Pentium D 820 vs. Athlon 64 X2 3800+

[xKeiyax]

Hi, Everyone.

Since my PC's broken down and my processor is dying, I'm going to have to replace my PC. However, I'll need to do it on a tight budget now, so I can't do some PC-building, since it'll take about $1200+ to build my own, and I'm only on a $700 budget (plus I haven't had any experience beforehand of building my own PC). So I'll go ahead and get myself an HP machine, since I've heard that Dell bites big wind (or do they?).

Right now, two of their models fit my fancy well (they sound like good performance PC's that won't cost me an arm and a leg to buy): The Pavilion a1750 series, with a1750y having a Pentium D 820 processor, and the a1750e having an Athlon 64 X2 processor. Aside from that config, they're both essentially the same, but with the Pentium D-equipped PC costing $50 more. The both also come fully-equipped with Windows Vista Home Premium. Here's a link to the PC's if you need further info:

http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/series_can.do?landing=desktops&catLevel=2&storeName=computer_store&a1=Usage&v1=Entertainment%20and%20multimedia

I'll mainly be using this PC for :

Word Processing, Spreadsheet processing, Slide Show creation (MS Office XP)

Web-surfing (IE7 or Firefox 2)

Playing music (using WMP 10 or 11)

Playing movies (DivX and DVD's, but no video editing for me)

Photo editing using Adobe Photoshop 7.0

Playing Ragnarok Online (Recommended Requirements Windows XP OS, CPU with 700 Mhz or higher, 256 MB RAM, DirectX 3D Support, VGA card with 32 MB video Memory, DirectSound equivalent/3D Surround Sound Support)

Playing Command and Conquer Generals (System Requirements Windows XP OS, CPU with 800 Mhz or higher, 128 MB RAM, DirectX 8.1 video and sound Support, NVidia GeForce 2 or higher)

My questions are:

1. Is the Pentium D 820 technically much more superior than the 64 X2 3800+? I want to know if that extra $50 is really worth it, or if they're almost the same quality, and it's just brand preference.

2. Based on the the tasks I'll be running on said computer, I've configured my selection to have 1 GB RAM (I'll add the extra RAM later; $120 is too steep for another 1 GB) and an NVidia GeForce 7500LE 256 MB video card (because there was no option for a GeForce 7600). With a Windows Vista Home Premium OS, will my PC be really, really slow without 2 GB RAM, or will it be even able to load up at all?

I wanted to get a Windows XP OS PC, but every single PC outlet out there now runs Vista (geez...).

3. If you know of another place where I can get a PC with the same configurations as I'm looking for with a lower price tag, please feel free to recommend. Here's my prefered PC specs:

Dual-Core CPU
1 GB of RAM
256 MB Video Card (supports DirectX 9 and 10)
Windows XP or Windows Vista OS
Hard Drive at least 120 GB

Thanks.    

[Calum]

I'm not too keen on HP myself, but knowing nothing about US dealers or pricing I can't recommend a better or cheaper option.
The Athlon is superior to the Pentium there.
As far as graphics go, that's a pretty basic card.
You'd be better off with the X1700, but that takes you over the budget.
Dell isn't good for gaming PCs in my experience.
I'd say 1Gb of RAM should be fine with Vista, but hopefully someone who knows a bit more about Vista will be able to confirm or deny that.
AFAIK it will be a little slower than you may expect, perhaps equivalent to 512Mb of RAM with XP.
Depends on how much eye candy you enable with Vista.
Anyway, they're two fairly good PCs, the Athlon-based one is better.
You may be able to get a better deal, you may not, as I'm from the UK I haven't a clue.
Hopefully that helps you out a little anyway.
Oh, one last thing.
Consider reusing some parts from your old PC if it is possible, it may save you some ca$h.
Edit: spelling mistake.

[WillyW]

http://www.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/e510_nseries?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

if you don't need to buy WinXP again.

[Calum]

Hey, nice find.
I found that with Stumbleupon a few days ago and though it was pretty cool.
However, they seem to me to be expensive still, even without an OS, and the graphics capabilities are quite poor so they're no good for games.
The X1300 Pro offered may offer the performance needed for the games mentioned, but no more - it's not a gaming card.
Plus it takes the price over $700.

[WillyW]

However, they seem to me to be expensive still, even without an OS,

Yes. Not cheap.   But in the ball park.

and the graphics capabilities are quite poor so they're no good for games.

No comment.   Can't.   I'm not a gamer.   If I was needing/wanting high powered graphics cards,  I'd be here asking for advice.  

The X1300 Pro offered may offer the performance needed for the games mentioned, but no more - it's not a gaming card.
Plus it takes the price over $700.

I didn't really experiment with all the options,  but you can customize the system somewhat.   By reducing an option or two,  you can lower the price a bit.   Whether or not it could be manipulated enough to fit his budget -  he'd have to play around with it to determine that.

It was just an idea to toss out there.

[Calum]

You're right, you can reduce the price a little.
I didn't realize, usually customize options start with the lowest priced and worst component selected automatically, so the price is as low as possible.
Trust Dell to do it differently.
In this case, they may be an option . . . I got one for about $650 with the X1300 by lowering the HDD capacity and choosing a cheaper monitor.
It's definitely something for the OP to play about with a little, see if they can find something that suits them.
Nice one.

[xKeiyax]

Well, I'd rather not use Aero that much, or whatever it's called. I just want to know if Vista will run halfway decent with only a gig of RAM.

Anyways, thanks for the replies.

I don'twant to get the Dell PC, because it's ridiculously overpriced for something with those specs.