new puter, which one?

[electrickpirate]

New computer, but which one is better?
Both have these common components:

- 1 GB DDR / PC3200 (2 DIMM)
- 400GB 7200 rpm SATA Hard Drive
- 16X max. DVD-ROM
- Double Layer 8X DVD+RW/+R drive
- Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS with front audio ports
- Altec-Lansing VS3151 5.1 Speakers (6 speaker set-up)
- 2 USB 2.0, 1 Firewire ports
- 300 Watt Power Supply
- 3 PCI Expansion Slots (2 available)
- High-speed 56k modem
- Integrated 10/100Base-T networking

AMD Athlon(TM) 64 3700+ operating at 2.4GHz
Total memory slots: 2 DIMM
Front-side bus (processor-dependent) 1600MHz using HyperTransport™ technology with up to 9.6 GB/sec total processor-to-system bandwidth
One 8X AGP slot
256MB DDR NVIDIA GeForceFX(TM) 5500, DVI & TV-Out

or

Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 540 w/HT Technology (3.2GHz)
Total memory slots: 4 DIMM
Front-side bus (processor-dependent) 800MHz
One x16 PCI Express slot
256MB DDR ATI Radeon X600 Pro with TV-Out and DVI

The big differences are the processor, front-side bus speed and video. The AMD is $40 more. This isn’t going to be a big gaming machine, some games though.( games I currently have installed and play: ghost recon, neverwinter nights, sacred, raven shield, and matrix online)
Just looking at speed, I think the AMD is a bit better and I am leaning that way.
Anyone have any facts or experience to help with my decision?

more specifically, is there a big differance in running win xp pro or win xp 64 on a 64 bit proc.? to my understanding(limited as it is) theres no big advantage in running 32 bit software on a 64 bit proc.????

 

[LocKStocK]

Buy mine!

 

[electrickpirate]

do you take HPShopping.com credit cards? lol

 

[Unleashed]

Buy his!

 

[ShepsCrook]

AMD64 3700 beats that P4. Go for AMD. Support Green!

 

[Zedric]

more specifically, is there a big differance in running win xp pro or win xp 64 on a 64 bit proc.? to my understanding(limited as it is) theres no big advantage in running 32 bit software on a 64 bit proc.????

Afaik, the only Win XP 64-bit out (except for the pre-release version) is the one designed for Itanium (IA-64). It won't even run on the AMD 64 (x86_64).

 

[electrickpirate]

yea, i have the pre-release, 1 yr version.
other than an increase due to processor speed and bus speed, will 32 bit apps run better cuz they are on a 64, or does the program code need to be written to take advantage of 64 bit processing?