March 2007 Extreme Gaming PC Buyer's Guide - Page 3

Intel Motherboard: ASUS Striker Extreme

Current Cost: $400
Consecutive Guides: New
Price Change: N/A

ASUS shoots for the moon with its highest end Core 2-compatible platform, using the NVIDIA 680i SLI chipset to provide two PCI-Express x16 slots with the full 16 data pathways and a third x16-compatible slot with 8 pathways. That makes the Striker Extreme motherboard perfect for two bandwidth-hungry, high-end graphics cards in SLI mode, while having a third PCIe video card to serve other duties.

Not just any 680i motherboard, the Striker Extreme gets us the legendary ASUS reliability and BIOS overclocking features, plus the full "Republic of Gamers" treatment, which includes enhanced chipset and VRM cooling, eight-phase capacitor-free VRM, a noise-reducing removable audio riser card, two eSATA ports, several lighted function buttons, and a rear panel LCD to display system status in English rather than code numbers.

Those who believe a $150 price difference could be better spent on something other than a rear panel system status display, two eSATA ports and a few redundant buttons might prefer the $250 P5N32-E SLI (below), which is the only version of this brand name to feature the full nForce 680i SLI chipset. The less-expensive P5N32-E SLI Plus, for example, is based on the less elaborate 650i.

AMD Motherboard: ASUS Crosshair

Current Cost: $230
Consecutive Guides: New
Price Change: N/A

Our Socket AM2 motherboard selection comes without compromise or excuse, yet costs even less than our substitute Intel board above. The ASUS Crosshair also gets the full "Republic of Gamers" treatment with an elaborate chipset cooler, dual eSATA ports (in addition to the six chipset-supported ports), an English-language rear panel, system status display, and lighted power/reset buttons. Respected in overclocking circles with its eight-phase capacitor-free VRM, the Crosshair has other upscale features including a reduced-noise removable HD audio riser card.

The nForce 590 SLI chipset features 46 PCI-Express lanes capable of supporting two graphics cards at full x16 bus width, more than enough for a pair of today's fastest graphics cards and even next-generation products. The lower cost of the nForce 590 SLI AMD chipset is surely part of the Crosshair's lower price compared to the ASUS 680i Intel platforms, but a feature-specific comparison is equivalent, and indicates that ASUS is also working harder to push its Socket AM2 products.

Those who prefer DFI or otherwise simply don't want to pay for the added features of a "Republic of Gamers" motherboard may prefer the DFI LANPARTY UT NF590 SLI-M2R/G. Similar features include the removable audio module, dual graphics/SLI via two x16 pathways from the nForce 590SLI chipset, and an x4 PCI-Express expansion card slot. DFI adds a PCI-Express x8 slot for server-sized cards and uses a Port 80 diagnostics code LED display topside, rather than the rear-panel verbose LCD found on the ASUS board.

System Memory: PDP Patriot eXtreme Performance DDR2-800

Current Cost: $240
Consecutive Guides: New
Price Change: N/A

As the high-end DDR2-800 (PC2-6400) market heats up the, the price of name brand memory continues to drop. PDC Patriot is looking to take the lead with its CAS4 PDC22G6400LLK. Internal testing reveals similar performance and overclocking potential to most of today's best DDR2-800, so we're putting that few dollars in savings towards the purchase of other components. Rated at latencies of 4-4-4-8 for 800MHz data rate operation and widely reported user overclocks in excess of a 1000MHz data rate translates into extreme value to high-end buyers.

Extended features include ribbed heat spreaders for better dispersion and EPP (Enhanced Performance Profiles), a technology that allows modern NVIDIA-based motherboards to automatically configure optimal voltage and timing simply by turning on the "SLI Memory" setting in the System BIOS. Both of the motherboards in this guide offer the SLI Memory setting.

PDC22G6400LLK is certainly fast enough to get our attention, but just when $240 average web "discount vender" price started to look good, we found one vender offering this kit for $164.99 after mail-in rebate. Mail-in rebates are not deducted off our system budget, and although we'll stick with our $240 estimate in the build tally, searching out the MIR could be a nice bonus.