Choosing a destop:Inspiron 580 vs Studio 8100

[dolce]

Hi,

I'm looking for a quite powerful desktop for myself (I'm a doctoral student and need to run sophisticated statistical models and lots of data work).

I'm looking at refurbished Dell's. Here I have two options:

Inspiron 580

System Price : ~$650

Processor: Intel Core i5-750 Processor (8MB Cache, 2.66GHz)
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64BIT
8 GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1066MHz (4 DIMMs)
1 TB SATA 3Gb/s Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/ 16MB DataBurst Cache
1 GB ATI Radeon HD 5450 DDR3
Certified Refurbished
No Modem
Mini Tower
16X DVD +/- RW w/dbl layer write capability
Dell 1525 Wireless-N PCIe Card


Inspiron 580
System Price : ~$580 after discounts and taxes

Processor: Intel Core i5-750 Processor (8MB Cache, 2.66GHz)
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium
6 GB DDR3 SDRAM 1066MHz (3 DIMMs)
1 TB SATA 3Gb/s Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/ 16MB DataBurst Cache
1 GB ATI Radeon HD 5450 DDR3
Certified Refurbished
No Modem
MiniTower
16X DVD +/- RW w/dbl layer write capability


Studio XPS 8100

System Price : ~$800

Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit
Intel Core i5-750 Processor (8MB Cache, 2.66GHz)
8 GB DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHz (4 DIMMs)Hard Disk Drive
1 TB SATA 3Gb/s Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/ 16MB DataBurst CacheVideo
1 GB ATI Radeon HD 5450 DDR3
Certified Refurbished
16X DVD +/- RW w/dbl layer write capability

The latter two don't have a wireless card, would it be a lot of trouble of adding it on my own (i never did that, so I'm sorry if my question seems stupid? and Is the price of the last one is justified?

Thanks!

 

[Gabe63]

I like the first one as the best bank for the buck. A N card is around $40 and 2gb is worth $50 so it is worth the extra if you want it. Since the general public thinks more RAM = a faster computer it would probably help the resale (maybe, used computer = bad resale).

The last one is new? with faster RAM. Oh, and a full tower vs the mini towers.

If the warranty is decent on the 1st I would recomend it.

 

[dolce]

I like the first one as the best bank for the buck. A N card is around $40 and 2gb is worth $50 so it is worth the extra if you want it. Since the general public thinks more RAM = a faster computer it would probably help the resale (maybe, used computer = bad resale).

The last one is new? with faster RAM. Oh, and a full tower vs the mini towers.

If the warranty is decent on the 1st I would recomend it.

All of them are certified refurbished with 1 year warranty (all of them are from Dell Outlet).

 

[Dystopia]

I'd say go for the second system. 8GB is way overkill. 6GB is more than enough, and adding a wireless card is very easy. They are pretty inexpensive as well. If you need help installing the card, we can help you there, too.