February Extreme Gaming PC Buyer's Guide - Page 8

Price Roundup

Intel Pentium 4 System

Case: Lian Li PC-68USB w/ 400W Antec PSU-$249
Processor: Pentium 4-2.2 GHz (Retail)-$509
Cooling: Retail HSF-$0
Mainboard: ABIT TH7II-RAID-$161
RAM: 4x256 MB RDRAM-$316
Hard Drive: WD 120 GB Special Edition-$250
Video Card : Visiontek Xtasy GeForce3 Titanium Ti500-$318
Monitor: Sony CPD-G520 21"-$750
Sound Card: SoundBlaster Audigy Platinum-$158
Speakers: Klipsch ProMedia 5.1 THX-$399
DVD/CD-ROM: Toshiba SD-M1612 16X DVD-ROM-$57
CDRW: TDK 32x10x40x40 veloCD ReWriter-$199
Communications: 3Com EtherLink 10/100 3CR990-TX-97-$97
Communications: US Robotics External v.92-$78
Mouse: MS Intellimouse Explorer Optical 3.0-$40
Keyboard: Microsoft Natural Keyboard Pro-$35
Gamepad: Logitech Wingman Rumblepad-$24
OS: Windows XP Pro & Windows 98 SE-$185
Floppy: Generic-$10
UPS: APC BackUPS Pro 500-$129

Total: $3964

AMD Athlon System

Case: Lian Li PC-68USB w/ 400W Antec PSU-$249
Processor: OEM Athlon XP 2000+ (1.67 GHz)-$265
Cooling: CoolerMaster HHC-001 Cooler + Shim-$50
Mainboard: ABIT KR7A-133RAID-$150
RAM: 2x512 MB PC2700 DDR-$440
Hard Drive: WD 120 GB Special Edition-$250
Video Card : Visiontek Xtasy GeForce3 Titanium Ti500-$318
Monitor: Sony CPD-G520 21"-$750
Sound Card: SoundBlaster Audigy Platinum-$158
Speakers: Klipsch ProMedia 5.1 THX-$399
DVD/CD-ROM: Toshiba SD-M1612 16X DVD-ROM-$57
CDRW: TDK 32x10x40x40 veloCD ReWriter-$199
Communications: 3Com EtherLink 10/100 3CR990-TX-97-$97
Communications: US Robotics External v.92-$78
Mouse: MS Intellimouse Explorer Optical 3.0-$40
Keyboard: Microsoft Natural Keyboard Pro-$35
Gamepad: Logitech Wingman Rumblepad-$24
OS: Windows XP Pro & Windows 98 SE-$185
Floppy: Generic-$10
UPS: APC BackUPS Pro 500-$129

Total: $3883

Closing Remarks

Both the AMD and Intel systems in our Gaming PC Buyer's Guide seem to be quite equal in terms of overall performance. Sure, the Athlon XP 2000+ might be a tad faster, but the Pentium 4-2.2 GHz runs noticeably cooler and definitely has some unused MHz for overclocking. At the end of the day, the owner of either of these killer systems should count themselves lucky, as it's almost impossible to pick a winner.

What the future holds for next month's systems is a great question, as both NVIDIA and ATI are reportedly getting ready to release their newest high-end 3D video products. Both AMD and Intel should be due for a new processor release or two, and we'll be crossing our fingers that DDR prices won't be as high this time next month. We'll also be keeping a close eye on the various Pentium 4 DDR boards, to see if one can give us the PC2700 performance we'll need, ATA-133 both on-board and RAID, as well as a host of other performance features. We'd love to retire the i850, but until something really enticing comes our way, it's still the best price-performance available.

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.

Vince Freeman
Editor