Advice needed on what spec PC to get X2!

[Jimbo2112]

Hi All,

I am going to buy 2 PC's. One for my Mum-in-law and one for me. I have descibed the spec below that we would like.

I want:
Just base unit. Good photo editing power. As quiet as possible. Editing multiple hi-res images on CS2. Multiple apps open at same time with minimal slowness/lag. Good video playback/editing from online sites (u-tube etc). Also considering colour laser printer. Something like core2duo E6600, 2Gb ram, 320Gb drive, 256Mb grafix?

Budget around £5-900 if including the laser printer (I have some bits from current PC to take over)


Mum-in-law wants:
Good dependable system with flat screen, mouse and keyboard. Does not need huge speed, but quiet fastish and flexible will be good. Thinking of Pentium D, 1Gb Ram 160Gb drive, 17-19" monitor, built in grafix and sound, plus colour laser . Would be good for this system to have a smallish footprint as well.

Budget around £500 including laser.

Thanx in advance for the advice!

Cheers

Jimbo

 

[kmcferrin]

Don't bother with a Pentium D. The Athlon 64 X2 CPUs can be had for the same amount of money (or less) and will be considerably faster, run cooler, and draw less power. For that matter, you can probably get an entry level Core 2 (E4300 or something similar) for roughly the same price.

There really is almost no good excuse for buying a Pentium D these days. Maybe if you have an old mainboard and a Pentium D is the fastest CPU that it will take, and you don't have enough money to upgrade any other components or something like that. But even then I would think long and hard before I did it.

 

[Jimbo2112]

Great advice ... thanks!

But, With that in mind, have you a spec, or built machine that you could recommend? I am looking at the deals on eBay or thinking of making up my own machines.

Cheers

Jimbo