Help choosing computer specs

Really apologise if this is in the wrong forum, but it's the only one I found that suits it.

I've got a fairly simple question, i'm quite hopeless when it comes to computers.

Could anyone tell me which computer here would be better for playing games?

As far as I can tell the only big difference is the processor. Now the first is dual core and the second quad core, and naturally as a newb I assume the second would be better for gaming. However I've been told that the first would be better.

Also, would the motherboard make a difference?

The first:

AMD Athlon 64 XP 6400 Dual core
Asus SLi motherboard
Geforce 8600 GT
2GB DDR2 RAM
500 GB hard drive

The second:

AMD Phenom 9600 processor
Gigabyte motherboard
Geforce 8600 GT
2GB DDR2 RAM
500 GB hard drive

There is really not that much of a difference between either of them apart from what you suggested but the 6400 will be clocked higher and perform pretty much the same as the Phenom

As for the motherboards one supports 2 graphics cards the other only supports 1

And for gaming neither of these computer would be great as the graphics card is a bit crappy

Where are you getting those specs from anyway? I'm sure people here would be able to help you build a far better system than the ones you have listed above

A local computer shop.

Building my own computer is something I wouldn't really want to risk to be honest.

I could buy a newer graphics card, but price is something i'll need to take into consideration first.

Which motherboard supports two graphics cards? And if one day I decided to buy a new graphics card would I be able to use both at once? And would there be any advandages in doing so?

The Asus Supports 2 and if in the future you decide to buy another graphics card to run with the one you have it will have to be the same, you will see about a 25-35% improvement with 2 cards over 1
Its much better to buy just one more powerful graphics card than to use 2 in my opinion

That's helpful, thanks. If they work about the same while playing games - how about while not playing games. It is my understanding (maybe incorrect) that quad core are better at running multiple programs.

So would the second be faster if I chose to have multiple programs running in the background?

Quad core in theory is better but hardly any apps are programmed to utilise quad core anyway
There are certain games that use Quad also, like crysis which showed no increase in performance over Dual core
Maybe for future proofing I would go with the Quad, but its far from a necessity

Sorry for all the questions - you've been very helpful thanks!
Which of the two machines would you say was overall better/which would you choose?

And just a quick query about the motherboard and graphics card. Which mb would become obsolete the quickest? Because I plan to upgrade the graphics card later on, which mb is more advanced and would be able to support better graphics cards until it becomes unable to?

Kind of a confusing question, I mean - say in 2 years I decide to upgrade. Now I would not be able to use all graphics cards because my mb would be too old, which of the 2 would be able to run the better gpu at this time?

Thanks again

I would probably choose the Phenom, the board that supports that would have to be AM2+ compatible which means that socket will be good for a few years yet, so you could upgrade your cpu in a few years too

Both boards are PCI-e, which is what all new computers use these days, so you would have no trouble upgrading the graphic card in either of them

Great, thanks a lot for the help. I really appreciate it.

No problem, glad to help

May I ask the prices of these two systems?

They do not appear to be very well matched component wise. Kind of a bit thrown together kind of thing.

It also might be worth asking for the exact specs of the components, because a Gigabyte motherboard could mean anything...

Just don't want you to get ripped off.

I appreciate it serverguy. At the moment I don't actually know the prices, I got the specs from a friend of mine.

What should I pay for these do you think? I won't be buying a monitor or XP, but it comes with all the standard like dvd rom, floppy drive, dvd/cd rewriter, sound card, wireless

As for the mb i'm not exactly sure.
the Aus one may be:

Asus Deluxe Sli Motherboard, socket AM2. Not sure if this is the model either but it's some more info.

What exactly do you mean by not well matched?

I guess I just wouldn't build a system like that...

I hate the Phenoms, for no particular reason other than everytime I have tried to build with one it has been a nightmare.

I think the Intel processors are just generally better at the moment, like the E8200 or E8400.

Also, the rest of the system is AMD and then theres an Intel 8600GT stuck in, which is a pretty crap card, and theres much much better cards available, for not much more money now.

For the first system you mention, I worked out I could build it for £453 which included:

Hitachi Deskstar T7K500 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (0A33437) £36.99 (£43.46)
Antec Nine Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case £56.99 (£66.96)
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 6400+ 3.20GHz (Socket AM2) - Retail £87.99 (£103.39)
Asus M2N-SLi Deluxe (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £54.99 (£64.61)
OcUK GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 HDTV/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £36.99 (£43.46)
OCZ 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 Dual Channel Platinum Revision 2 XTC Series DDR2 (OCZ2P800R22GK) £24.99 (£29.36)
Corsair TX 650W ATX2.2 SLi Compliant PSU £54.99 (£64.61)

Asus DRW-2014L1T 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer Lightscribe ReWriter (Black/Silver) - Retail £18.99 (£22.31)


It depends on the case / power supply / memory etc but you can assume that the computer shop will use pretty much the cheapest stuff available thats reliable.

I'd want probably about £500 to build it, but I expect the computer shop will be asking more like £600 - £650. They may also put it in a cheap generic case and use a crappy power supply.

I haven't time to work out the second system but I expect it would be about the same.

If you're wandering whats the most you can get for your money, this thread on OcUK is pretty damn good:
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/sho...php?t=17883751