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Sharky Extreme : Monthly Extreme Gaming PC Buyer's Guide |
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Monthly Extreme Gaming PC Buyer's Guide |
April Extreme Gaming PC Buyer's Guide - Page 2By Ryan "Speedy" Wissman April 1, 2005
Current Cost: $1,065 Last month, Intel finally introduced their long-awaited update to the Prescott core which includes a whopping 2MB of L2 cache, and full support for 64-bit instructions (Intel EM64T). It comes as no surprise that the Pentium 4 Extreme Edition line of processors were among the first to benefit from this new core, in the form of a 3.73 GHz CPU. Intel's new 64-bit capable core also has support for the 1066MHz FSB, and now features Execute Disable Bit, which is more commonly known in the AMD world as Enhanced Virus Protection. No matter its name, this feature enables hardware DEP (Data Execution Prevention) in Windows XP machines that have SP2 installed. In addition, the new Extreme Edition CPU is built on a 90nm process, and supports Intel's LGA775 PCI Express chipsets. In terms of performance, the Pentium 4-3.73 GHz Extreme Edition is not only able to keep up with AMD's Athlon 64 FX-55, but is also able to best it in some media intensive applications such as video encoding and decoding. Featuring Intel's much touted LGA775 packaging, the Pentium 4-3.73 GHz EE maintains many features of the Prescott-based EE with a few noticeable exceptions and improvements. The 3.73 GHz edition now has support for the 1066MHz FSB, includes a full 2MB of L2 cache, and features full 64-bit support.
Priced at an incredible $1,065, this processor occupies over one quarter of our entire Intel budget and is a luxury only our Extreme Guide can handle. The Pentium 4-3.73GHz EE is very expensive, but our $4000 budget has more than enough room to accommodate this CPU, especially considering its enhanced gaming performance over standard Pentium 4 processors.
Current Cost: $805 Lately, AMD has been relatively quiet on the CPU front, as preparations continue for the highly-anticipated dual-core CPU release later this year. The previous update to this guide has the Athlon FX-55 as the top dog in the AMD processor line, and it looks to be the fastest available chip yet again this month. Even though it's been awhile since the last core speed bump, the Athlon 64 FX-55 is more than enough to keep up with Intel's latest Pentium 4-3.73 GHz EE Pentium 4, and can even surpass it in overall gaming performance. This is no small achievement for a CPU with a price that is approximately $260 lower than Intel's finest. With the latest Athlon 64 core dropping to 512K of onboard L2 cache, the Athlon 64 FX-55 and Athlon 64 4000+ are now the only active 939-pin processors carrying a full 1MB of L2 cache. The additional cache now gives the Athlon 64 FX a nice performance advantage over equally clocked Athlon 64 chips. On top of all the traditional features, the FX series also includes support for advanced instructions sets such as 3DNow! Professional and SSE2, and has support for hardware DEP (Data Execution Prevention) in Windows XP w/SP2. Another important feature of the Athlon 64 is its support for both 32-bit and 64-bit instructions, which will be important for upcoming Windows XP 64-bit and Longhorn operating systems.
The Athlon 64 FX-55 is the highest clock AMD processor, and at 2.6 GHz, allows it to perform similarly to the Pentium 4-3.73GHz EE featured this month on the Intel side, and in most cases even surpass it. Priced at $805, it is also significantly less expensive than the Pentium 4-3.73 GHz EE.
Current Cost: $65
As processors continue to rise in clock speed and become more complex, heat dissipation becomes a real issue. There are generally two options that the enthusiast is presented with; air cooling or water cooling, the latter of which is a bit too complex and expensive, and beyond the scope of this guide. This month we are moving to a copper and aluminum hybrid heatsink for our AMD system. Thermalright's XP-120 uses an all-aluminum fin design on top of a nickel plated copper base making it one of the most effective AMD heatsinks on the market. The Thermalright XP-120 is universally compatible with AMD Athlon XP, 64 and 64 FX CPUs, as well as Intel Pentium 4/Celeron Socket 478 processors. The heatsink's massive surface area offers enough room to fit a whopping 120mm fan which greatly increases raw cooling potential well beyond that of the Thermalright SLK-948U. Priced at about $65 with 120mm Vantec Stealth fan, the unit can be expensive, but well worth it for the extra cooling potential.
Current Cost: N/A
For the Pentium 4-3.73GHz Extreme Edition LGA775 processor, we're going with the heatsink provided in the retail package. This is both for ease-of-use and budgetary concerns, as there are simply not a ton of enthusiast-level LGA775 coolers out there and the Intel hardware has already moved slightly past our allotted budget. Saving the extra $50 and going with the bundled retail cooler is the best option, as the price of the retail CPU is extremely close to the OEM model. Thankfully, Intel has been including some relatively nice heatsinks in their retail packaging, and the one they include with the LGA775 Pentium 4 EE is certainly no exception. For Intel fans a bit jealous of the AMD heatsink-fan selection and with the extra cash for an XP-120, Thermalright offers a $5 LGA775 RM bracket that allows the Thermalright XP-120 and XP-90 heatsinks to be used on LGA775 platforms. It installs similar to current Socket 939 HSF brackets, and could be the answer to some Intel enthusiast cooling requirements.
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