive and 1TB+ for the movies/data/etc. This will actually give you more of a performance boost than getting a new CPU. However, if you are looking for a HTPC setup, I suggest you look into something with newer CPUs like the Celeron or Pentium Haswells or an AMD APU (A6, A8, etc) that have better integrated GPUs that can push out 1080p videos with no problems and provide you with some horsepower for light gaming.
Thanks for replying ChankMcStank. That's what I was wondering. Yeah something like a cheap HTPC is what I'm looking for. Just not looking to spend that much at this time.
