Computer Buying Advice Needed (rather long, and somewhat geeky)

In My Humble Opinion
1

So I’m shopping for a new PC. Whether or not I will actually be buying a new PC or not has yet to be determined, but I’m shopping. Our current machine is a dinosaur (I think it’s three years old!), and we need a hardware upgrade in order to achieve optimal performance for the current generation of application software (we need a better computer so we can play new games).

I know my way around a PC; I can take one apart and put it together, with no parts left over. In fact, I used to build all of our computers from scratch. But this time, I plan to buy instead of build. There are two reasons for this decision:

  1. It’s no longer significantly cheaper to build a machine from parts. The competition in the marketplace is such that I can get a machine that suits my needs from one of the major manufacturers cheaper than I can build it myself.

  2. I’m 38. I have a job, a wife, and a son (plus two cats, two dogs, and a horse). I just don’t have the time nor the desire to put in the effort to do it myself. I no longer need the satisfaction, and would rather spend the time using the machine, instead of building it.
    I’ve pretty much narrowed the field to two choices at this point: An HP Pavilion, which I can get for a discount through Costco, or a Dell Dimension, which I can get through an Employee Purchase Program at work. Both are either upper-entry-level or lower-midrange systems: 3 GHz CPU, 512 MB RAM, 80 GB hard drive. We use the computer for surfing the web and playing games. Nothing cutting edge; Sims 2, Civ 4 (assuming I get it for Christmas), no first-person shooters or anything like that.

I do have a couple of questions, and I figure I’ll probably get better answers here than anywhere else:

Intel or AMD?
Up to now, I’ve always been an Intel guy. I figured that every piece of software was designed and tested on Intel systems, and I didn’t want anything to not run just because I bought an “off-brand” CPU. Of course, the playing field has leveled over the years, and actually seems to be tilted in AMD’s favor at the moment. AMD chips are now faster and cheaper than their Intel counterparts. Of course, another consideration is the chipset on the motherboard. If I buy an Intel box, it will come with an Intel motherboard. I can pretty much be guaranteed 100% compatibility. I know that there have been issues in the past between AMD chips and the boards that they were installed on (I remember an issue with a particular VIA chipset a few years ago). But again, I understand that those problems have been taken care of. So, is it time to make a change? The HP I am looking at is an AMD Athlon 64 3200+. The Dell is an Intel Pentium 4 3.0 GHz. The prices are roughly the same, but the Dell is a few bucks more.

Graphics Cards: 128 or 256 MB?
I know that I will need to buy a graphics card; the onboard video on both machines is unlikely to perform well enough for even my fairly limited needs. Both of them come with PCI-e slots; I have decided (unless I hear a convincing argument otherwise) to go with an nVidia GeForce 6600. This board comes in two models: the 6600 and the 6600GT. The difference is in the core frequency of the chip (300 MHz vs. 500 MHz, respectively) and the speed of the onboard memory (350 MHz DDR vs. 500 MHz GDDR3). Both also come in 128 MB and 256 MB configurations. So my question is: should I go with more memory on the slower card (less $$), or less memory on the faster card (more $$)? The price difference is only about $20 ($110 vs. $130). I have to confess I’m in the dark about CPU vs. memory usage for graphics cards. My first inclination is “more memory is always better”, but I’m pretty sure that’s exactly what they want me to think.

I feel like I should have to turn in my geek card, not knowing the answers to these burning questions myself. But if there is any place where I am guaranteed to find someone geekier than me, this is it. (Oddly enough, it’s also the one place I am guaranteed to find someone smarter, funnier, and better looking than myself, too.) So help me out, please. The future of my computer-game-playing universe is at stake.

Thanks,

SP

2

You game-playin’ people are something else. I can’t imagine regarding my computer as a dinosaur at the three year old mark!

Maybe you’d be better off with some kind of rental agreement, and every time they release a new model, you opt for renting one of those instead of the old one.

3

I work in IT and computers are my hobby besides that. Your questions are easy. AMD 64’s are the best all around right now. No, I don’t want to look at charts showing how analysis of insaley high prime numbers divided by pi gives Intel a slight edge. I have already read that stuff. AMD has a better chip and there are plenty of great motherboards for it to sit on.

Also, the 6xxx GeForce cards are great cards. You can’t go wrong.

4

Also, my guess is that you’ll be less than happy with 512 meg of memory. Go for a full gig; it’s really cheap, and will make a huge difference in performance.

5

Nah, if I was a “game player”, I would have to replace it every year, and I’d be spending $1500 a pop intead of $500. In fact, I could probably get a bit more time out of this one with some more memory and a better graphics card. But that would cost me a couple hundred bucks, and for not that much more I can replace the whole comp.

Shagnasty, you pretty much confirmed what I thought I already knew. I just needed an anonymous stranger to let me know that I was right, so I could have someone else to blame if anything goes wrong. Thanks for volunteering :slight_smile:

Eonwe, I agree on the RAM. But I’m trying to keep the initial cost low, and that is something I can easily add after the fact.

6

Go with the 128 MB 6600GT over the 256 MB 6600. You’ll get way more out of the 6600GT.