Hey I can't decide if i should get a new Dell Dimension 9150 with a Intel® Pentium® D 820 @2.8GHZ or a Pentium 4 650 one @3.4GHZ I use my computer for video editing and music mainly but i cant really see which is better should i wait till the Dual Core processors are more reliable or buy now so im equiped for the future! Anyone know what processor is better performance wise?

A real Penium is ALWAYS better than a similar speed Celeron. End of story.

I don't know where GXI got Celeron from as the "Pentium D" is a pentium just a dual core. I would get the dual core out of those two because it is cheaper and better for what you do. If you wait a little while though you may be able to get one even cheaper when the new cores come out.

Equiped for the future?----Yes Future Proof?-------Not likely You're getting a Dell. That means very very limited upgrade options down the road. Be prepared to be obsolete within a year. I'd definately go with the P-D if those are your options. That will at least give you another six months.......maybe.

would you say the speeds of performance are similar? like is 3.4Ghz of the pentium 4 much better/less than the 2.8GHz of the pentium D?

Do you one better go with the Pentium D 920 Presler core that just came out on the 65nm. It outpreforms the Pentium D 820 thanks inpart to it's larger split L2 cache and VT technology. It's only 25 dollars more. The only thing you need to do is get a Bios update on the 945/955x boards after you install it to take full advantage of this chip. The 975x boards comes out of the box ready for these chips. AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ 2GB Dual Channel DDR 3200 Nvidia 6800GT SATA II 250gig 7200rpm 8mb cache Gigabyte Nforce 4 SLI

Quote agpdy "i cant really see which is better should i wait till the Dual Core processors are more reliable " They are pretty reliable as it is already. Note that the dual core 8xx series didnt get so good a review (silentPCreview) and the 650 reviews were actually better. but then to answer your question, based on the work you do i will get the dual core. Quate GXI, "A real Penium is ALWAYS better than a similar speed Celeron. End of story." Celeron???`....you lost me here man quote Jam "I would get the dual core out of those two because it is cheaper" Definately not cheaper!! infact more expensive looking critically at unit price/Mhz. Custom Built 2.8Prescott @ 3.6Ghz, 32/64bit,HyperThreading. WaterCooled. Asus P5ND2-SLI nVIDIA 6600TD 2G DualChannel PC4300 Win XP Pro