Which system?

[stucandu]

Hi, first post.

Two deals I'm looking at.

This one:
Gateway DX4820-05H (Refurbished) Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 2.33Ghz 6GB DDR2 Memory, 640GB SATA II HDD, ATI Radeon HD 4350 512MB, Super-Multi DVD�R/RW, Card Reader, 7.1CH HD Audio, GigaLAN, IEEE1394, Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit (Windows 7 Upgradeable)
Cost is $448 Canadian

Or this one for $699 Canadian. (about a $325 difference after taxes, shipping)

It's a Costco Demo unit:

Intel® Core™ i7 920 processor 2.66 GHz (8 MB L2 Cache) with Hyper-Threading technology
*
9 GB DDR3 SDRAM (maximum 24 GB)

1 TB (1000 GB) Serial ATA, 7200 rpm
*
18x CD-RW\DVD±RW SuperMulti drive with Labelflash™ technology
*
13-in-1 card reader

NVIDIA® GeForce® GT220 (1024 MB on board)

Integrated high-definition audio with 7.1 channel audio support
*
External ports: line-in, line-out, microphone, and speakers

10/100/1000 integrated Gigabit LAN

USB optical mouse

8 USB 2.0 ports (2 front, 6 back)
*
2 IEEE 1394 (1 front, 1 back)
*
2 PS/2 ports (keyboard and mouse)
*
RJ45 Ethernet
*
VGA
*
DVI port
*
HDMI™ port

Microsoft® Windows Vista™ Home Premium, 64-bit

Costco extends manufacturer warranty to 2 years


Will be using for some 3D applications, photo and video editing, and run of the mill stuff, no gaming.

Yeah, I know, go with the i7 unit.

Just more than I wanted to pay.

 

[ulysses35]

i7 will last you longer before needing to upgrade - better performance too. At that price its a very good deal.

 

[EXT64]

What is the warranty on the first unit? If it is short or non-existant, I'd probably go with the second (i7). Only considering the components, the first PC is pretty decent and would probably do a good enough job, but obviously the i7 will be a decent bit faster. On prebuilt (and especially demo/refurb) PCs, the warranty is very important.

 

[arges86]

The i7 is a much better deal i think. For the amount of HD space, and RAM, its a good deal.
Playing games will probably be bottle necked by the GPU.
@ Some point in the future i'd invest in a new graphics card, but the 220 is good (its on par w/ my card, a 8800 GTS and i get solid frame rates at 1920x1080 w no AA)

Also, the i7 920 is highly overclockable. To almost 4.0 Ghz. So that is something to think about when purchasing new hardware

 

[stucandu]

Warranty on the first unit is 1 year from Acer

The second is also 1 year, doubled by Costco and a 3rd year added by using AMEX card for payment apparantly.

I heard the Q8200 is terrible for OC'ing. Although not sure of Acer's BIOS OC capabilities.

Also, socket 775 is EOL, isn't it?

Definitely leaning to the i7 unit. Glad I've got credit.

The Costco Acer is also eligible for the Win7 upgrade.

 

[geofelt]

Grab the i7-920 costco unit before it's gone.

Faster/better cpu
more ram
faster vga card
better warranty.

You could even make money selling it off for parts.

 

[stucandu]

Got it. (i7 unit)
Thanks all

 

[EXT64]

Yep, after hearing the rest of the info I think that is definitely the best choice (i7).

 

[stucandu]

Best answer selected by stucandu.