I'm getting a new computer and don't know which processor to go with, I'm pretty computer illiterate.

The main uses of this would be for web surfing multiple pages at once, watching videos online and for poker. For poker I plan on getting Holdem Manager (I multitable usually 6 tables at once for long sessions) and have seen people complain that they needed to upgrade their computers after getting it due to it slowing down their systems, I've never had it and want to make sure I get something which can handle it fine.

The computer is a Dell Inspiron 546 desktop.
comes standard with.

processor AMD Sempron LE-1300, 2.3GHz 800MHz 512kb

Memory 2GB Dual channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz -2DIMMs

Hard drive 320GB Serial ATA Hard drive 72000rpm with data burst cache.

I figure I'm fine with the memory and HD but on the processor they offer upgrades, the first two options are.
1) AMD Athelon LE-1660 2.8GHz 800MHz 512kb , and costs $30 extra

2) AMD Athelon X2-7550 2.5GHz 1066MHz 3MB , costs $50 extra

Is it worth upgrading to the more expensive processor? which one? is there a point in upgrading or is the standard one fine?

Not sure on the processor but definitely get 4GB memory if you can.

Why, what's that do? make it faster? it has a 320gb HD

Yes, it makes it faster.

Are you buying new? It sounds like you are. If so this is like a bottom of the barrel new PC and I would recommend getting something better if you wanna multi-task with it. You should be looking for a dual-core or quad-core processor and 4 gigs of ram. The hard drive in the above specs is pretty standard for today's PCs but when it comes to speed it isn't nearly as important as the other things.

Also do your research and don't just buy some prepackaged PC from a big box store. There's lots of deals out there. You may be able to get a superior used machine for less if you search kijiji etc.

Yeah, the biggest impact on performance in the RAM, by far. the reason is that if the RAMi s not enough, memory pages get written and read from disk eventually. This is a huge performance loss since disk access is several orders of magnitude slower than memory access.

So I would certainly second the call for more RAM, though at 2GB it should be enough for most tasks.

If you are getting a 32 bit O/S, it will not use up more than 3GB or 3.5 GB, so upgrading to 3GB instead of 4 would be adequate. If you do not know if your O/S is 32 or 64 bit, then it's probably 32 bit (this is the "normal" bit depth).

Also I would recommend getting Windows 7 if you have the chance to. It performs way better than Vista (for starters, it uses less RAM, which alone makes it a faster O/S).

The machine already has a good hard disk, so next in the order would be upgrading the CPU. For $30 jumping from 2.3 to 2.8 GHz seems like a bargain to me.

It is bottom of the barrel, starting price is $269 but then it's $35 for another 1Gb of RAM 2GB is $65 and $30 or $50 for the processor plus $39 shipping and $25 to $30 on tax. I prefer new and my current pc is a dell haven't had problems and the bestbuy ect lower end and are about the same as this.I was just chatting with the Dell rep he sais the X2 is dual core the others are single core so I'm leaning towards that.

Thanks that's pretty clear advice. I think I'm going to go with the 3GB RAM and the X2, because it's dual core it sounds like it's much better than single core. It is 32bit I think and probably upgradeable for free, I'll double check on that.

Good deal, yeah dual core is better, definitely.

As to 32 vs 64 bits: 64 bits is more problematic because you have new problems that do not exist with 32 bits (drivers don't work, some software is now incompatible, etc...). I would stay in 32 bit land unless you have a very good reason for going to 64 (ie, you must have 4+ GB usable RAM, or you will run a program that has compelling advantages under 64 bit).

All things being equal, I'd say stay in 32 bits and spend the extra time playing poker instead of figuring out why your printer won't work :-)

1) Visit The The Computer Technical Help Forum here on 2+2.

2) Read the sticky

3) Make a new post (or the mods should actually move this one. Hint, hint)

4) Build your own. (I was a big Dell fan, just built my own, lots of benefits) It's easy.

--------------Kitty

Just ordered it, ended up switching to the Inspiron 537 because the sales rep was able to get a better deal.

Inspiron Slim-Tower, Intel Pentium dual-core E5200 (2.5GHz, 2MB)
3GB DDR2 SDRAM,800MHZ- 1X2GB 1x1GB
320GB NCQ Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM) w/ 16MB DataBurst Cache

Also got 15 month Mcafee antivirus and Vista 64 bit premium ,this was the key for changing models in order to get the free upgrade to Windows7 coming out in one month (Oct 22nd) I had to go with the 64bit premium, and I'll just upgrade when the new one comes out.

Thanks all for the help.

Oh and the total was $418 after shipping and tax. $349 before.

Didn't realize there was another forum, thanks.

Other than this, the advice is this thread is either wrong or terrible for anyone happening upon it.

Care to enlighten us?

Just noticed this ... have them put 4GB RAM in there if it's not too late. Last report was you were going with 3GB RAM due to the 32-bit OS limitation which is now moot. I am running Vista 64 bit home premium w/4 GB RAM and it's a freaking dream (my last computer had only 1 GB RAM). Also spend a few bucks and buy Avira AV and dump McAfee (see http://www.av-comparatives.org/).

Having gone back and read your initial replies, I apologize to you if you were offended, as your answers were not really bad. And now to answer your question:

The Hard Drive is one of the biggest bottlenecks for multi tabling with HM, so saying its speed isn't nearly as important as other things is IMHO wrong.

The upgrade to 3 gig, not 4 comment has resulted in the unfortunate circumstance of the OP buying mismatched memory sticks. Hopefully he will read this (and your last) comment and be able to rectify this.

The 32 bit vs 64 bit argument would be true a while ago (it can still be made, just in a different way now, but they both have plus and minuses really currently) but is not really that true anymore as stated.

.

Only if you have 64 bit CPU and operating system.

Yes I know in theory a 32 bit system can address 4 GB in the real world it won't. More likely 3.2 or so will be used wasting the rest of the memory.

Unless you have super old software then this isn't a concern.

I have 3gb and wish I had 4. Go with 4. Also, get a bigger HD. I already have 200GB of crap on my HD (which I use primarily for poker), so I would get at least a 500GB HD if you plan on putting all your music, movies, etc on it.

I wasn't offended ... I know I have a lot to learn. Thank you for your explanation.

Will a newer 7200 rpm HDD be sufficient for using HM, or is something like a solid state drive necessary?

Could you explain what mismatched memory sticks mean and its implications? I have 2x2GB memory sticks now, and I suppose it's possible I would want to consider adding an additional 4GB memory later (even though my PC is very fast now for what I use it for) so I'd like to know what I need to consider.

Thanks again!

I phrased things wrong when I said HDs aren't important. I know that HM performance is largely dependent on HD speed but since OP's HD was fine I was trying to emphasize the importance of upgrading the other things since it doesn't make sense to me personally to buy a new PC that will be out of date soon.

For most people and computers, yes, a newer 7200 rpm HDD is sufficient, while a SSD can be a big improvement for bigger databases and a large amount of tables.

Basically DDR2 memory is dual channel which is only taken advantage of with "matched" pairs. The memory can be of different manufacturers and specs, but this is not generally recommended as problems can occur, and timings and whatnot will default to the lesser of the pair. Different sizes though eliminates the dual channel advantage. Admittedly, this is not that big a deal though, as it really will only affect heavy memory intensive processes.

If you're adding memory, the 2 new sticks don't have to match the 2 old sticks nearly as much as they need to match each other. Just keep performance and timing specs around the same, or whichever is better just gets "wasted".