new PC Parts help needed.

[Pandora]

Hey, I'm going to buy a new pc as most of you know. And with Vista. I'l have to do 4 years with it so I have to get a good one. I'm going to buy it from dell and I hoped you guys could help me with choosing the parts.

Now the total cost should be under the 1800 Euro. I'd prefer it under 1500 though.

Now my first quistion is about a processor. What's the difference between these:

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E6700 Processor (2,66 GHz, 1.066 MHz, 4 MB)

Intel® Pentium® D 945 Dual Core Processor (3,40 GHz, 800 MHz, 2 x 2 MB)

Edited January 8, 2007 by Jace

[chris82]

The Core 2 Duo owns the Pentium D. While I'm not a big fan of Intel I must say that the Core 2's are actually nice processors, at least the Conroes.

As a general rule of thumb, any processor with "Pentium" in the title should be avoided. Oh and don't say building. You aren't building anything. You're picking from a limited selection of parts for a PC from Dell.

[Pandora]

Ok. Then I'l try to get that processor. Dell only has Pentium somehow. And I'm actually not alloud to build it myself. My dad only wants to buy it from Dell, eventhough the price will be about 400 more than if I bought the parts.

Now a Graphic card.

What's better?

256 MB ATI® Radeon® X1300 Pro PCI

256 MB nVidia® GeForce® 7900GS grafische kaart

And is this needed?

128MB Ageia™ PhysX™ PCI Card

[Chris]

Agreed on the processors, the Core 2 Duo is far better than the Pentium D.

The ATi or nVidia. They're the two kings of graphics cards, they're pretty much on a par in my opinion. It really won' t make that much difference at all, though I just had a quick look at the tech specs of both, which I don't fully understand but I can tell that the nVidia is slightly better. It has a 256bit interface as opposed to that Ati which is 128bit. Other than that they're quite similar.

[Pandora]

Ok, then I think I'l take the Ati cause if I'm not mistaken it was about 50 to 100 cheaper.

And what about the PhysX accelerator? Needed in future games?

[Righty]

Physics cards haven't been around long enough.

[chris82]

No! Stop! That ATi sucks compared to that nVidia.

While I'm an ATi fan the 7900 is much better than the x1300!!! Stop before it's too late!

And also not many games support the physics card, really. I highly doubt it will be used in games in the near future. Forget about it.

Oh and tell your Dad to go fuck himself and buy the parts anyway, ignorant bastards shouldn't tell their kids how to spend money.

[Pandora]

He's paying so I don't really have a problem with him doeing that Wierd, he insists on paying more than needed...

And getting that Physics card away will save me 250 so I think I'm gonna be in my dad's price budget. I'l check to see how much these parts cost now.

Ow, and a little thing about XP. I planing to get Vista ultimate but it's far cheaper getting a upgrade. Now I still have the XP cd. Could I just install XP on my com and than straigt away upgrade to Vista?

Edit: The price is now 1.760 in Euro. Now I want to have Word, Exel, Outlook and Powerpoint. Does that all come with Microsoft® Works 8?

Edited January 9, 2007 by Jace