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Sharky Extreme : Monthly Extreme Gaming PC Buyer's Guide |
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Monthly Extreme Gaming PC Buyer's Guide |
October 2002 Extreme Gaming PC Buyer's Guide - Page 4By Bao Ly October 3, 2002System Memory
With Pentium 4's being so memory bandwidth hungry, and with the Asus P4T533C being able to take full advantage of high-end RDRAM, it was a natural decision to go with the highest grade 184 pin PC1066 RIMM. While most high-end machines are packing 512MB of RAM, we felt that the Extreme machine should pack 1GB, so that memory upgrades will never be an issue throughout the lifecycle of this machine.
Realizing that 1GB will be enough to last for a very long time, we decided that going with the more affordable 256MB RIMM's X 4 was a more viable solution than spending unneeded funds towards a 512MB X 2 solution. The money saved would be contributed elsewhere to balance out the machine.
High quality DDR DIMMs tend to cost more than the generic type, but a pair of these 512MB beauties from Corsair is worth it, especially with the neat looking heat spreaders that come preinstalled on each DIMM. Corsair has long been known for their high quality DRAM products, so it's no surprise that we've gone to them for the AMD Extreme machine. No one wants to be stuck with generic or lower quality RAM, and for the sake of overclocking, having DDR 400 modules (PC3200) ensures that the RAM will not be the bottleneck. With 1GB being the goal for total system memory and the limitation of only being able to use four banks (double sided memory * 2) we were sure to snag 2 x 512-MB. .
In the previous guide, costs prohibited the Intel system from going RAID 0, and still fall within the $4000 limitation, but this month it's a different story. Both Extreme PCs will be able to run in RAID 0 mode, but the Intel system has to have an extra IDE Raid controller installed at a cost of $92. Once again both systems are capable of supporting ATA-133 drives, and in the case of the AMD system, Serial ATA drives. However there aren't any Serial ATA drives available on the market at the moment, and in terms of standard IDE drives, the Western Digital Special Edition drives with 8MB cache; spinning at 7,200 RPM, with a slightly antiquated ATA-100 interface still outperform the rest of the IDE field. Another positive note about these Special Edition drives from Western Digital is the 3-year warranty that they still carry. As of October 1, 2002, most hard drive manufacturers are reducing their standard warranties on hard drives from 3-years to 1-year. So the Extreme system will have fastest drives, coupled with the industries longest standard warranty.
Cost: $41
This is a gaming machine primarily, but with the soundcard, speakers, and monitor that are going to be included, one might be inclined into watching a few DVD movies here and there. DVD movies are a good distraction especially when you have a deadline to meet but need a 2 hour break. The price difference between a standard CD ROM versus a DVD ROM is not too great, therefore opting for a DVD ROM in the high end gaming machines is a viable option. For DVD ROM drives, there are few better drives out there than this Toshiba 16X DVD ROM. This drive is tray loading drive, which is much more compatible with the smaller sized discs (200MB mini CD's, and 20MB business card type CD's) than their slot loading competition. Toshiba has been a longtime industry leader in optical drives, and this drive is no exception. It's a speedy 16X DVD ROM reader, as well as a not too shabby 48X CD ROM reader, and to top it all off it can read DVD-RAM discs. The technical specs are also impressive, with its 85ms access times, and 512K buffer.
Current Cost: $99
Sure there are PC-DVD recorders available now, but the adoption rate on them is still quite low, and prices on drives and media have prohibited the average consumer from purchasing them en masse. Although this is an extreme guide, there's still little point in spending big bucks on a component that will be not utilized as well as a CDRW drive. Having said that, nothing but the best CDRW drive will do, and that in our opinion is the TDK 48/24/48 Velo CD ReWriter. Boasting 48X write speeds, and 24X re-write speeds (16X until 24X media is available), 48X CD reading speeds, and 48X Digital Audio Extraction speeds. This drive is a beast. TDK 48/24/48 offers some of the fastest speeds in all areas, and although it only has a 2MB buffer, coasters are averted with the built in buffer under-run protection technology. The included software is impressive as well; the Nero Express software not only does the conventional CDR/MP3 work, but even lets you to convert your digital media into the VCD format that is playable on most set top DVD players. This drive is still an SE favorite, and the recent price drop on it has only increased its ranking with us.
What can we say about the venerable floppy disk drive? Sometimes you just need one, especially when a pesky NIC requires drivers that are supplied on a floppy.
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