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Sharky Extreme : Monthly Extreme Gaming PC Buyer's Guide |
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Monthly Extreme Gaming PC Buyer's Guide |
June Extreme Gaming PC Buyer's Guide - Page 3By Ryan "Speedy" Wissman June 9, 2005
NVIDIA has finally released an Intel-compatible version of their extremely popular nForce4 SLI chipset, and has immediately risen to the top of the performance chain. As such, making the move to an nForce4 SLI-based chipset this month was a no brainier. In addition to dual PCI Express video card support, the nForce4 SLI also has a number of features typical of a high-end chipset. Support for dual-channel DDR2, PCI Express graphics and peripherals, a 1066MHz FSB, dual core Intel processors, SATA2, and EM64T are just a few of features found in the Intel-based nForce4 chipset. Due to its quality, we chose to go with the ASUS P5ND2-SLI Deluxe motherboard this month.
ASUS offers some of the most stable and feature packed motherboards around, so it was a natural choice to go with them for our nForce4 needs. With the brand new nForce4 SLI for Intel at its base, the P5ND2-SLI Deluxe has support for all the hottest technologies and is the perfect home for the Pentium 4-3.73GHz Extreme Edition processor. Along with all the basic nForce4 SLI chipset features, this board can handle up to four SATA2 drives, with support for additional external SATA drives, dual Gigabit Ethernet, 8-channel audio, and all the peripheral ports you could ever need. At $234, this is one of the most expensive motherboards to be included in the guide, but the support for dual PCI Express video cards, and the inherent performance boost, makes it a good buy.
Current Cost: $196 The Intel motherboard may have finally caught up to the AMD platform, but we see no need to rock the boat, and are sticking with the powerful and innovative NVIDIA nForce4 SLI-based DFI LANPARTY nF4 SLI-DR. While the nForce4 SLI chipset has support for the latest features such as PCI Express, SATA2, NVIDIA RAID, 8-channel audio and Gigabit Ethernet with hardware firewall, the single most innovative, and valuable, feature is support for dual PCI Express video cards.
With NVIDIA's SLI (Scalable Link Interface), a motherboard that is equipped with this feature can support up to two PCI Express video cards (NVIDIA only) simultaneously, resulting in nearly twice the performance of a single GPU. Users of 3dfx's Voodoo 2 line of cards will remember the simple upgrade path this offers; you can choose to equip a system with a single GeForce 6800-based card now, and then upgrade performance by adding a second one later on. The DFI LANPARTY nF4 SLI-DR is a nice mix of performance, features and stability, while offering some funky board colors and a unique layout. This board also offers support for SATA2, dual Gigabit Ethernet, dual-channel DDR, 8-channel audio, in addition to the usual assortment of peripheral ports. This board also has support for dual PCI Express video cards, which we will be taking advantage of this month on both the AMD and Intel sides. DFI also includes the hotrod extras that the LANPARTY brand is known for, such as rounded IDE cables, a FrontX panel, a PC Transpo carrying strap, and component and cable UV sensitivity, to name a few. The DFI LANPARTY nF4 SLI-DR can be found online for about $196 which is not bad considering the price of the Intel motherboard (featuring a similar chipset) we used this month.
Current Cost: $233 As AMD seems to be skipping the DDR2 memory technology altogether, DDR is the only option for Athlon systems. This month we are sticking with the excellent OCZ Enhanced Latency Dual-Channel Gold VX 1GB DDR PC-4000 memory we used last time. The memory sports ultra low 2-2-2-5 memory timing making it some of the fastest memory we have ever included. While our memory FSB requirements dictate that we only need PC-3200 memory, using PC-4000 memory gives us the extra headroom that can come in extra handy down the road when overclocking. 1GB (2x512) of OCZ Enhanced Latency Dual-Channel Gold memory can be found at various online retailers for about $233, meaning that this memory is a steal compared to Corsair's offerings.
Since Dual-channel memory is the de facto standard for both AMD and Intel systems it only makes sense that we purchase matched pairs of memory. Buying a name brand memory kit ensures that both modules are exactly matched, and leaves no compatibility issues when running in dual-channel mode. The OCZ Enhanced Latency Dual-Channel Gold kit features two 512MB sticks of DDR memory satisfying our platform's dual-channel memory needs.
Current Cost: $239 Even though we moved to an nForce4 SLI-based motherboard this month, the Intel system still requires that we use DDR2 memory. We are also taking this opportunity to switch to Corsair and their XMS2 DDR2 memory line, and nabbed a dual-channel Corsair XMS2 TWIN2X1024A-5400UL kit. Although we only require 533MHz DDR2 memory, we opted for some faster 675MHz sticks as the increased headroom can come in handy when overclocking.
The Corsair XMS2 TWIN2X1024A-5400UL, like all DDR2 memory, forgoes ultra low latency timings, in return for high clock speed and wicked overclockability. Despite the higher latencies inherent of DDR2 memory, the Corsair XMS2 memory still has relatively low timings of 3-2-2-8, which makes this some seriously fast DDR2 memory. As our nForce 2 SLI chipset includes dual-channel DDR2 support, we are utilizing two sticks of 512MB to maximize performance. A matched pair of 1GB (2x512) Corsair XMS2 TWIN2X1024A-5400UL can run about $239, or about on par with the OCZ DDR we used on the AMD side.
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