I crunch numbers. Should I buy a gaming computer or a media center computer?

I am going to be buying a new desk top computer. Obviously, I'll do dual core.





I do a lot of number crunching and haven't been able to determine if I'd be better off with a gaming computer or a media center computer. Does the choice make a difference to number cunching (statistical analysis, simulations, data mining)?





I'm not a novice to computing, but way short of being an expert like I know some of you are. I'd like some opinions and I'd love to hear your reasoning, too. And if you have specific suggestions as to what I should I should make a priority, it would be great to have that too.

I crunch numbers. Should I buy a gaming computer or a media center computer?
A media center computer should be fine. Just upgrade to little more ram and you should be fine!! So if it has 512 mb, upgrade to 1 gig
Reply:First of all, both of those are going to have high-end video cards, which you do not need. Your number crunching will mostly involve text (and low-end text, at that).


Your best bet is probably a custom computer. Go for at least 512 MB RAM, a fairly low-end video card, and really anything you want after that. That should save you money on both the RAM and the video card (unless you think you need more than 512 MB RAM to do number-crunching).


With that setup, you'll not be playing any games...and your videos will be minimal. But it'll run.
Reply:Any entry level system will do number work efficiently. You do not need the extra oomph of the gaming or media systems - unless you have a second purpose for the system. You can get your job done for around $650.
Reply:In the long run, I'd go with a gaming machine, but there really isn't much difference as long as the processors are the same. I really think that the Media Center has a lot of bloatware that could ultimately slow you down.
Reply:you need ram and cpu power, video card (the meat of a gaming machine) ain't gonna help you crunch numbers.
Reply:well hard to say what to choose without know the hardware of those 2 choices, since a gaming machine will have some serious power behind it dedicated hardware for gaming, and great soundcard and parts and will proberly cost double the cost of a media pc, since that means it will contain an ok graphics card and medium to rubbish soundcard, ok processing power and ram.


this should about cover it.
Reply:dual core dose not mater. windows xp does not know how to utalize it but vista will and besides vista will still have a lot of errors and incomplet parts. windows always does. so i would just look at ram hardrive and processor. pentium 4 3.0 ghz will be fine.