Newegg.com - iBUYPOWER Gamer Power 509 Athlon X2 7750(2.7GHz) 4GB DDR2 500GB NVIDIA GeForce 9500 GT Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit - Desktop PCs

Newegg.com - CyberpowerPC Gamer Ultra 7206 Athlon X2 7750(2.7GHz) 4GB DDR2 500GB ATI Radeon HD 4550 Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit - Desktop PCs


Which one looks like a better deal to you? Both are the same price. I heard Nvidia is better for graphics cards but I would prefer the computer with more power and ability, especially the video card.

Honestly it comes down to personal preferance.

From my experience Nvidia and ATI are basically the same. I mean I don't know a crazy amount about computers by any means. Typically Nvidia is going to have a little more power, but they arn't as reliable. (Atleast that's my experience).

To be honest you're splitting hairs.

Well, I'm not just going to blindly spend $500+ dollars and assume both are identical, that would be stupid.

They are practically the same, the second one has a considerably better graphics card (the ATI is better than the Nvidia in this comparison) and it also has a larger PSU other than that the differences are minute.

Personally though I would not buy either of them the graphic capabilities are limited, they are listed as gaming consoles...they are not..... so if you plan on playing games you wont be getting the best quality or frame rates, I would comfortably say that a few of the more recent games would even be unplayable. The ATI would fair better than the Nvidia though.

Maybe I have my math wrong or its a poor exchange rate atm but the price is also questionable, both systems are quite low/mid on the specs and even then they are a year old. For the same money you could have someone build a system that is of a higher grade and also with this years components or if you are buying last years series buy the top end stuff.

Honestly either system would be fine. Like Bananas said though, neither is great for gaming. $500 is kind of the rock bottom price for a "gaming PC", especially considering that you can pay upwards of $1,000 or more for JUST a gaming video card.

A 500 MB video card is pretty low for today's standards. 768MB cards have been out for about 4 years now and you can already get 1 GB or higher cards. If you plan to game then you should spend a bit more and get a better video card.

The rest of the specs are fine for gaming.

If you want to get a great gaming rig then the key things you should look for are:

CPU: Dual core at a minimum, Quad core preferred. (64 bit for sure)
GPU: 768MB or 1GB are ideal.
RAM: 2GB minimum, 4GB or higher strongly preferred.

Also, make sure you aren't running a 32 bit OS. Vista comes in 64 bit but you can also download the Windows 7 Release Candidate in 64 bit for free. It will work up until Windows 7 officially comes out, when you can buy the full version. You definitely want a 64 bit OS though. Games and everything will run faster with 64 bit.

Im going to have to disagree with you here. A 512mb card is more than capable, sure a 768mb is better but upwards of this you have to question if the capabilities are even needed if accessible. Plus this is all kind of meaningless and futile unless the card can process the info its given. Thats why in the two systems Constantine is comparing the ATI(with its 512mb) is better than the Nvidia(with its 1GB) because it has double with 800mhz over 400mhz clock speed, even the core clock is 20% faster.



If you want a good card at a good price look for either of these;

Nvidia; 9800GT (even the 8800GT is miles better than the 9500GT)
ATI; 3850 or ATI 4670.

If you were to buy these^^ cards independently then you are looking at about an extra $40 but realistically they are easily 5x better.

See, that's the kind of info I need. I have no problem buying a cheap desktop and then working my way upwards. I've only got a $600 limit so I'm going to upgrade and tweak it along the way, you know?

Yeah, just make sure it's expandable.

And Bananas, you're right. I was making a generalization. Obviously the MB/GB of the card is not the end all. You can buy a $100 1GB card and a $500 500MB card so obviously there is more to take into consideration than the memory alone.

Cons, the thing you want to look for is expandability. You can always buy a new video card later. RAM as well. Personally I'd prefer a computer with a motherboard that had at least 4 spots for RAM. That way you can have 4 sticks of 1 GB each and expand later to 4 sticks of 2 GB each for a total of 8 gigs of ram. The problem with BOTH of those systems is that they can each support no more than two sticks of RAM. I'd recommend you get one that has at least 4 slots for RAM if you can find that within your budget. It will extend the life of your PC by years since you'll be able to upgrade the RAM at a later date without buying an entirely new system.

You can upgrade CPU, RAM, and GPU later on. The key is to make sure that you get a system that is new enough or expandable enoguh so that it will support these upgrades.

I built a PC several years back with the base specs of 2GB RAM, Core 2 Duo 2.1 GHZ, 768MB nVidia 8800 GTX OC video card. I've since upgraded it to 8GB RAM, Core 2 Quad 2.66 GHZ, (same video card) and it runs better than most new systems out there today. It's a 4 year old system too. The key was getting a motherboard that would allow me to upgrade at a later date. Sure beats buying a whole new PC.

I was looking at the two systems again and the price is not as bad as I first thought, I always forget to factor in the case, peripherals and OS which can easily add in excess of $150 on the price tag.

It is worth buying a system like these and upgrading it, make sure they have friendly sockets & slots (AM2 or 775 for the processor and PCI-E (not AGP) for graphics), which they both do. Then when it arrives rip out the graphics card (put it on ebay!) and put the money towards a newer faster one.

I know, tell me something new

Nice, thanks for the help guys. I'm thinking the first option seeing as people seem to favor ATI. I'll be ordering it Friday so if anyone actually happens to see anything more appealing in the same price range, do help! Thanks again!