November Extreme Gaming PC Buyer's Guide - Page 3

Motherboards

Intel Motherboard: DFI LANPARTY 875P-T Retail

As we moved to a new LGA775-based CPU this month, it only makes sense that we upgrade motherboards as well. While it would have been nice to take advantage of one of the new 925XE, 925X, 915P or 915G Express chipsets, this turned out to be unfeasible due to lack of high-end PCI Express graphics cards. Certainly, high-end DDR2 memory is still pricy, but the lack of PCI Express versions of cards like the GeForce 6800 Ultra is really the nail in the coffin. Instead, we stuck with the tried and true Intel 875P chipset, which has been retrofitted for the LGA775 package. Rounding out the i875P feature set is an 800MHz FSB, dual-channel DDR400, Hyper Threading, USB 2.0, and also has integrated RAID support. In addition, the chipset also has exclusive integrated PAT (Performance Acceleration Technology) which boosts memory performance.

Over the years DFI has grown from an unknown motherboard manufacturer to a relatively major player. Their series of high performance LANPARTY motherboards has made a big splash with enthusiast and garnered the company some much-needed headway to compete with the likes of ABIT, MSI and ASUS. This month we are recommending the DFI LANPARTY 875P-T, which is currently one of the best i875P-based motherboards on the market that has support for LGA775 processors. Aside from funky-colored components, the DFI LANPARTY 875P-T has a number of high-end features that we look for in a motherboard. The board has support for 800MHz FSB, and includes 8 USB 2.0 ports, Firewire, 6-channel audio, SATA, and Gigabit LAN. Priced at approximately $169 this motherboard is not cheap, but is well worth it for the top-end performance, LGA775 compatibility, and i875P feature set and compatibility.

AMD Motherboard: ASUS A8V Deluxe WiFi Edition

Current Cost: $130
Months on list: 2
Price Change: -$5

While all eyes are on the nForce4 SLI as the next great Athlon 64/FX chipset, the K8T800 Pro is currently one of the top bets for performance AMD64 chipsets. We are sticking with this chipset again this month, as motherboards based on the nForce4 are not available. While the K8T800 Pro may not have SLI or hardware firewall support, it is still an excellent Athlon 64/FX chipset in its own right. Just like the K8T800 chipset, it has support for Gigabit Ethernet, AGP 8X, dual-channel SATA, and 6- or 8-channel integrated audio. However, the K8T800 Pro has a significantly faster Ultra V-Link north/south bridge link running at 1066MB/s compared to the K8T800 at 533MB/s. Driver support for VIA chipsets is now top notch thanks to years of tweaks and a greater integration through their unified driver package.

This month we are sticking with the same ASUS A8V Deluxe motherboard we used in the previous edition of this guide, and it still shows excellent performance and value for the money. The A8V Deluxe is one of our favorite motherboards, as it comes with a ton of onboard goodies including wireless 802.11g networking and supports both the Athlon 64 and the Athlon 64 FX 939-pin chips. ASUS remains one of our favorite motherboard manufacturers as they are known with producing some of the best boards for AMD and Intel systems, and the A8V Deluxe yet another quality boards from this top tier manufacturer.

The ASUS A8V Deluxe WiFi Edition includes a vast array of onboard features that make it one of the most complete motherboard packages currently on the market. It features dual SATA or ATA RAID, Gigabit LAN, integrated 8-channel audio, ASUS WiFi-g (802.11g wireless), 2000 MT/s HyperTransport Bus, 8 USB 2.0 ports, and 2 IEEE (firewire) ports. The board also takes full advantage of AMD HyperTransport between integrated circuits, and supports dual-channel DDR with both Athlon 64 and Athlon 64 FX processors. Priced at $130, this motherboard is a steal considering the performance, features, and onboard components this board is packing. When purchasing this motherboard it is important to pick up revision 2 as it features a number of enhancements and fixes compared to earlier versions of the board.

System Memory

Corsair XMS 1GB PC-3200 Pro TWINX1024-3200LLPRO (2x512MB)

Current Cost: $325
Months on list: New
Price Change: N/A

When choosing memory for this guide there are a few names that will always stand out above the rest, such as Corsair, Kingston, OCZ and Mushkin. Each of those four manufacturers offer ultra high-end models with superior stability and performance, and are widely available online and in retail. This month we are able to use the same type of DDR memory on both the Intel and AMD systems so it only makes sense that we make a single recommendation for both systems. Corsair XMS PC-3200 Pro memory is a super bet, and is only a minor update to what we have previously recommended across both the Extreme and High-End System Guides.

While the performance benefits of DDR2 over DDR is still questionable, standard DDR is the name of the game on the Intel and AMD side this month. We moved to the Corsair XMS PC-3200 Pro 1-GB matched-pair kit this month as the Pro version of our Corsair XMS has the added benefit of better cooling, and LED activity lights. We prefer to use 1GB matched pair of memory as it offers the benefit of dual-channel performance on both the Intel and AMD platforms. The Corsair XMS 1GB PC-3200 Pro (TWINX1024-3200LLPRO) can be found online for about $325. For those of you with a little extreme money, and a knack for overclocking we recommend going with the PC4000 version of the Corsair memory as it offers greater headroom than PC3200 memory, albeit it at higher timings.