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

Intel CPU: Pentium 4 3.2 GHz (800 MHz) Retail

Current Cost: $396
Months on list: New
Price Change: N/A

Except for the ultra expensive Pentium 4-3.2 GHz Extreme Edition, the regular 3.2 GHz model is currently the fastest Pentium 4 chip available. Due to increasing pressure from AMD, massive cuts have driven down the price of this CPU to about the same amount we paid last month for the Pentium 4-3.0 GHz. We're unlikely to see another speed increase of the Pentium 4, at least until Intel decides to release the Prescott early next year, so this is a pretty safe high-end choice for the time being.

AMD CPU: Athlon 64 3200+ Retail

Current Cost: $415
Months on list: 2
Price Change: -$16

AMD is enjoying a great deal of success with their Athlon 64-based chips, and have been able to best even the Intel Pentium 4 3.2 GHz in some tests, most notably gaming-related ones. In fact, Intel has even released an "Extreme Edition" of their Pentium 4, with an extra 2-MB of L3 cache, just to stay ahead of the Athlon 64 3200+. The Athlon 64 3200+ is based on the new AMD64 architecture that debuted on the Opteron processor earlier this year. The processor runs internally at 2.0 GHz and carries a whopping 1MB of L2 cache, not to mention a single 64-bit on die memory controller.

The Athlon 64 3200+ also has native support for 32-bit and 64-bit software, which can come in very handy when developers decide to start implementing 64-bit instructions into their code, and Win XP 64-bit becomes a reality. However, the Athlon 64's exceptionally efficient 32-bit architecture means that you can expect top-notch performance from the operating system and applications you're already using.

Pentium 4 Heatsink-Fan: Retail

Current Cost: $0
Months on list: 4
Price Change: N/A

Lately, Intel has been including some excellent heatsinks with their retail processors, making us question the validity of purchasing one from a third party. Intel's included heatsink is now copper-based, and can keep up with many of the top third party units, even when overclocking. Therefore, purchasing an expensive third-party unit simply would not be in our best interest when maximizing the performance of our Intel system.

AMD Heatsink-Fan: Retail

Current Cost: $0
Months on list: 2
Price Change: N/A

The Athlon 64 processor series sports an all-new pin configuration, as well as heatsink mounting mechanism, which means that last-gen AMD 3rd-party heatsinks cannot be used. The relatively new design of the Athlon 64 3200+ has also not allowed sufficient time for third party heatsink manufacturers to step in and create their own ultra-high performance cooling hardware. As a result, we chose to stick with the AMD retail heatsink fan included with the package, since it's easy to find and offers a nice value.