New Computer Help

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Originally Posted by Husar

The 18.5" that was included was a widescreen as well...
And whether games do or don't support widescreen is completely irrelevant and no reason to go for outdated hardware.

Exactly. A wide screen monitor is desirable for anything from viewing 2 documents next to each other (and then a 22in or 24in monitor is really sweet) to watching movies. Games usually can make use of it if you tweak resolution settings.

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Dual video cards are a waste of money, most of the time a single video card of the next generation will produce higher framerates and cost less, then you get some problems, it's really not supported by all games etc. etc. Overall just something for freaks with too much money or people who want to use them for calculations. Just my opinion but I know a lot of people who agree.

Quite. First of all dual video cards get exactly as much bandwidth as single video cards (still one physical slot), which is more of a bottle neck than the actual speed of the video card. Secondly two single video cards cost slightly more, but can work with double the bandwidth (two phyiscally different slots, you see) and usually are more efficient than double video cards anyways. But Hussar is quite right it is no use buying a double video card for games because of the widely different loads games produce (some benefit much more from a good CPU than from a top-of-the-line video card, especially strategy games).

You can get a HD4870 for $100,- to $150,- wich outperforms many "lesser" double video cards for all but very, very high resolutions (which are way beyond your monitor anyways).

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And Decker, that processor does not sound too good, you should be looking for a 7xxx or 8xxx processor if you want to go Intel, for AMD it would be a Phenom II. Why you seem to insist on HP is a mystery to me.
Oh and that staples link wants me to enter an address and won't let me access the page.

I guess he insists on HP because of the bundled monitor.

Just a few notes:
If you intend to purchase upgrades later (say a bigger/better harddisk) or additional RAM you will want to stay away from HP. At least in my experience the haddisk is very difficult to remove, since it is placed in a very awkward position (centered and placed on its side) which requires an annoying supportive structure which means that a large space of the case is rendered useless for anything but cable routing.

A motherboard with 2 lanes for slotting in RAM is not very nice either. Yes you can upgrade to 8GB. Then you are stuck. It is the same story as with dual video cards. Having for instance 4 lanes means double the bandwidth which means that your 8GB of RAM in 4x2GB performs better than your 8GB in 2x4GB.