[chainedfaith]

I have always run on a dell computer for years and have never encountered problems with them- all in all I've decided it's time to get a new computer. I had returned to the dell website to customized one of my liking, but after being hour on the phone with a sales rep, it's just too much confusion to get the components i want.

So i went to Hp and this is the make-up of the computer i am considering there..

Window Vista Home Premium 32-Bit
Intel Core 2 Quad Processor 2.4Ghz
4GB DDR2 667Mhz SDRAM
512MB NVIDIA GeForce 8500GT, TV-out, DVI-I, HDMI
802.11 b/g USB Wireless LAN card & USB external modem
400GB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s hard drive
LightScribe 16X max. DVD+/-R/RW SuperMulti drive
15-in-1 memory card reader, 3 USB, 1394, audio
Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio
HP 20-inch LCD Wide Flat Panel Monitor

And then just to have variation, i went to a small business in town and they customized an acer to fit the components i requested, only its an Acer.

]ALC Intell Duo Core Quad processor 2.4 Ghxz System
]MS XP Professional
]4 GB DDR2-667 Mhz Dual Channel SDRAM
]512 MB NVIDA GeForce 8500GT, TV-out, DVI-I, HDMI
]500 GB 7200 RPM SATA HDD 3.5GB/S
]LightScribe 16X DVD+/-R/RW SuperMulti Drive
]Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio
]AOpen] MidTower] Case
]H/W Card NIC Wireless 802.11g
]H/W Card Reader USB 3.5" Internal
]H/W Monitor LCD 20" Acer AL2016W Wide Screen

The Acer tax in will be in the low 1.600's and comes with a better warrenty, not to mention its in town so i don't have to pay shipping if something goes wrong, haha!

And the Hp without 14% tax is 1499.99.. and has windows vista which i would end up removing and putting XP on (HP don't offer XP, nor a blank OS on their models)



I don't know if there is much difference in the acer and the hp brand, like i said i have always used a dell computer.

If anyone can shine some light on this, please do!

[philthomas]

Acer are quite respectable .... I have had an Acer Laptop for a few years now and it's still behaving itself.

Just a thought, looking at your spec .... if you are going to be using 32bit XP, you can reduce your RAM to 3gb as 32bit XP wont recognise the extra 1gb. It's only worth getting if you intend to upgrade to a 64bit OS in the future.

[chainedfaith]

Will a 32bit Vista recognize 4GB of ram?

[philthomas]

Originally Posted by chainedfaith

Will a 32bit Vista recognize 4GB of ram?

No .... afaik only 64bit Operating Systems are capable.

[mcbee]

The graphics card is not up to pace with the rest of those systems. You would also need to know the spec of the motherboards as well.What are you going to use your computer for?

[chainedfaith]

The use of the computer?

Well i use a lot of 3d animation programs and dj programs.

My brother will be loading a lot of games.

[alex]

My opinion?

Both builds stink.

The 8500GT is in no way shape or form a gaming card. And to put 512mb of ram on a card of that (lack of) prowess is cynical in the extreme. It's another story of once again a manufacturer trying to sell a prospective customer on numbers; they see the bigger number so assume it's a better deal. It's even worse because the monitor in question in both builds is of the 1680x1050 resolution variety. That card will not be able to game at that resolution. It'll barely be able to game at 1024x768.

The ram will strangle the quad on bandwidth requirements. I'd go so far as to say that if you spec or buy a build with 667mhz ram you may as well go for a dual core cpu.

Xp pro can only use 3gb ram, Vista 32bit 3.1gb ram. This is due to i/o requirements and memory mapping.

No, shop around. There's many a good builder out there that you can spec things up with. Acer are a good brand, as are HP. But I'd only ever buy a laptop from either of them.

[serverguy]

Both those systems also seem expensive, I would keep looking.