Yet another "buying a computer" topic Options

[pebkac]

Ok, so I'm buying a new computer. I initially wanted to buy one of the new intel macs, but found that I could be literally getting twice the computer for the same price as one of the new intel iMacs. Thus I've decided on Alienware. My main question is which is better performance-wise:

Intel® Pentium® D Processor 930 withDual Core Technology

or

AMD Athlonâ„¢ 64 3200+ Processor

[pebkac]

Well, the problem is that the AMD that comes on the system that I'm looking at isn't dual core. I also expected Alienware to be a bit overpriced, but they seem to be fairly reasonable compared to dell and gateway now (must be the dell buyout).

I'm looking at gettnig one of these two systems (albeit with a couple of modifications):

http://www.alienware.com/product_detail_pa...ode=SKU-DEFAULT

or

http://www.alienware.com/Configurator_Page...ode=SKU-DEFAULT

I'm leaning more towards the intel system though. Now that I've compared the two, it looks like the Intel is better performance-wise.

Also, I haven't really looked at any other manufacturers other than Dell and Gateway. Any suggestions?