Is this a good, or atleast halfway decent, system?

AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual-Core 3800+
1GB DDR2 SDRAM
256MB ATI Radeon X1300 Pro

?

What about,

Pentium® D Processor 805 w/ Dual Core (2.66GHz, 533FSB)
1GB DDR2 SDRAM
256MB ATI Radeon X1300 Pro

?

Thoughts?

I am an AMD fanboy. Get one.

Isn't the former probably cheaper than the latter? Go with it. And I like my AMD.

You might as well get 2 gigs of RAM. Its not going to cost a lot more and it could greatly improve your performance depending on what your going to do. Especially if you plan to really utilize the dual core's capabilities. And I'm a fan of AMD.

AMD. More RAM wouldn't hurt either

.

AMD, but since I can tell you're buying this from an OEM (probably Dell), I'd skimp as much as possible on the RAM then buy it from newegg instead ([url]www.newegg.com)[/url]. Much cheaper, same effect.

Same with videocard.

The 805 is total crap unless you OC, in which case reaching 4.0GHz + is not uncommon. Still, being an OEM, the BIOS will inevitably be crap. So, go with the 3800. The video card is crap. don't plan on gaming with it. It does have a PCI-E slot so like Yoshi said, you can always upgrade. Also, Yoshi is right about the RAM.

[QUOTE=Dj Yoshi]AMD, but since I can tell you're buying this from an OEM (probably Dell), I'd skimp as much as possible on the RAM then buy it from newegg instead ([url]www.newegg.com)[/url]. Much cheaper, same effect.

Same with videocard.[/QUOTE]

^ What he said. Get the absolute bare minimum on RAM/video and upgrade yourself. Unless they have a 'free upgrade to 1gb', or something like that..just make sure you have another pair of slots open for more.


I must be out of the loop -- when did AMD start using DDR2?

Wow, yeah.

I thought that was intel only.

AMD's used DDR2 for a long, long time now. Socket AM2 is DDR2 only.

AMD only started using DDR2 with socket AM2. Before that it was 939, which only used DDR. Doesn't sound like a long time to me, but when did AM2 come out? Wasn't that long ago.

Anyway, of the two options available I would say go with the AMD and take the suggestions of what other people said. Outside of those two options I would get a Core2 Duo.

Alright, that helps.

What would yall say is best 'bang for your buck' vid card out right now?
I'm on a pretty darn tight budget, deffinetly less than $200, less than $150 if at all possible.
Also, I'm leaning stongly towards ATI.

My 9800 has done me so well for so long that I've lost touch with what the current swath of cards looks like.

AM2's been out since like, May dude. Seriously.

Also, I'd suggest saving up another 50-100 dollars and getting a 7950GT or X1900XT for your video card. It'll be worth it in the long run, really worth it.

So four-five monthes? That's considered a "long time" now? You act like everybody immediatly dumped thier systems and went to AM2 the second it came out.

You also realize that the X1300s go for about $100 at the high end, and the X1900XTs and 7950GTs are about $250 at the very low end.

Yes, I do realize this, and 6 months is enough to say a video card has been out a long time, and in fact it's usually when you start seeing signs of the next one (the 7800 came out 9 months after the 6800). I see no reason to say it's not been a long time for the processor range, especially considering you're talking about a universe where your processor becomes outdated in less than a year anyways.