Help Choosing A New Desktop Computer

[adamjthompson]

Hello guys,

I'd appreciate any advice you could give my on selecting a new computer. I'm planning to buy a desktop to replace my laptop as my primary computer.

My current system: HP Pavilion dv6119us
AMD Turion 64 X2 Dual-Core Mobile Technology TL-50 (1.6GHz)
1024MB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm)
NVIDIA GeForce Go 6150 (UMA) up to 128MB
80GB 5400RPM (SATA)
Windows XP Media Center

My Needs:
I am running out of hard drive space, and I think I really ought to have beefier memory and processor, too. It's not too unusual for me to run a web browser, media player, Photoshop, and Adobe Premier Elements all at once.

What I'm Looking At:

I've created a couple systems that I think will met my needs from Dell and HP.

HP a6500z series:
Windows Vista Home Basic
AMD Athlon(TM) 64 X2 4450e dual-core (2.3GHz)
2GB DDR2-800MHz dual channel SDRAM (2x1024)
Integrated NVIDIA GeForce 6150 SE, VGA
250GB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s hard drive

Dell Inspiron 530:
Windows Vista® Home Basic Service Pack 1
Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E7200 (3MB L2 Cache,2.53GHz,1066 FSB)
2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz- 2DIMMs
250GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™
Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3100

My Questions:

Would 2GB of memory really be an upgrade or would Vista use up the extra memory? Should I get more than 2GB? (If I get 4GB, then I'll need to upgrade my os to a 64-bit).

How much upgrade do I need in resources just to cover the extra demands of Vista over XP?

How about video cards? I am not a gamer, so I've never worried about what I got. Should I get a discrete video card due to Vista's heavier graphics?

Processor - If I'm not mistaken, the AMD or Intel in the systems above would be a solid upgrade over what I have now, and are somewhat equivalent.

OS - Should I consider upgrading to Vista Premium?

Thank you very much for any assistance you can offer!

 

[kookooshortman55]

2GB of memory is enough to run Vista smoothly. The more RAM you have, the more Vista will use. I have 4GB of RAM and all of it is being used, but I'm sure it's much faster than if I were to have 2GB. So if you can afford it, get 2x2GB of RAM with 64-bit Vista. If you have the money you could go for 4x2GB. It wouldn't be completely necessary but it may prove to be useful with what you're running. Vista is mostly memory intensive. That should cover that. For video cards, I would recommend the 8600GT as a budget card, or the 9600GT as a cheap performance card. The onboard graphics would be good except for maybe Photoshop and definitely Premiere. Intel generally makes better processors but I have an AMD and am still happy with it. Unless you compare them side by side you most likely won't find a difference. If you can, find a quad core computer. Photoshop can utilize 2 cores and the 4 cores will definitely prove to be useful in Premiere. In terms of OS, I would look at Home Premium 64-bit. You would basically replace most of the parts, would you be interested in a custom build?