processor vs. RAM --- help please?

sorry, but i forgot to add a little something.

As i said, i'm ******** when it comes to anything tech, but would it be worth it to buy the slower processor, then have a friend of mine overclock it slightly?

This is a case of bottleneck management.

At some point, your processor isn't going to be fast enough for what you want, and at some point, you are going to find that you don't have enough ram for you requirements.

If you invest in the processor now and forsake the ram, then if you find out that the ram is not enough, you can simply add more. Make sure that whatever system you get has enough slots for more ram - but whatever ram size you choose, make sure that it is in two sticks. So if you get a 1GB system, make sure it is in two 512Mb sticks of DDR ram, and that there are two more slots that can be used. Having two sticks allows the system to access both simultanously, and enhanced performance over a single stick.

This means that doubling your ram is easy.

If you do things the other way around, by filling out your ram but underspeccing the processor, then your options are to take out the processor that is installed, and binning it for a faster one - which will ultimately only ever be a few percent faster than the one you are chucking.

So in buying a system where the cost is weighted toward the processor, you have a fairly clear upgrade path.

As for overlocking, getting a slower processor in the hope that you will clock it faster - well you may well have luck. The problem is that you may not have luck, and diagnosing an error caused by overclocking is a difficult business, as they tend to masquarade as driver errors, or memory errors or whatever. On a windows system, you get a blue screen of death and a lot of wondering about whether it was the last bit of software you installed or the overclock.

Having said that, getting a faster processor doesn't prevent overclocking - all processors can be overclocked to some degree. If you are going to overclock, then at least start from a position where if it doesn't work for you, you won't feel like you lost out.

Finally, buying extra ram from Dell is not always the cheapest or best quality option. You may be better buying the 1Gb then hunting around for a good deal on some Corsair TWINX.

koan

I rambled around looking for a replacement for my Dell 8200. I would have upgraded the ram and been happy but the cost to buy Dell ram was a bit of a shock when other machine's ram was really reasonable. So I looked around and came up with an HP a1540n with 19" flat panel monitor for right at about $800.00 after rebate. (We have two Compaqs that operate really well, one locally made to order machine that works really well, and one Dell 8200 that works really well also but needed a ram increase. They all work well) The HP a1540n has dual core AMD 64, 2g ram,
250 hard drive sata, cd/dvd writer, front side usbs, firewire, 9 card reader, some room for expansion, and I saw it before I bought it. I didn't have to do mail order. This is our first HP. Still works great after two months. No problems. Have wireless network setup.
I complained about having to pay sales tax and the guy gave me $50.oo off on an HP all in one printer that I wanted. Everything flows well together. I recommend looking around before getting locked into just buying "a Dell".

If you're not a builder, and don't plan on building, DELL is not a bad choice. I've had 5 and had good service.
I have just completed an E 6300 build. 1 Gig will be fine as long as you choose a very good Video Card with whatever system you choose. Don't choose Intergrated Graphics as your option. In my benchmark tests, I have found that onboard graphix will utilize a little too much RAM and elevated the CPU temperature with the C2D systems. The 6600 is the sweet spot.
You won't be overclocking for two reasons: Intel and DELL. Believe me, you won't need to overclock with a C2D.