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

Intel CPU: Pentium 4 3.4 GHz (800 MHz) Retail

Current Cost: $459
Months on list: New
Price Change: N/A

As an obvious counter to AMD's newest Athlon 64 3400+, Intel increased the speed of their Northwood Pentium 4 to 3.4GHz, and only put it out to market very recently. Intel is taking their time readying their Prescott successor to the Northwood Pentium 4 core. The Pentium 4 Northwood at 3.4GHz still features the same 512K L2 cache, while offering performance gains similar to any other 200 MHz speed jump on the Pentium 4 highway. The Pentium 4-3.4 GHz is still compatible with most Intel motherboards, but there is a possibility that a BIOS update will be needed to correctly identify the CPU.

AMD CPU: Athlon 64 3400+ Retail

Current Cost: $400
Months on list: New
Price Change: N/A

AMD is really turning up the heat on Intel with the release of a new, faster Athlon 64 3400+. Clocking in at 2.2GHz, AMD is positioning it against the Intel Pentium 4 3.4GHz, and it's priced accordingly. So far, AMD's Athlon 64 line has been very successful in giving the Pentium 4 a serious run for its money, especially in gaming performance. The basic Athlon 64 is a variant of the Opteron architecture that was released early last year for server and workstation computers. The Athlon 64 3400+ has a core clock speed of 2.2GHz and includes a whopping 1MB L2 cache, and single on-die 64-bit 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: 5
Price Change: N/A

Intel's retail heatsinks have been excellent as of late, and the high price of their top-end Pentium 4 CPUs has us questioning the validity of purchasing an expensive, 3rd-party model. Intel's bundled heatsink is now copper-core based, and can keep up with many of the third party units, even when overclocking. Therefore, purchasing an expensive third-party unit on top of the pricey Pentium 4-3.4 GHz, simply would not be in our best interest when maximizing the price-performance of our Intel system.

AMD Heatsink-Fan: Retail

Current Cost: $0
Months on list: 3
Price Change: N/A

Heatsinks from the last generation of AMD Athlon XP processors are not compatible with the new Athlon 64 chips. The Athlon 64 features a new pin configuration and heatsink mounting mechanism, and 3rd-party heatsink manufacturers have been late in catching up, leaving us little choice than to use the retail AMD heatsink. However, this is really no concession, as the included AMD retail heatsink is more than competent enough for standard operation, and even a little overclocking.