Can you determine which PC will play games better?

[Rigamarole]

I am doing my best to gather all the info but for me, this is a long, arduous process and I'm still not quite sure. Maybe for one of you techies this will be a 10 second easy determination so here goes:

I am trying to choose between a Dell XPS 400 (http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&oc=DXPS400G2&s=dhs) and an d4100e (http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/computer_series.do?category=desktops/hp_pavilion/d4100_series&series_name=d4100e_series&catLevel=3&storeName=computer_store&jumpid=in_r329_personalization/browse1/home_SDP) with the following options. Also, I am not a gaming fanatic or enthusiast - this purchase is mainly about buying an economical PC but I do want to be able to play the latest games and I want to know which system would be better suited.

Dell XPS 400
- Pentium® D Processor 820 with Dual Core Technology (2.80GHz, 800FSB)
- 128MB PCI Express™ x16 (DVI/VGA/TV-out) ATI Radeon X300 SE HyperMemory graphics card
- 1GB Dual Channel DDR2 at 533MHz- 2DIMMs
- Integrated Sound Blaster® Audigy® ADVANCED HD Audio
- 19 inch E196FP Analog Flat Panel Monitor*

HP d4100e
- AMD Athlon(TM) 64 3700+ (2.2GHz / 1MB L2 cache)
- NVIDIA GeForce 6200se
- 1GB DDR-400MHz dual channel SDRAM (2x512)
- Sound Blaster Audigy 4, 24-bit ADVANCED HD Audio
- HP 19" LCD Flat-Panel Monitor*

*I read in another thread that LCD monitors aren't as good for gaming. I want the flat panel, but I can't determine if the "Analog Flat Panel" offered on the Dell is LCD or something else. Will it be better for games?

Also, with regards to the graphics card - I found this little chart (http://techreport.com/etc/comparo/graphics/) with all kinds of info about all kinds of graphics cards. Doing my best to make heads and tails of these cryptic (to me) figures it seemed like the 2 graphics cards are fairly similar. Is this correct?

On the HP, I have the option of either a 256MB DDR ATI Radeon X1300 Pro, TV-Out and DVI (+$80) or a 256MB DDR ATI Radeon X 1600XT, TV-Out and DVI (+$150). On the Dell, I can upgrade to a 256MB PCI Express™ x16 (DVI/VGA/TV-out) ATI Radeon X600 SE HyperMemory (+$40) or a 256MB PCI Express™ x16 (DVI/VGA/TV-out) nVidia GeForce 6800 (+$150). Would either of these upgrades be worth it? (Remember, I am trying to make out as cheap as possible)

Thanks in advance for your help. Y'all are life-savers.

[Gozu Tashoya]

On the HP, I have the option of either a 256MB DDR ATI Radeon X1300 Pro, TV-Out and DVI (+$80) or a 256MB DDR ATI Radeon X 1600XT, TV-Out and DVI (+$150). On the Dell, I can upgrade to a 256MB PCI Express™ x16 (DVI/VGA/TV-out) ATI Radeon X600 SE HyperMemory (+$40) or a 256MB PCI Express™ x16 (DVI/VGA/TV-out) nVidia GeForce 6800 (+$150). Would either of these upgrades be worth it? (Remember, I am trying to make out as cheap as possible)

Thanks in advance for your help. Y'all are life-savers.
You will definitely need to upgrade the video card as the stock cards aren't very good, to put it mildly. Strictly speaking the top-end upgrade options seem to be good (the GeForce should deliver better performance than the 1600 from what I've read). Technically, you can get better deals (and cards) from certain online vendors and installing them yourself, but I'm not sure what that would do to your warranty, if that's a big thing for you. (It probably wouldn't be good for your warranty.)

As far as the monitor goes, you should be fine with the LCDs. There may be slight ghosting depending on the game you're playing (also, I know nothing of the HP monitors, though Dell's flat panels tend to be top notch), but unless you're a real stickler you should be fine.

As far as the computers themselves, it looks like the HP has the better CPU (though the Dell might be better if you like multi-tasking), but the thought of recommending a HP makes me sad, so ... I'll say between the GeForce 6800 video-card upgrade, the monitor (which will probably be better than HP's), and Dell's reputation for building generally reliable computes, I'd go with the Dell.

Well, actually, I'd build my own, but that's not what you asked. ;)

[Gozu Tashoya]

Looking at the links again, I notice that Dell offers the option to upgrade to the ultrasharp digital flat panel monitor for $70. I'd strongly suggest this. I believe the digital has a higher maximum and native resolution, but I could be wrong. Either way, it should have a better picture just by virtue of being digital.

Regardless of those factors, IIRC the ultrasharp has much better ergonomics with regards to height adjustment (it has an adjustible neck) and positioning (it swivels independent of the orientation of the base). It also has a number of USB ports (two on the left side and at least two on the back) that I'm pretty sure the analog version doesn't have. (I'll check when I go into work tomorrow.)

YMMV, but that's $70 well spent IMHO.

[My Darn Snake Legs]

I have an XPS Gen4 (I'm not sure if that's the same as the 400) and I smoke through games. After getting the dual core processor and the gig of ram I play WoW and C&C Zero Hour without a hitch while running Email, iTunes, streaming video, AIM, and whatever else.

I don't have the same confidence in HP.

Enjoy,
Mike

[My Darn Snake Legs]

Now that I actually look at the links you provide, I see that the Gen4 is not the same as the 400. It's the bigger one. I also have the 256mb GeForce 6800. It's $150 well spent I think, but it really depends on what you want to play.

[FordPrefect]

*I read in another thread that LCD monitors aren't as good for gaming. I want the flat panel, but I can't determine if the "Analog Flat Panel" offered on the Dell is LCD or something else. Will it be better for games?

As far as LCD screens go, my research suggests that it has everything to do with the refresh rate. They don't rate LCDs in hertz, but milliseconds between redraws. Which means that to get the equivalent of 85 htz, you want a 12 ms refresh. Some go as fast as 4 ms and you pay bigger bucks for these, but you won't have ghosting issues.