Simple familly computer advice needed - intel vs AMD

[indyjones]

Simple family computer advice needed - Intel vs. AMD

Hi all
I need to replace my parents computer as its randomly freezing (even during a windows install) and I cant seem to find the root cause (although it may well be the motherboard).
The machine will be used mostly for office, internet and a very amateur amount of photo manipulation, so does not need to be special in any way as no 3d games will be run (freecell at the most!)
What it does need to be is 100% stable and rock solid so I don’t get any grief

I have found two potential barebones systems which will be by far the simplest solution and here is where I would appreciate some advice on to go intel or AMD.

The AMD system is as follows: Novatech Barebones Bundle Athlon 64 3500, Heatsink And Fan, 1gb 667 Ddr2 Ram, Am2 Nvidia 6100 Motherboard

And the slightly more expensive intel system is: Barebones Bundles - Heatsink And Fan, 1gb Ddr2 667ram, Intel Celeron D 440 Intel G33 Motherboard

The machine will be running XP SP2, although the possibility of easily running vista home premium in the future will be a bonus

Cheers IJ

 

[LordOfLA]

mainstream intel core 2 duo, nvidia 7600/8600, go from there.

 

[Unleashed]

Intel Core 2 Duo.

 

[indyjones]

Thanks for the feedback, but I can't see why they would need a dual core processor solitare is not that demanding…… Also I want to keep the price down

 

[madmatt]

Intel C2D E4300/E4400.

 

[sean.ferguson]

Intel Core 2 Duo E4300, is what I'm using and is a cheap processor (£70)

Or if you really need to keep costs down, Celeron D347 (£25), but I wouldn't advise that.

 

[indyjones]

Thanks all

I am trying to keep the price down and its really good at £116.33 for the AMD system and £151.57 for the Intel

 

[epk]

go for an amd64 single core if u really wanna keep price down (30$ diff with a dual)... and maybe a geforce 7300 (cool if ur running vista...)

 

[indyjones]

Thank for all of your help, in a shock move the parents decided to pay more for the system so I took all your advice and went core 2 duo.
Barebones Bundles - Heatsink and Fan, 1GB DDR2 800Ram, Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 Intel G33 Motherboard

Thank for all of your help
IJ