Core2 Duo or stay with my AMD X2 64

[Art Vandelay]

I have had some problems with my Media Center and the store has offered to exchange it for a Intel Media Center PC at no exta cost. Below are the details for the 2 systems;

Present system:

HP Media Center 2005 XP Pro
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 +4600 2.4GHZ
RAM: 1GB DDR2
HDD: one 300GB SATA drive
Video Card: NVIDIA 7500 256 MB RAM PCI-16
Drives: DVD+R/RW DL and RAM, and a DVD ROM

I have had some trouble with the above system (DVD writer, media center)

This is the system they offeed me as a replacement:

HP Media Center
Operating System: 2005 Media Center XP Pro, Free copy of Vista also
Processor: Intel Core2 Duo E6400 2.13 GHZ 2MB L2 Cash 1066MB FSB
RAM: 2 GB DDR2
HDD: 2 300GB SATA drives for a total of 600GB's
Video card: NVIDIA 7500 256 MB PCI-16
Drives: DVD+R/RW DL RAM, and a DVD-ROM
Wireless LAN built into system, duel Tuner for Media Center I have sat. so doesn't matter.

Basically the diff. is the 2 HDDS in the Intel system, more RAM and the Intel processor. I see my curent AMD processor is 2.4 GHZ and the Intel one is 2.13GHZ.

Opinions please, the 2 HDD system would be nice for DVD-RB and extra 1GB of RAM is nice. I need to let the dealer know by tomorrow afternoon Mar 15/07.

[volfann]

The extra Ram and HDD sure do sweeten the deal if it was me. Plus the fact I like Pentiums.

[soup]

Drives: DVD+R/RW DL RAM, and a DVD-ROM

Do you keep yours or are these different, if so what are they?

[Art Vandelay]

@Soup

they get it all back and I get the new system. The previous drives were Samsung light scribe. The RW RAM drive is a GSA-H30L light scribe Made by LG I believe, I was reading online something about it being a SATA drive? I know of SATA HDD's but a burner?? The other drive is a DVD-ROM probably by LG also. I see someone already had a problem buring at 16X with ImgBurn then updated frimware at HP and they could burn at 12X with no problems. I never go above 8X. LG is pretty good though. What are your thoughts on the processor? I like the 2 300BG HDDA SATA and an extra 1 GB of RAM DDR2

[soup]

The obvious choice on paper is definitely the new one, but I would definitely get some help from Chewy or NightTran as regards to the burners & maybe even find out if you have an option list as to what you can get.