Which is the Better PC of the 3 for me?

Question

I am wanting to buy a new PC as my current one is in serious need of replacing. I've had it for 9 years and figured replacement would be a better option that upgrade.

Anyway, I am not a gamer so therefore will not be using it for that purpose. However, I do like to have various apps running (for instance, downloading music, watching a video, or using MS office, to give you the gist. I want it to be future proof as possible, will be storing plenty of music, photos and possibly videos, so huge memory is a must as well. So i want it to be quick as my current one is slow and its P4 but 1.6ghz i think

I have been looking at the following 2 pc's:

http://www.cube247.co.uk/?customise=32

http://www.evesham.com/products/info.asp?e=9DAED744-E0F5-470E-9F29-2D89AA165659

Also, is it true that if the Windows Vista is only 32 bit it will only recognise 4gb of memory? Why is that
Secondly, Will having a nVidia 8800 GTX 768MB actually help with video quality?

Answer 1

The applications you listed do not really require a powerful PC. The 2 choices you indicated are NICE but still overkill for your requirement. They are both capable of hard core gaming. In fact your current processor would still be adequate. You just need 1Gb RAM for XP or 2Gb for Vista. You could add a 500Gb hard drive and a new ATI HD 2400 Pro or XT for great HD video. The only thing the upgraded set up lacks is wow factor.

Any 32bit OS will not be able to utilize about 750mb of the 4Gb RAM. 750mb will just sit useless in the upper memory hole.

HD video performance is available even on the cheaper variants of DX10 graphics cards like on the 8500GT and HD2400 Pro.

Answer 2

the first one is better i think, but with this budget you'll be better by creating your own PC. buy the parts from places like www.cclonline.com or ebuyer or aria
even if you don't know how to build a PC just give £40 - £50 to a professional and they'll do it for you.

having a 32bit window will only recognize 3G of ram not 4, and why is this, i don't know.

and the graphics card you're talking about is extremely good and extremely expensive and yes it dose help with video quality.
by the way, these PC are for gaming, so if you don't wana do games these PCs are too strong for you. and if you want a future proof PC, get a good motherboard that supports DDR3 and the upcoming 45nm intel CPUs, search for asus maximus formula or asus maximus extreame, gigabyte has some good DDR3 motherboards as well.

but my advise to you is to build your own PC, specially with your budget you'll be able to build a very nice PC that does everything you want it to do.


EDIT:
if you're biulding a PC get HIS 3879 ATI 512
see if you can get a motherborad that suports crossfire then you'll be able to crossfire it, this means you'll have 2 graphics cards.
but if you're not a gamer you won't need to crossfire.
just get the HIS 3870, it's really good but it's cheap too.

Answer 3

The three things you'll want in a pc i: processor speed, RAM, hardrive and Disc drive. The one with the faster processor, most likely the one with quad core (more less powerful processors.) Lots of RAM, (1GB is a good base.) The drive with 100GB (1TB) is a massive amount of HD. For lots of music, videos and programs 500gb is plenty.

Also a better graphics card can display higher quality images with a HD output but the thing your playing would have to be HD. (extra HD DVD player.)