Need help with buying a desktop.

[Tormentormike]

Basically, want to choose between these two. Would use mainly for FFXI/Music/Torrent Downloading/Photoshop if any of that matters.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp ... 3577698530

or

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp ... 3577735222

Both are the same price, so which would you choose and why?

[Cephius]

Short answer: I'd go with the first one. Bigger hard drive, 512 MB video card as opposed to the 256 of the other one. Only thing is the first one is an ATI vs the Nvidia 8600 which I know is a very good model.

Long: I'm curious as to why you're looking at best buy and gateway in particular. Best buy doesn't have great prices, and all the gateways I've owned in the past were junk. Newegg has a few, a couple don't come with monitors but they are significantly less if you're dead set on a Gateway..

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi ... me=Gateway

Or I would just configure a Dell XPS, they're nice computers and you'd probably get something comperable for less money.

http://www.dell.com/content/products/pr ... l=en&s=dhs

[Tormentormike]

Short answer: I'd go with the first one. Bigger hard drive, 512 MB video card as opposed to the 256 of the other one. Only thing is the first one is an ATI vs the Nvidia 8600 which I know is a very good model.

Long: I'm curious as to why you're looking at best buy and gateway in particular. Best buy doesn't have great prices, and all the gateways I've owned in the past were junk. Newegg has a few, a couple don't come with monitors but they are significantly less if you're dead set on a Gateway..

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi ... me=Gateway

Or I would just configure a Dell XPS, they're nice computers and you'd probably get something comperable for less money.

http://www.dell.com/content/products/pr ... l=en&s=dhs

I was planning on ordering the first one as well. I've never had a Gateway nor has anyone I know so I wouldn't really know what to expect from them. I wasn't set on a Gateway, just when looking for gaming PC's at bestbuy.com, there are only 5 to choose from lol. I only need the desktop anyways, have a 19" widescreen that still works, relatively new too.

I had a Dell recently and it was overall shit and their customer service was just a mind numbing experience.

Thanks for the input~

[Cephius]

Short answer: I'd go with the first one. Bigger hard drive, 512 MB video card as opposed to the 256 of the other one. Only thing is the first one is an ATI vs the Nvidia 8600 which I know is a very good model.

Long: I'm curious as to why you're looking at best buy and gateway in particular. Best buy doesn't have great prices, and all the gateways I've owned in the past were junk. Newegg has a few, a couple don't come with monitors but they are significantly less if you're dead set on a Gateway..

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi ... me=Gateway

Or I would just configure a Dell XPS, they're nice computers and you'd probably get something comperable for less money.

http://www.dell.com/content/products/pr ... l=en&s=dhs

I was planning on ordering the first one as well. I've never had a Gateway nor has anyone I know so I wouldn't really know what to expect from them. I wasn't set on a Gateway, just when looking for gaming PC's at bestbuy.com, there are only 5 to choose from lol. I only need the desktop anyways, have a 19" widescreen that still works, relatively new too.

I had a Dell recently and it was overall shit and their customer service was just a mind numbing experience.

Thanks for the input~

I hear ya about Dell customer support. If you're an average Joe who doesn't spring for the extra $200 multi-year service contract, you're stuck in 30 minute queues waiting to speak with some guy in India. When I started my job that has Gold Tech Support for all of its laptops, the difference is amazing. No waits, all Native-English speaking people! That being said, I'd take Dell's everyday support to Gateway's. In my expierence, not only do gateway techs never speak english clearly, they have no idea what they're talking about. It's like talking to a dumb GM in FFXI; you can tell they're just reading off a piece of paper. It might have changed since I've owned a Gateway, or I just had bad luck with Techs. Who knows.

[Cjskater]

I find google to be the best tech support. Seriously ._.

Go for the first if you are choosing just between the two, half because thats a Core2Quad and its like $900 alone vs the Core2Duo which is like $200. Quad=big penis.

[Seraphise]

I'm looking to buy a computer also. It won't be used for much other then FFXI

Heres the specs on one.
Price: 450
PROCESSOR: Intel®Pentium® dual-core processor E2160 (1MB L2,1.80GHz,800 FSB)
OPERATING SYSTEM: Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Basic
MONITOR: No Monitor
MEMORY: 512MB Single Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz - 1DIMM
HARD DRIVE: 160GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™
OPTICAL DRIVE: 48X CDRW/DVD Combo Drive
VIDEO CARD: Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3100
SOUND: Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio
KEYBOARD & MOUSE: Dell USB Keyboard and Dell Optical USB Mouse
FLOPPY & MEDIA READER: No Floppy Drive Included
MODEM & WIRELESS: 56K PCI Data Fax Modem

I have a semi decent 256mb Graphics card that i just bought the other day to make up for this ones shitty one.

Price : 650
PROCESSOR: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor E4300 (2MB L2 Cache,1.8GHz,800FSB)
OPERATING SYSTEM: Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition
MEMORY: FREE Upgrade! 2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz- 2DIMMs
HARD DRIVE: Free Upgrade from 80GB to 160GB (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache
OPTICAL DRIVE: Single Drive: 16X DVD-ROM Drive
MONITOR: 19 inch SE198WFP Widescreen Flat Panel Monitor
VIDEO CARD: 256MB nVidia Geforce 7300LE TurboCache
SOUND: Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio


Of course, price -IS- an issue, and i know the more expensive one is blantently better. But by how much? Will the first one work? I have a pretty nice 18in LCD HP screen still so the no monitor on the first one isn't that big of an issue

[Epical]

http://www.maingear.com

Fuck Best Buy/Dell.

[Seraphise]

http://www.maingear.com

Fuck Best Buy/Dell.

aparently price is not a factor for you.

[Panella]

Of course, price -IS- an issue, and i know the more expensive one is blantently better. But by how much? Will the first one work? I have a pretty nice 18in LCD HP screen still so the no monitor on the first one isn't that big of an issue

Well, assuming you have windows xp on hand already and the video card you already have is comparable/better you could get the first and upgrade the ram if you wanted. 2gb of ram is ~$80 off of newegg although I don't think I would personally buy bottom of the barrel RAM >_>. Assuming you even care about 2gb of ram anyways, 1gig of ram is ~$50(should at least get matching pairs of ram over just buying another 512 stick). The cpu isn't as good but if you're just playing FFXI it hardly matters. I can run 2 ffxis on the same computer, still surf the web, watch videos etc. with a much gimpier cpu so it's not like ffxi is some computer hungry game(cue lolps2 limitations). However, if you want to consider the fact that the computer will most likely far outlast your desire to play FFXI, keep in mind that the lower L2 chache size on the E2160 hurts it gaming wise.

If you don't have xp on hand then the first one is of course, a giant piece of shit and I shudder to think that people actually try to run vista on 512mb of RAM. If you could return the video card you already have and the card on the second one is comparable I'd go with that for sure. Granted, you could also try to sell the newer or the older monitor for a bit of cash as well.