Which computer is better?

[Raknia]

I know I post here a lot asking for help, but I got the cash, and now I need answers for my questions. Alright, so looking through some other posts I saw someone post a few parts, telling them that they were good. Looking at them, they are all in my budget, and look pretty decent. So I threw in some other stuff I wanted, and now I have 2 computers ( I had another one in mind ) to choose from for gaming. Now, before I list the parts, some of the games I want to play are:

Source games - High
MW2 - High
Bad Company 2 - Medium/High
Borderlands - High
GTA IV - High

and the list goes on and on, but these are some.

So here are my two choices

Gaming Computer 1

Mobo: MSI MS-7525 (Boston) - Already own
GPU: ATi Radeon HD 4670 1GB - Already own
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E7600 Wolfdale 3.06GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - $110
RAM: 4GB DDR2 - $100 ( I can post full specs if needed )
PSU: Sunbeam PSU-BKS580-US 580W ATX Power Supply - $25

Gaming Computer 2

Mobo: BIOSTAR A770E3 AM3 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard - $90
GPU: ATi Radeon HD 4670 1GB - Already own
CPU: AMD Athlon II X4 635 Propus 2.9GHz Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor
RAM: 4GB DDR2 - $100 ( I can post full specs if needed )
PSU: Sunbeam PSU-BKS580-US 580W ATX Power Supply - $25

[blue_commet]

The Second pc is better and i would upgrade the gpu as an ati radeon 4670 will most likely barely play GTA 4 and bad company on medium settings, Also those two games wont run on a dual core because a tri-core is a minimum requirement.

[VxT]

PC #2.

MW2, GTA4, BC2 etc. all make use of more than 2 cores, and therefore the AMD Athlon x4 would most likely be better. Although an AM3 motherboard uses DDR3, so you might need to find a suitable AM2+ motherboard, or buy DDR3 memory. I'd suggest getting DDR3 instead just for a little bit of future proofing.

Originally Posted by blue_commet

The Second pc is better and i would upgrade the gpu as an ati radeon 4670 will most likely barely play GTA 4 and bad company on medium settings, Also those two games wont run on a dual core because a tri-core is a minimum requirement.

LIES! Please don't post stuff if you don't know what you're talking about. Yes Quad cores are better for these two, but a tri-core is in NO way the minimum. Depending on GPU, a dual core will run them at a good level of detail.

[Lavans]

PC2. It the CPU is a decent sum faster than the E7600

Originally Posted by blue_commet

The Second pc is better and i would upgrade the gpu as an ati radeon 4670 will most likely barely play GTA 4 and bad company on medium settings, Also those two games wont run on a dual core because a tri-core is a minimum requirement.

That's a partially correct statement. GTA 4 is about 90% CPU bound. The only thing the GPU will affect is the draw distances within the game. Otherwise, he will get the same performance in GTA 4 with the HD4650 as he would a HD5870 on a decent quad core. Also, the E7600 is fast enough to allow anyone with a HD4870 or higher to play BC2 nearly maxed out. But that's not much of an issue since we're all recommending the Athlon II x4 anyway.

[Raknia]

Originally Posted by blue_commet

The Second pc is better and i would upgrade the gpu as an ati radeon 4670 will most likely barely play GTA 4 and bad company on medium settings, Also those two games wont run on a dual core because a tri-core is a minimum requirement.

Right now im playing GTA IV on medium detail with a good 30fps with a Dual-Core 1.80ghz. Plus the GPU is actually pretty decent, but in the future I am planning on upgrading to the 5770.

Originally Posted by VxT

PC #2.

MW2, GTA4, BC2 etc. all make use of more than 2 cores, and therefore the AMD Athlon x4 would most likely be better. Although an AM3 motherboard uses DDR3, so you might need to find a suitable AM2+ motherboard, or buy DDR3 memory. I'd suggest getting DDR3 instead just for a little bit of future proofing.

I am planning on buying DDR3 memory, but for now, ill be using the new 4GB DDR2, plus the other 2GB of memory I have right now.

[kdawgmaster]

Originally Posted by blue_commet

The Second pc is better and i would upgrade the gpu as an ati radeon 4670 will most likely barely play GTA 4 and bad company on medium settings, Also those two games wont run on a dual core because a tri-core is a minimum requirement.

this gave me a good laugh.

for the most part games that u are looking like source games and modern warfare 2 are able to play on a single core pentium4 atleast with a speed of 3.0GH/z so either or CPU will be fine.

For GTA 4 and BFBC2 they are in love with quads, the boost they get out of it from going from even a tri to a quad is pretty amazing but when it comes to GTA4 ur going to need one hell of a powerful system because its also Vram hungry (Vram = video card ram) and it takes ALOT so get atleast a 4870, 5770, or a GTX260 216core and u should be good for all those games

[VxT]

Originally Posted by Raknia

I am planning on buying DDR3 memory, but for now, ill be using the new 4GB DDR2, plus the other 2GB of memory I have right now.

The motherboard for an AM2+ Processor will support DDR2 OR DDR3, so you gotta make your choice before you but it else you'll have to replace your motherboard aswell if you decide to upgrade to DDR3.

If you have already bought the DDR2, then fair enough, just be aware you can't simply put in DDR3 without changing your motherboard.

My point is your motherboard BIOSTAR A770E3 AM3 AMD 770 ATX is a DDR3 board, but you've listed you're going to buy 4GB of DDR2 for $100, get this instead.