March High-end Gaming PC Buyer's Guide - Page 2

Intel CPU: Intel Pentium 4 2.8 GHz (533 MHz) OEM

Current Cost: $343
Months on list: New
Price Change: N/A

It's always a smart call to purchase the fastest processor your budget allows, and this usually means buying one or two speed steps behind the current flagship product. The Pentium 4 series hasn't seen a speed upgrade in the past few months, and prices of the 2.8 GHz and lower models have been steadily declining as the 3.06 GHz Hyper-Threading models have been all the rage.

This month we decided to upgrade to the Pentium 4-2.8 GHz (533 MHz FSB) model due to the attractive price levels, and make use of some extra cash left over from other hardware purchases. We would love to be able to include the 3.06 GHz model this month, but prices have not dropped enough, making it a very impractical buy at this time. Until some serious HT-enabled games start hitting the shelves, you won't needed to upgrade to anything faster, and the Pentium 4-2.8 GHz is able to tear through current games with relative ease.

AMD CPU: AMD Athlon XP 2700+ (333 MHz) OEM

Current Cost: $245
Months on list: 2
Price Change: -$23

Last month we were able to upgrade the AMD side of the fence, ignoring Intel, and this month we opted to do the exact opposite. While it may have been possible to upgrade to the new Barton core Athlon XP 2800+, the performance gain is quite negligible and at about $100 more than the 2700+, it's simply not worth the hit to the budget at this time. Until either Intel or AMD introduce new processors, prices are not likely to fluctuate very much, and until then we are more than happy to include the Athlon XP 2700+.

Pentium 4 Heatsink-Fan: Alpha PAL8942

Current Cost: $35
Months on list: 5
Price Change: $0

As the Pentium 4 continues to increase in clock speed, its thermal output also increases. For those of you who go the Retail route rest assured the retail cooling apparatus is adequate, but for those of you who may want to try your hand at overclocking, then a beefier heatsink/fan should be in your future. The Alpha PAL8942 has remained on our list for the past three months, and continues to been seen again this month. A little less-expensive than competing Swiftech models, the Alpha heatsink offers more than adequate surface cooling area with a large copper base.

AMD Heatsink-Fan: Thermalright SLK-800, Panaflo fan

Current Cost: $38 + $10 = $48
Months on list: 3
Price Change: $0

With the removal of the four heatsink mounting holes from AMD's motherboard specifications, the greater number of nForce2 boards come sans mounting holes, which is unfortunate as many hardcore heatsinks require the extra mounts to properly hold them in place. This month, just as last month, we chose to include a cooler that did not require the mounting holes and the standard 3-prong attachment of the powerful Thermalright SLK-800 more than fits the bill.

Offering a large copper surface area, and stepping fins capable of holding 60mm, 70mm or 80mm fans there is little more one can ask for in a cooling setup. Paying close attention to the noise level of our system, we chose to include an 80mm Panaflo fan for an additional $10.