I'm trying to buy a new computer for myself for Christmas, but I need some advice on which PC to get.?

Those of you who know me will know that I know almost nothing about hardware. Therefore, it has me worried when I am to pick my own PC for Christmas. I have compiled a list of possible PCs, and here they are:





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Dell Inspiron 531: http://tinyurl.com/ytuh8k





Packard Bell 2411: http://tinyurl.com/ysvksd





Advent T9508: http://tinyurl.com/23flb5





Packard Bell 2411 (different monitor): http://tinyurl.com/29t674





Compaq SR5027: http://tinyurl.com/yqvwcj





EI System 307 (Big Monitor is a plus): http://tinyurl.com/2fh6zv





Advent T9408: http://tinyurl.com/2bwgyr





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... which should I get?





I would like to be able to play new(ish) games and be able to multitask with many programs open. With regard to the games, I don't mind low graphics quality, as long as they will run.





So, disregarding OSes, since I do have some OS CDs anyway, which PC should I get?

I'm trying to buy a new computer for myself for Christmas, but I need some advice on which PC to get.?
playing games depends mainly on the graphics card, and a little bit on the cpu/ram.





the inspiron can come with a 256MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8600GT which is pretty good, but of course when you select better parts the price goes up :)





The packard bell comes with a nVidia GeForce 7500 LE Graphics. I have a 7600GS (a baby step above this) and I can run most games reasonably (never on full graphics with HD lighting) but the next wave of games (starting with Crysis) run pathetically. Don't get this one.





The advent is even worse, with a 128MB Nvidia GeForce 7300 LE.





The compaq is worse again! :P You want an nvidia or ati graphics card. Intel GMA 950 Graphics will get you nowhere :)





EI system is also an intel rubbish card.





advent (last one on the list) is worse than the previous advent with a 128MB nVidia GeForce 7100GS Graphics.





So - dell looks the best, but I bet it'll blow the price out a bit.





I selected the dell, customize and buy, then selected the middle InspironTM 531 Gold (with the better processor), then customized it to have 2048 RAM (Vista runs like a dog on 1024. DEFINITELY get 2048/2gb ram) and added the best graphics card and it came out at 530. Not too far over budget?





In summary - 2gb ram as a minimum. 1gb will be a huge dissapointment.





Good graphics card = playing games for a while to come. Cheap graphics card = brand new games and future games will be ugly as sin/completely unplayable.