On 12/21/2010 4:59 PM, Von Fourche wrote:
"Christopher wrote in message
t...
On 12/21/2010 4:14 PM, Von Fourche wrote:
"Christopher wrote in message
t...
On 12/20/2010 7:59 PM, Von Fourche wrote:
A relative of mine needs a new tower PC and some other relatives
are
chipping in to buy her a low priced one. We found
an E Machine. It comes with Windows 7. I'm on XP and know nothing of
anything beyond Windows 7. I know my Dell is rock solid.

It comes with an AMD Sempron 145 2.8GHz processor and 2GB of RAM.

Will my relative get decent performance from this kind of machine?
All
she
does is surf the net, pay bills, and do email, and maybe watch video on
netflix. Her son does gaming on his x-box along with netflix.


This PC tower is going for around $295 at Wal Mart.

Thanks



$298 walmart emachines EL1352G-01w with amd sempron 145 (passmark 916),
2gb (1gb in each of two available slots), 500gb 7200rpm sata, 16x dvdrw,
geforce 6150se graphics (g3dmark 53), media card reader, gigabit
ethernet,
windows 7 home premium 64, 1 year warranty (unclear if it is on site).
http://www.walmart.com/ip/eMachines-...G-01w/15062989

$349 dell inspiron 570 (shipped free) with amd anthlon x2 240 (passmark
1591), 3gb (1gb in three of four available slots), 500gb 7200rpm sata,
16x
dvdrw, ati hd4200 graphics (g3dmark 147)), media card reader, gigabit
ethernet, windows 7 home premium 64, 1 year on site warranty
http://www.dell.com/us/p/inspiron-57...d=inspiron-570

the $350 dell is their lowest cost machine and it is a good entry level
configuration. but there is no mistaking that $350 is both $50 and 16%
more than $300. what it buys you is a 50% faster processor, a 300%
faster
video card, and little more memory which helps the overall




How bad is the Sempron compared to the athlon? I've not dealt with
those
cheaper processors before. Whenever I get a computer I make sure it has
a
good processor.


as previously stated, the anthlon is 50% fater than the sempron in these
particluar machines. plus the video card is 300% faster in the $350
machine. the slow machine will work, but it doesn't offer the as much
potential in a long usable life.

what machine are you used to using? what model and processor? in order
for any comparison to be meaningful you must have a reference.



Heck, I don't know anymore. It's a Dell. It's rock solid and does for
me. I don't play games on it though.
I'm looking at the Device Manager and see Intel Pentium 4 3.000Ghz.
Manufacture date tag on my computer is
12/2005. Wow. I had no idea my computer is five years old.


a p4 3ghz has a passmark rating of 491. the sempron 145 has a passmark
of 916, and the anthlon ii x2 24o has a passmark of 1591. and a
mid-range machine today with something like an i5 680 would have a
passmark of 4,223 and high performance machines would weigh in with
passmarks 6,000 to 9,000 range. these numbers represent a very rough
way to compare the performance between different machines. the bottom
line is that the sempron is totally functional, but the anthlon system
mentioned along with the much better video card and additional memory
sockets makes it a much better value. but $50 is $50 and if that means
the difference between their being food on the table or not then who
cares how fast the computer is...