Cant choose ....

Pc specs

Vista home premium (x64)
2Gb of same ram 2x1( mobo maxed)
80Gb WD hd
amd x2 3600+


OR
360 core system .....



please vote on which one i should purchase

Do you want some discussion to convince you on one over the other? First, I have a question--what do you plan on doing with the sempron system? Gaming, or general computer use? I only ask because if you're into playing games, you might as well go with the Xbox 360 because the Sempron won't be exceptional for gaming because of it's significantly small cache (performance will also depend on the video card)--especially with Windows Vista and 1GB of RAM. Now, on the other hand, getting a decent, useable computer system for so cheap is also something to consider--how much would you say you need the computer? Because between the two, I'd lean towards the Xbox. That's my vote.

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AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ (@2.6 GHz)
2x1GB OCZ Spec. Ops. PC3200
ASRock Dual939-SATA2
Antec TruePower 550 watt PSU
80 GB Seagate Barracuda SATA 7200 rpm
300 GB Seagate Barracuda SATA 7200 rpm
120 GB Maxtor ATA/133 7200 rpm
ATI Radeon x1950 Pro

I know you said no debate on vista, and I won't lean you away from vista. I just recommend home premium. It has so many more features, whereas home basic has barely anything. I know how ash and others will give you a vista lecture, but I am all for vista. I personally will be getting home premium. I think the pc because you can game and do a bunch of other stuff as well. I might recommend that you build your own computer, which will give you flexibility and an opportunity for a better computer. I'm sure guyladouche will have something to say about the computer aspect of your choice.

the cpu socket is am2 so i can allways upgrade ...... and i have 2 slots and the mobo maxes at 2 gb which if i go vista on that machine i will add

it is for old games
Halo ( 32Mb vid memory , 128MB ram , 733Mhz cpu)
and train sim ( 8MB vid memory 266Mhz )

internet , email and music ...... so sempron is great for that ( and i have used that cpu many times and it is a speedy little devil ( better than comparible celeron )

xbox 360 will mainly be used for a few games ..... mainly just to play halo 3 when it releases

Well, no argument on the comparison with the cely...

It seems like for what you will be using it for, the computer isn't a bad choice. How much would you say you'd be using the Xbox?

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AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ (@2.6 GHz)
2x1GB OCZ Spec. Ops. PC3200
ASRock Dual939-SATA2
Antec TruePower 550 watt PSU
80 GB Seagate Barracuda SATA 7200 rpm
300 GB Seagate Barracuda SATA 7200 rpm
120 GB Maxtor ATA/133 7200 rpm
ATI Radeon x1950 Pro

Oops, guy must have posted when I was writing my message. But if you're only going to play halo 3 on the 360, it might be better to buy a computer. Especially because microsoft is supposed to be relesing halo 2 for the pc, and it's going to be vista only.

k i realized buying xp and sempy now and upgradign later would be a total waste of $$

@ newegg the total is 440.00 with shipping

brief specs

Vista home premium (x64)
2Gb of same ram 2x1( mobo maxed)
80Gb WD hd
amd x2 3600+

now lets compare that

Muhahaha! Beat ya to it when you weren't looking! Haha!

Yeah, I'm siding more with the computer the more I learn about the situation. Not a bad investment, plus you can use the computer even when you're not playing a game--can't do that to much of an extent with the 360. And it's easily upgradable since it's an AM2 socket--just a new CPU and good graphics card and it should be competitive with current gaming rigs (if that's the direction you'd want to go).
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This user added the following:
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3600+ Brisbane system hands-down. They OC easily with a good mobo to 3GHz--can't beat that. Plus dual core for fifty bucks? Nothing beating that.

__________________
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ (@2.6 GHz)
2x1GB OCZ Spec. Ops. PC3200
ASRock Dual939-SATA2
Antec TruePower 550 watt PSU
80 GB Seagate Barracuda SATA 7200 rpm
300 GB Seagate Barracuda SATA 7200 rpm
120 GB Maxtor ATA/133 7200 rpm
ATI Radeon x1950 Pro

I am building it

and i changed the pc a bit have a look


and that cpu is 65Nm.... if i o/c say to 2.4 its better than the actual 2.4Ghz version

Guy, you keep on posting when I'm writing. But I'd say the computer because with a good gfx card, you can play halo 2 when it comes out. I'm glad you decided on home premium because home basic lacks so many features premium has. I also heard home premium and ultimate have a feature that lets you use flash drive as memory for your system. I'm interested in knowing how well that works. It certainly sounds like a cool feature. I hope guy hasn't posted when I am typing. He seems to do this a lot. This is a hot thread though.

wow...... too bad i will have my mobo will be maxed out at 2 gigs ....

and i will not purchase a vid card yet because i can steal 64 from memory and all my games require 32 or less but i have a agp 4x/8x slot so i will get one down the road .... i only have one issue here the mobo is athlon / sempron not athlon x2 ....... should i try to run a x2 off it ? .... im just trying to avoid ddr-800 prices


read more- Newegg.com - BIOSTAR K8M800 Micro AM2 Socket AM2 VIA K8M800 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

I would think that halo 2 would run on vista with 2 gigs. I could be wrong though.

no i mean about the flash memory as ram thing

Long time no...see... Reviews on newegg of this mobo say that it does support X2 processors, so I don't think you have much to fear from that aspect.

Regarding the "ReadyBoost" feature in Vista--this was a hot debate on many sites when Vista was being developed--the question of whether it would be reasonable to use a removable memstick as a hot-swap addition of RAM. Turned out that most agreed it is relatively worthless given the current state of relatively cheap computer components--even 1GB of system DDR2 RAM is very cheap--on the order of $50 USD at some places. The problem came in when considering a few factors of removable USB Memory Sticks-- (1) they have a finite read/write lifetime--much lower than that of system RAM. (2) they have very slow read/write speeds--I think if you're lucky you might get 30MB/s constant speeds out of it (as opposed to ~5000Mb/s of system RAM). So it doesn't provide good bandwidth for regular RAM tasks. The theory was that it would make a good drive for the Paging File--which is not used frequently on systems with lots of RAM, and when it is, it is not used to a large extent. But all in all, I'd say it's a nice idea, but mem sticks will have to come a long way before it's a practical solution.

Anyway, back on topic... That system looks like a great build. I love how you can make a "budget build" computer that (with the right video card of course) can compete with mid-high end systems. I'd go for it and say screw the Xbox 360!
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This user added the following:
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Keep in mind that with an AGP motherboard, you will be limited in the cards you can use should you decide to upgrade your graphics. At this point, the ATI Radeon x1950pro 512mb AGP card keeps up with PCI-E cards, but given how fast the graphics industry is changing, don't expect it to be a long-term solution. Just my 2-cents in addition to all the other posts I've made...

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AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ (@2.6 GHz)
2x1GB OCZ Spec. Ops. PC3200
ASRock Dual939-SATA2
Antec TruePower 550 watt PSU
80 GB Seagate Barracuda SATA 7200 rpm
300 GB Seagate Barracuda SATA 7200 rpm
120 GB Maxtor ATA/133 7200 rpm
ATI Radeon x1950 Pro

i have a 512MB ATI video card around here ..... agp too i may just pop that sucker in


Newegg.com - ATI 100-437809 Radeon X1650PRO 512MB 128-bit GDDR2 AGP 4X/8X Video Card - Retail