Which computer should I get?

I have a budget of $500 (a few dollars over is no big deal, but want to keep it in the $500 range). I would like an i5 processor or something comparable. Little to no video games will be played on it. Mainly for email, photos (around 30 gigs and growing), web surfing, and possibly Skype. I found a couple that seem to fit the budget and seem to be good deals. What do you think of them? If you have any other recommendations that would be great! Thanks!
One question, is the fact that the first one has a graphics card going to make it faster (or even it out), even though the CPU benchmarks are quite a bit lower than the second one?
CyberPowerPC GU6035 Gaming PC – ATX, AMD FX 4100 3.6GHz, 8GB DDR3, 1TB HDD, DVDRW, 1GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 610, Keyboard/Mouse, Windows 8 64-bit
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4959030&Sku=
Dell Inspiron 660 Desktop PC – 3rd Gen. Intel Core i5-3330 3.00GHz, 8GB DDR3, 1TB HDD, DVDRW, Windows 8 64-bit, Keyboard & Mouse, (i660-5629BK)
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=8036993&Sku=
Answer #1
buying individual parts is better those systems
Answer #2
but what if you never assembled a system ? Also, prebuilt boxes come with an OS preinstalled … bottom line :
if you are mainly looking to browse, open photos etc. then you do not need a fully loaded graphics card , RAM and HDD speed as well as CPU frequency is the key here… also : leave AMD out , Intel has more performance when it comes to non multimedia … http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7712498&CatId=2627
That looks like a decent machine , but dont expect anything if it comes to multimedia … videos and games …
Answer #3
Thanks . The machine is for my grandparents. They might possibly play movies on it, but I don’t think their current Pentium 4 machine has a graphics card either.
Answer #4
well then, get the one posted above, integrated graphics should be ok to play movies on that ,6gb ram will support it, not too sure about 1080 rips tho …
Answer #5
Although you can build those PCs for half the $$ they cost if you buy each part individually and build it your self, Else I’d go with Dell’s i5. Powerful PC.
A prime example is my rig; Ready does it cost around 1700$, Custom (Built my self, individual parts) did cost around 500$.
Make sure to remember that the integrated graphics do use memory of RAM, leaving less RAM for system to use, so even if you have 4GB installed for example, System will just be using 2,8-3,0GB of the RAM, the rest will be dedicated to GPU. (By default, it is 64mb dedicated, but in order for you to playback 1080p, You’ll need to feed the GPU with more memory via the BIOS/UEFI, preferably 1GB).