August High-end Gaming PC Buyer's Guide - Page 4

Memory: 2 X 512-MB Corsair TwinX XMS DDR400/PC3200LL

Current Cost: $310
Months on list: 3
Price Change: $0

Corsair continues to impress with their XMS series of memory. Over time, their memory has proven to be some of the fastest, most overclockable memory on the market, and all without sacrificing compatibility or stability. We recommend using PC3200 or higher memory as both our AMD and Intel systems require 200MHz or faster memory for proper operation.

Both systems utilize dual-channel memory, so we get best performance if we go with two 512MB modules. Corsair packages memory for dual-channel configurations using the name TwinX. It is slightly more expensive for this type of memory, but buying a TwinX pack insures that you receive two matched pairs of memory with equal capabilities.

Hard Drive: Western Digital 200-GB Special Edition 8MB Cache

Current Cost: $172
Months on list: 8
Price Change: -$7

We continue to watch prices and capacities on Serial ATA drives, but Parallel IDE drives are still a better value and come in at larger capacities. As a result we are sticking with last month's recommendation of the Western Digital 200-GB Special Edition 8MB IDE drive. The Western Digital drive has a spindle speed of 7200RPM, ATA/100 support as well as an 8MB cache. The 8MB cache comes in handy when transferring large files, and with 200 Gigabytes of space there is plenty of room to store those ever-growing games.

CD/DVD-ROM: Pioneer 16X DVD-120S/2

Cost: $38
Months on list: 4
Price Change: $0

The Pioneer 16X DVD-120S/2 features a slot load mechanism (similar to that which you would find in your car), and is able to retrieve CDs without the use of a traditional tray mechanism. Pioneer has recently updated their 106S model to the newer, although technically similar, 120S drive proving no change in price.

Pioneer has long been one of the top innovators in the field of optical media, and their 16X DVD-ROM drive is one of the best. The drive sports a 256K buffer, 95ms seek time on DVDs, 80ms seek on CDs, as well as vertical and horizontal mounting capabilities. You can purchase the drive with either beige or the more expensive and harder to find black face plate.

Pioneer also makes a tray-loading model (DVD-117) for those of you who deal with other sizes optical media. It can be found for a few dollars less than the slot-loading model, and is also available with either black or beige face plates.

CDRW: Lite-On 52x24x52 CD-RW LTR-52246

Cost: $40
Months on list: 7
Price Change: -$5

At a 52X write speed, we are not likely to see a significant increase as the industry moves to DVD-R/RW (plus or minus). The 52X CDR speed is already at the limits of the technology and you simply can not go much faster or risk the disk coming apart in the drive. Until we see faster and less-expensive DVD burners we will stick with the trusty old CD-RW.

Lite-On currently makes one of the best CD-RW drives on the market, and their 52x24x52x model is able to burn at CD at the top-end speed of 52X. The drive comes with a 2-MB buffer, and has a seek time of 80ms. Included is Ahead's Nero Burning Rom software, which if purchased separately, is more expensive than the drive itself. At a measly $40, this is a tough CDR/RW drive to beat.