Help with computer purchase

[colslick]

I'm a novice but have enjoyed and envied the technical wealth sharing on this forum and would like to get some advice from the community in making a computer purchase. I am buying a manufacture refurbished item to keep the cost down and will buy an extended warranty to cover beyond the 90 day manufacture coverage. I have decided on an intel processor and have read a lot about the different cores and generations. I just don't have the knowledge to understand the impact of the differences of the features like number of cores, hyper threading and turbo boost etc and how much sdram is needed for a particular processor. I have three choices and thought if I gave you the hardware in each you might have some comments that would help me. They all have; Win home prem 64bit; 750GB 7200 HDD; and integrated graphics. My uses are basic ; web surfing, word processing, photo editing with PS elements, down loading music and home video. The only gaming is with my grandkids on my lab so not too extreme! Here are the three:

#1 intel i3-550 (3.2 Ghz), intel series 5 chipset, 4GB PC3-8500 DDR3
#2 intel i5-650 (3.2 Ghz), intel series 5 chipset, 6GB PC3-10600 DDR3
#3 intel i3-2100 (3.1 Ghz), intel H67 PCH chipset, 4GB PC3-10600 DDR3

There is only a $30. difference between them so performance/reliability is the main factor for me.
One other option just became available to me, it would add $350. to my budget but it might lead me to expand my technical horizons and get into some new areas of interest. I would just ask if the configuration of this hardware has any flaws you might see.

#4 intel i7-2600 (3.4 Ghz), H67 PCH chipset, 8GB PC3-10600DDR3, 1.5 TB 5400 serial ATA HDD, Nvidia G7-445M with 1GB dedicated memory. HDTV tuner and Blu-ray player/burner.

I can feel the techno creep setting in. Thanks in advance for any guidance you can share.

 

[Ken g6]

I'd go with #3, because its integrated graphics are better, and because the chipset will last longer. Supposedly, it should be able to accept Ivy Bridge chips too.

You'd be fine with a Pentium G6xx or G8xx; even a Celeron G530 or higher, by the way.

Edit: P.S. You can get an aftermarket TV tuner and Blu-ray player/burner for any of the systems, for a lot less than $350!

 

[mfenn]

#1 and #2 are the older generation of Intel processors, so you can discount those immediately. #4 has a 5400 RPM drive, which will make the whole computer feel slow. Since you haven't mentioned anything (beyond editing home videos) that would need the extra cores or RAM, I would go with #3.