March Extreme Gaming PC Buyer's Guide - Page 8

Price Round Up

The Intel System

Case: Cooler Master ATC-201B-SXT Silver/Black -$169
PSU: Antec 430 Watt TruePower -$78
CPU: Intel Pentium 4-3.06 GHz - $560
Cooling: Included - N/A
Motherboard: ASUS P4G8X Deluxe - $227
Memory: Corsair XMS 1GB PC-3200 TWINX1024-3200LL (2 X 512) - $352
Hard Drive: Western Digital 120GB ATA100, 8MB, 7200 RPM X 2- $278
Video Card: AiW ATI Radeon 9700 Pro - $385
Monitor: Mitsubishi 2070SB-BK 22" Diamondtron Monitor - $725
Sound Card: SoundBlaster Audigy2 Platinum w/ Black Face plate - $186
Speakers: Creative MegaWorks THX 5.1 550 Speakers - $279
CD/DVD-ROM: Lite-On 16X Black DVD ROM - $39
CDRW: Lite-On 52X24X52X Black CDRW - $61
NIC: Intel Pro/100 S - $34
Modem: US Robotics External v.92 Faxmodem - $55
Mouse: Logitech MX500 Optical Mouse - $37
Keyboard: Logitech Elite Keyboard - $40
Gamepad: Logitech Wingman Rumblepad - $24
Operating System: Windows XP Pro w/s SP1 - $139
UPS: APC Back-UPS Pro 650VA- $220
Floppy: Panasonic Black Floppy Disk Drive - $10
Miscellaneous: Highpoint ATA > SATA converters - $56

Total: $3,954

The AMD System

Case: Cooler Master ATC-201B-SXt Silver/Black -$169
PSU: Antec 430 Watt TruePower - $78
CPU: Athlon XP 3000+ Barton /w 512K L2 Cache - $565
Cooling: Thermalright SLK800 /w Thermaltake Smartfan2 80mm - $50
Motherboard: ASUS A7N8X Deluxe n-Force2 - $155
Memory: Corsair XMS 1GB PC-3200 TWINX1024-3200LL (2 X 512) - $352
Hard Drive: Western Digital 120GB ATA100, 8MB, 7200 RPM X 2- $278
Video Card: AiW ATI Radeon 9700 Pro - $385
Monitor: Mitsubishi 2070SB-BK 22" Diamondtron Monitor - $725
Sound Card: SoundBlaster Audigy2 Platinum w/ Black Face plate - $186
Speakers: Creative MegaWorks THX 5.1 550 Speakers - $279
CD/DVD-ROM: Lite-On 16X Black DVD ROM - $39
CDRW: Lite-On 52X24X52X Black CDRW - $61
NIC: Intel Pro/100 S - $34
Modem: US Robotics External v.92 Faxmodem - $55
Mouse: Logitech MX500 Optical Mouse - $37
Keyboard: Logitech Elite Keyboard - $40
Gamepad: Logitech Wingman Rumblepad - $24
Operating System: Windows XP Pro w/s SP1 - $139
UPS: APC Back-UPS Pro 650VA- $220
Floppy: Panasonic Black Floppy Disk Drive - $10
Miscellaneous: Highpoint ATA > SATA converters - $56

Total: $3,937

Closing Remarks

In terms of this month's AMD and Intel system configurations, both are about even in terms of overall cost and performance. Aside from AMD losing the usual price advantage it has over Intel, there have been some other interesting changes. We updated the CPU in the AMD system, it's now being driven by an AMD Athlon 3000+ with the Barton core, sporting a larger 512K L2 cache. Now that AMD has their Athlon XP Barton 3000+ on the market, this places AMD powerhouse systems on even ground with those from Intel. The addition of the ATI All in Wonder Radeon 9700 Pro is also very nice, since you won't lose any gaming performance, but gain a TV tuner and some incredible video editing options.

The discontinued Mitsubishi 2060U has been swiftly replaced by the higher end 2070SB-BK that coincidentally fits perfectly into our black and silver Extreme machine. Price drops, and the scarcity of Serial ATA drives forced the inclusion of less expensive Western Digital 120GB Special Edition drives. There were a few other slight upgrades or changes, but in terms of the black-bezel CDRW, DVD and floppy drives, not to mention the black Logitech Elite keyboard, these were done for effect more than to increase performance or quality.

In terms of the future trends, there are plenty of things to look forward to in upcoming guides. ATI is due out with their hot Radeon 9800 Pro, maybe NVIDIA will finally get the GeForce FX 5800 Ultra to mass market, perhaps the first high end 6.1 speakers will be making a debut, and Intel just might release their 800 MHz-FSB processors in conjunction with their upcoming dual-DDR333 Springdale motherboard chipset. As usual, it's open game on hardware and only the best and brightest need apply. So be sure to check back next month to see what's fit for the Extreme Gaming Guide.

* Please note that the prices in our guide do not include shipping costs or taxes. The final system price also reflects a "best case" scenario of finding an online vendor that stocks the majority of internal components, or having access to a number of local computer retailers for system quotes and comparison shopping.