Buying a new PC

I`m in a bit of a fix, my PC seems to be on its last legs and I want to buy something new for under a grand. I have seen this model and am wondering if it is a good deal?

http://www.meshcomputers.com/Default.aspx?PAGE=PRODUCTVIEWPAGE&USG=PRODUCT&ENT=PRODUCT&KEY=197245

As I am not up on PC specs these days could someone tell me whether this is a pretty decent system or not? I cannot really afford to go over a grand but will if I have to to get a decent spec system.

It`s a toss up between this and a MacBook and I cannot decide which way to go. Should I stick with PC`s or should I try something a little different? The MacBook is kinda sexy after all :)

My current specs are a little dated now, I have a 1800XP Athlon processor (1.5ghz) and a Geforce4Ti 4600 graphics card. Woud this new PC be a marked improvement and worth investing in? What`s all this duo core business about? The specs on this PC say 2.40ghz, does that mean you get two times 2.40ghz? As you can see I am completely lost.

When I bought my current PC I did lots of research about it to make sure I got a decent system but I have lost touch in recent years.

Any advice would be most helpful,
Jason.

Do you desperately need a new monitor? Seems like a big chunk of that £1000 is going on the monitor, leaving you with a fairly basic 8600GT ( which is not nearly as good in relative terms as the 6600GT and 7600GT before it were. )

If you don't, Novatech ( for example ) have a PC for £100 less with the 6700 CPU and a 640MB 8800GTS which is a much better videocard. And it comes in a decent Thermaltake case and not one of those cheap crappy cases that Mesh seem to be using.

Its pretty good spec but there's no way I'd buy a PC from Mesh. Heard too many horror stories.

I'd always build my own PCs these days anyway - its so easy there's little point in paying somebody else to do it for you.

I'm no expert on this Core Duo lark either, but the way I understand it - if an application makes use of multithreading then it can do stuff much faster. Without multithreading (Blitzmax apps for instance), applications won't be any faster at all. I've heard that applications can sometimes be slower in this instance but I don't know if there's any truth in it.

that would be a marked improvement over your old PC. EG. my a64 3000+ had a Geforce 3 in for ages, updated to 6600GT 5x speed increase at 1024x760 in games that used shaders.

Upgraded recently again to AGP 7800GS 3-5x speed increase again depending on the video resolution. 5x at 1600x1200 because the 6600 didn't fare too well over 1024x768 and was limited to 128mb vram.

So your upgrade from 4600 should provide an enormously huge update in visuals and performance. shoudl be fun :)

So is it a Mac, or a PC that you're after?

Let me be the first to say: Build it yourself ;)

Except you're second, because I already said it.

:)

I'm third.