Which system should I choose?

Hello,
I need to choose between these 2 systems:
1.
comes with an Athlon 64 X2 5000+ 2.6GHz dual core processor, 1GB of DDR2
RAM, and a 320GB SATA II hard drive
and Vista Home Premium (32 bit)

2.
comes with Pentium 4 CPU, 3.2 GHz, 2GB of DDR2 RAM, and a 320GB SATA II hard
drive and Vista Home Premium (32 bit)

The real difference is only the CPU and RAM size.

Which system to choose and why?
Thanks,
Jack

If the second option is a Core 2 Duo then the second one hands down. If it
is just a plain P4, non-dual core, I'd go for the first one and upgrade to 2
GB of RAM when you can.

--
Dustin Harper
dharper@vistarip.com
http://www.vistarip.com


"Jack" <replyto@it> wrote in message
news:OFBx$R9UIHA.1184@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> Hello,
> I need to choose between these 2 systems:
> 1.
> comes with an Athlon 64 X2 5000+ 2.6GHz dual core processor, 1GB of DDR2
> RAM, and a 320GB SATA II hard drive
> and Vista Home Premium (32 bit)
>
> 2.
> comes with Pentium 4 CPU, 3.2 GHz, 2GB of DDR2 RAM, and a 320GB SATA II
> hard drive and Vista Home Premium (32 bit)
>
> The real difference is only the CPU and RAM size.
>
> Which system to choose and why?
> Thanks,
> Jack
>

I'd agree with Dustin!
--
Cari (MS-MVP) Printing & Imaging
www.coribright.com/windows

"Jack" <replyto@it> wrote in message
news:OFBx$R9UIHA.1184@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> Hello,
> I need to choose between these 2 systems:
> 1.
> comes with an Athlon 64 X2 5000+ 2.6GHz dual core processor, 1GB of DDR2
> RAM, and a 320GB SATA II hard drive
> and Vista Home Premium (32 bit)
>
> 2.
> comes with Pentium 4 CPU, 3.2 GHz, 2GB of DDR2 RAM, and a 320GB SATA II
> hard drive and Vista Home Premium (32 bit)
>
> The real difference is only the CPU and RAM size.
>
> Which system to choose and why?
> Thanks,
> Jack
>

An AMD dual core blows the doors off of a Pentium 4 any day. Add more ram
and mix.

"Jack" <replyto@it> wrote in message
news:OFBx$R9UIHA.1184@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> Hello,
> I need to choose between these 2 systems:
> 1.
> comes with an Athlon 64 X2 5000+ 2.6GHz dual core processor, 1GB of DDR2
> RAM, and a 320GB SATA II hard drive
> and Vista Home Premium (32 bit)
>
> 2.
> comes with Pentium 4 CPU, 3.2 GHz, 2GB of DDR2 RAM, and a 320GB SATA II
> hard drive and Vista Home Premium (32 bit)
>
> The real difference is only the CPU and RAM size.
>
> Which system to choose and why?
> Thanks,
> Jack
>

I meant to add that the AMD system will run a lot cooler as well.

"Jack" <replyto@it> wrote in message
news:OFBx$R9UIHA.1184@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> Hello,
> I need to choose between these 2 systems:
> 1.
> comes with an Athlon 64 X2 5000+ 2.6GHz dual core processor, 1GB of DDR2
> RAM, and a 320GB SATA II hard drive
> and Vista Home Premium (32 bit)
>
> 2.
> comes with Pentium 4 CPU, 3.2 GHz, 2GB of DDR2 RAM, and a 320GB SATA II
> hard drive and Vista Home Premium (32 bit)
>
> The real difference is only the CPU and RAM size.
>
> Which system to choose and why?
> Thanks,
> Jack
>

Another very important criteria is what make and model of graphics cards are
in the systems.
And certainly a 2 core 64 bit processor is better to have then a single core
32 bit processor so you can upgrade to Vista 64 bit in the future.
"Jack" <replyto@it> wrote in message
news:OFBx$R9UIHA.1184@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> Hello,
> I need to choose between these 2 systems:
> 1.
> comes with an Athlon 64 X2 5000+ 2.6GHz dual core processor, 1GB of DDR2
> RAM, and a 320GB SATA II hard drive
> and Vista Home Premium (32 bit)
>
> 2.
> comes with Pentium 4 CPU, 3.2 GHz, 2GB of DDR2 RAM, and a 320GB SATA II
> hard drive and Vista Home Premium (32 bit)
>
> The real difference is only the CPU and RAM size.
>
> Which system to choose and why?
> Thanks,
> Jack
>

Hi Jack,

I would opt for your first option and go with the Athlon 64 X2. As well as
running slower than the Pentium 4 (yet giving the same or greater
performance), they also run cooler and consume less power. AMD processors
have another advantage in that they are, or have been in the past, cheaper
than the equivalent Intel model. Another advantage lies with the chip
architecture and the way that system RAM is accessed. With the Pentium 4, all
information between the processor and the rest of the system flows through
the system bus. This includes memory as well as graphics and other system
data. With the Athlon 64, however, the memory controller is built-in to the
processor. This means that the processor can communicate directly to the
memory over a dedicated bus without this data having to share the system bus.
Because there isn't the volume of traffic needed on the system bus it doesn't
need to run as fast and yet it can still out-perform the equivalent Pentium 4
system. However, I would recommend that you use 2GB of RAM and that you use
dual-channel mode for the best performance.
Dwarf

"Jack" wrote:

> Hello,
> I need to choose between these 2 systems:
> 1.
> comes with an Athlon 64 X2 5000+ 2.6GHz dual core processor, 1GB of DDR2
> RAM, and a 320GB SATA II hard drive
> and Vista Home Premium (32 bit)
>
> 2.
> comes with Pentium 4 CPU, 3.2 GHz, 2GB of DDR2 RAM, and a 320GB SATA II hard
> drive and Vista Home Premium (32 bit)
>
> The real difference is only the CPU and RAM size.
>
> Which system to choose and why?
> Thanks,
> Jack
>
>
>

Well, it depends on what you need it for. Other than that, I would go for the
second one if you haven't already done so.

"Jack" wrote:

> Hello,
> I need to choose between these 2 systems:
> 1.
> comes with an Athlon 64 X2 5000+ 2.6GHz dual core processor, 1GB of DDR2
> RAM, and a 320GB SATA II hard drive
> and Vista Home Premium (32 bit)
>
> 2.
> comes with Pentium 4 CPU, 3.2 GHz, 2GB of DDR2 RAM, and a 320GB SATA II hard
> drive and Vista Home Premium (32 bit)
>
> The real difference is only the CPU and RAM size.
>
> Which system to choose and why?
> Thanks,
> Jack
>
>
>