the first one is 500+ dollars cheaper, so my question is, how much better is the second for 500 more>?? need input. facts: will, have a ton of music on it, always have a large game on it (WoW probably), have cable modem already, want DVD burner, and would very much like not to worry about future performance once the harddrive fills to 50% capacity. oh yeah, both are from dell, so if you know of cheaper equivelents, throw em out there.

1. Base Model Includes: IntelTM PentiumTM 4 processor 540 with HT Technology (3.2GHz, 800 FSB, 1MB L2 cache) Microsoft? Windows? XP Home Edition 512MB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 400MHz 17" (16.0"vis) Monitor 80GB3 Serial ATA hard drive NEW 128MB PCI ExpressT x16 (DVI/VGA/TV-out) ATI RadeonT X300 SE 1 Yr Limited Warranty4 and At-Home Service5

2.Base Model Includes: IntelTM PentiumTM 4 processor 550 with HT? Technology (3.40GHz, 800 FSB, 1MB L2 cache) Microsoft? Windows? XP Home Edition 512MB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz 17" (16.0"vis) Monitor 80GB6 Ultra/ATA 100 Hard Drive 128MB PCI Express x16 (DVI/VGA/TV-out) ATI RadeonT X800 XT 1 Yr Limited Warranty4 and 1 Yr At-Home Service5

i want to save moeny if possible, but willing to go for the larger if its that much better. peace--seansightless

u know what the next response will be right ?

Get the first one and spend the other 500 bucks on 2 200gb's HD and lotz of vynils..

[quote=Encryption]u know what the next response will be right ?[/quote]

Mercury Engine!!!!

We would need more details. Is this Dell or what? What are you using it for? How long do you want it to go before it HAS to be upgraded? Sure, you want to save money now, but do you want to do that at the cost of spending more sooner rather then later.

The first machine's video card is pretty much bottom of the line for the newer cards, but everything else looks reasonable. Except 512 MB of RAM isn't enough, so neither machine would suit my needs. Otherwise, most everything is the same. I would upgrade the vid card and ram on the first machine.

[quote=Civic_Zen]

I would upgrade the vid card and ram on the first machine.[/quote]

Only if he wants to play,if not i think is a good machine.. Maybe 1 gb of ram will be better but inst necessary.

Its all a matter of what he wants to do with it.

If he was a Gamer, he wouldn't be buying an Intel machine to begin with, since AMD is superior in that regard and less expensive.

So I can only assume he isn't gaming. This doesn't mean he isn't doing audio/video editing, or something else which would require more RAM.

RAM is one of those things, even if 512 is enough now, it won't be in what.....3-5 months. :lol:

But then again I'm a nerd, 1 gig is minimum in my book, regardless of what the machine is being used for.

Yeh,its true,maybe 512 of ram wont be enough not in 3-5 months,maybe in less.. But i think that's a cool machine if he dont wants to play or use image/video editing software. i'm still thinkin that he needs more HD,80's GB is so shitty lookin the prices of the HD's

build your own... unless you need the peripherals... if you are gaming... you need a bigger monitor... more ram... fast cpu... and a nice vid card (the radeon 800xt is a nice card... but there are definitely better ones)