January High-end Gaming PC Buyer's Guide - Page 8

Price Roundup

Intel Pentium 4 System

Case: Lian Li PC-65 PC Case w/ 480W or higher name brand PSU - $198
Processor: Pentium 4-3.4 GHz (800 MHz) - $459
Cooling: Retail Heatsink/Fan - $0
Motherboard: ASUS P4C800 Deluxe - $160
Memory: 2 X 512-MB Corsair TwinX XMS DDR400/PC3200LL - $249
Hard Drive: Western Digital 250 GB 7200RPM SATA - $218
Video Card: ATI Radeon 9800XT 256MB - $434
Monitor: NEC/Mitsubishi DP930SB-BK 19", LG 915FT Plus - $261
Sound Card: SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Retail - $162
Speakers: Creative Inspire T7700 7.1 Speakers - $111
DVD/CD ROM: Pioneer 16X DVD-120S/2 - $32
CD-RW: Lite-On 52x32x52 CD-RW LTR-52327S - $36
Communications: None or (optional Intel Pro/1000 T or USR External v.92) - $0
Mouse: Logitech MX700 Cordless Mouse - $53
Keyboard: Microsoft Natural Multimedia Keyboard - $20
Operating System: Windows XP Pro - $134
Floppy: Generic - $8

Total: $2,535

AMD Athlon 64 System

Case: Lian Li PC-65 PC Case w/ 480W or higher name brand PSU - $198
Processor: Athlon 64 3400+ Retail - $400
Cooling: Retail Heatsink/Fan - $0
Motherboard: ASUS K8V Deluxe - $135
Memory: 2 X 512-MB Corsair TwinX XMS DDR400/PC3200LL - $249
Hard Drive: Maxtor 250 GB 7200RPM SATA - $218
Video Card: ATI Radeon 9800 Pro- $434
Monitor: NEC/Mitsubishi DP930SB-BK 19", LG 915FT Plus - $261
Sound Card: SoundBlaster Audigy Platinum 2 ZS Retail - $162
Speakers: Creative Inspire T7700 7.1 Speakers - $111
DVD/CD ROM: Pioneer 16X DVD-120S/2 - $32
CD-RW: Lite-On 52x32x52 CD-RW LTR-52327S - $36
Communications: None or (optional Intel Pro/1000 T or USR External v.92) - $0
Mouse: Logitech MX700 Cordless Mouse - $53
Keyboard: Microsoft Natural Multimedia Keyboard - $20
Operating System: Windows XP Pro - $134
Floppy: Generic - $8

Total: $2,451

Closing Remarks

Both AMD and Intel systems feature new processors this month, with very competitive performance. If pricing trends remain the same, it looks like we will not be able to include either the Intel Pentium 4 EE (Extreme Edition) or AMD's Athlon FX-51, as both processors are almost double the cost of our present solutions. ATI's Radeon 9800XT has been sitting high and mighty in this guide since its release despite NVIDIA's best efforts to displace it. With a few extra dollars left over this month we opted for a 250GB SATA Western Digital hard drive, and although a RAID array would be nice, it just isn't feasible without a significant impact to the budget and surrounding hardware.

Intel's surprising release of the Pentium 4-3.4GHz suggests that Prescott may not be ready for a while yet. AMD will surely capitalize on this and continue to push their Athlon 64 and Athlon FX chips as much as possible. Both ATI and NVIDIA have been very quiet lately, as the companies get ready to unveil their next generation GPU architectures in the coming month. This year is looking to be a great one, with a number of high profile 3D games set for release, and brand new technologies yet to be unleashed.

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. Also, throughout the compilation of this guide, we have made every attempt to ensure availability and realistic street pricing of the included components.