January Extreme Gaming PC Buyer's Guide - Page 8

Price Round Up

The Intel System

Case: Cooler Master TAC-T01 WaveMaster- $142
PSU: Antec 480W TruePower - $80
CPU: Pentium 4-3.2 GHz Extreme Edition Processor Retail Box - $921
Cooling: Included - N/A
Motherboard: ABIT IC7-MAX3 - $176
Memory: Corsair XMS 1GB PC-3200 TwinX1024-3200LL PC3200 (2x512) - $250
Hard Drive: Two Western Digital 74GB SATA, 10000 RPM w/ 8-MB Cache - $520
Video Card: ATI Radeon 9800XT 256-MB - $433
Monitor: NEC/Mitsubishi DP2070SB-BK 22" Diamondtron Monitor - $608
Sound Card: Creative SoundBlaster Audigy2 ZS Platinum - $162
Speakers: Logitech Z-680 5.1 - $284
CD/DVD-RW: NEC 8X DVD+RW/-RW ND-2500A OEM - $121
NIC: Included - $0
Modem: US Robotics External v.92 Faxmodem - $58
Mouse: Logitech MX700 Optical Mouse - $55
Keyboard: Microsoft Multimedia Natural Keyboard OEM - $20
Gamepad: Saitek P3000 Wireless Pad - $39
Operating System: Windows XP Pro w/s SP1 - $135
UPS: APC Back-UPS Pro 650VA- $66
Floppy: Generic Black Floppy Disk Drive - $8

Total: $4,078

The AMD System

Case: Cooler Master TAC-T01 WaveMaster - $142
PSU: Antec 480W TruePower - $80
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 FX-51 Retail - $748
Cooling: Included - $0
Motherboard: ASUS SK8V Retail - $209
Memory: Corsair XMS 1GB ECC Registered DDR PC3200 TwinX1024RE-3200LL (2x512) - $287
Hard Drive: Two Western Digital 74GB SATA, 10000 RPM w/ 8-MB Cache - $520
Video Card: ATI Radeon 9800XT 256-MB - $433
Monitor: NEC/Mitsubishi DP2070SB-BK 22" Diamondtron Monitor - $608
Sound Card: Creative SoundBlaster Audigy2 ZS Platinum - $162
Speakers: Logitech Z-680 5.1 - $284
CD/DVD-RW: NEC 8X DVD+RW/-RW ND-2500A OEM - $121
NIC: Included - $0
Modem: US Robotics External v.92 Faxmodem - $58
Mouse: Logitech MX700 Optical Mouse - $55
Keyboard: Microsoft Multimedia Natural Keyboard OEM - $20
Gamepad: Saitek P3000 Wireless Pad - $39
Operating System: Windows XP Pro w/s SP1 - $135
UPS: APC Back-UPS ES 500VA- $66
Floppy: Generic Black Floppy Disk Drive - $8

Total: $3,975

Closing Remarks

After a brief hiatus the latest Extreme PC Buyer's Guide is complete, bringing with it a bunch of new upgrades, including the Pentium 4 3.2 GHz Extreme Edition and Athlon 64 FX 51, which are two incredibly fast and very expensive processors. Western Digital has expanded their line of impressive 10,000 RPM SATA drives to include a higher capacity 74GB model, and slapping two of these puppies in a RAID 0 array offers screaming performance, offsetting their high cost. We've also shifted a few audio components around, and the end result of the changes in this guide is an extremely high-performance system for both Intel and AMD aficionados. We did exceed the budget for the Pentium 4 system, but we felt it was worth it to get the extra performance of the Extreme Edition processor.

This year is looking to be a great one for new computer hardware. Intel will be releasing their new Prescott based chip soon, and AMD is likely to make a few speed increases to their new Athlon 64 and Athlon 64 FX line. In addition there are a number of motherboards on the horizon for both platforms, so things should heat up again as we see Prescott released. In the first quarter we are likely to see NVIDIA and ATI unveil their next-generation graphics architectures, and if the rumors are any indication, we may have a real battle on our hands this time around.

* 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.