April Extreme Gaming PC Buyer's Guide - Page 8

Price Round Up

Intel Pentium 4 System:

Case: Cooler Master TAC-T01 Wave Master- $128
PSU: Antec 480W NeoPower Power Supply - $110
CPU: Pentium 4-3.73 GHz Extreme Edition LGA775 Retail - $1,065
Cooling: Included - $0
Motherboard: ASUS P5AD2-E Deluxe Retail - $200
Memory: Crucial Ballistix DDR2-533 1-GB (2x512-MB) - $284
Hard Drive: 2X Maxtor DiamondMax 10 250GB OEM - $298
Video Card: eVGA GeForce 6800 Ultra 256-MB PCI Express - $488
Monitor: ViewSonic VP912B 19" LCD Monitor - $525
Sound Card: Creative SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum - $164
Speakers: Logitech Z-5500 5.1 Digital - $259
CD/DVD-RW: Pioneer 16x DVD+RW/-RW DVR-109 OEM - $63
NIC: Included - $0
Modem: US Robotics External v.92 USB Faxmodem - $38
Mouse: Logitech MX1000 Optical Mouse - $55
Keyboard: Microsoft Multimedia Natural Keyboard OEM - $20
Gamepad: Saitek P3000 Wireless Pad - $32
Operating System: Windows XP Pro w/ SP2 - $131
UPS: CyberPower OfficePower 825VA CPS825AVR - $70
Floppy: Generic Black Floppy Disk Drive - $8

Total: $3,938

AMD Athlon 64 FX System:

Case: Cooler Master TAC-T01 Wave Master - $128
PSU: Antec 480W NeoPower Power Supply - $110
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 FX-55 Socket 939 OEM - $805
Cooling: Thermalright XP-120 w/Vantec Stealth 120mm Fan - $65
Motherboard: DFI LANPARTY nF4 SLI-DR Retail - $215
Memory: OCZ EL Dual Channel Gold VX PC4000 1-GB (2x512-MB) - $263
Hard Drive: 2X Maxtor DiamondMax 10 250GB OEM - $298
Video Card: 2X XFX GeForce 6800GT 256-MB PCI Express - $748
Monitor: ViewSonic VP912B 19" LCD Monitor - $525
Sound Card: Creative SoundBlaster Audigy2 ZS Platinum - $164
Speakers: Logitech Z-5500 5.1 Digital - $259
CD/DVD-RW: Pioneer 16x DVD+RW/-RW DVR-109 OEM - $63
NIC: Included - $0
Modem: US Robotics External v.92 USB Faxmodem - $38
Mouse: Logitech MX100 Optical Mouse - $55
Keyboard: Microsoft Multimedia Natural Keyboard OEM - $20
Gamepad: Saitek P3000 Wireless Pad - $32
Operating System: Windows XP Pro w/ SP2 - $131
UPS: CyberPower OfficePower 825VA CPS825AVR - $70
Floppy: Generic Black Floppy Disk Drive - $8

Total: $3,997

Closing Remarks

This month our guide went through a complete overhaul, and there are very few remnants from previous editions to be found. We moved to Intel's new Pentium 4-3.73 GHz EE CPU which features support for a 1066 MHz FSB and Intel's new 64-bit EM64T instructions. Now that both Intel and AMD offer processors with 64-bit support, Microsoft's Windows XP Pro 64-bit version might actually see the light of day. One of the most exciting upgrades we were able to accomplish this month was the move to PCI Express video cards, and even more so we were able to include dual PCI Express cards on the AMD side thanks to NVIDIA's nForce4 SLI chipset. The Force4 SLI is poised to launch for the Intel platform, so that is something we'll be watching next time out.

As the CPU frequency war between AMD and Intel has all but stopped, the imminent release of dual core processors have become the talk of the town. What's even more exciting is that the dual core processors are rumored to be compatible with the latest batch of AMD and Intel motherboards, requiring only a BIOS update for full support. Within the next few months also look for both NVIDIA and ATI to officially announce their next generation of GPUs with boards to quickly follow. This summer looks to be a very exciting time for the PC enthusiast, so stay tuned as we continue to push the limits in our Extreme PC Buyer's 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.