February 2004 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 - $191
Processor: Pentium 4-3.4 GHz (800 MHz) - $420
Cooling: Retail Heatsink/Fan - $0
Motherboard: ASUS P4C800 Deluxe - $167
Memory: 2 X 512-MB Corsair TwinX XMS DDR400/PC3200LL - $249
Hard Drive: Western Digital 250 GB 7200RPM SATA - $212
Video Card: ATI Radeon 9800XT 256MB - $421
Monitor: NEC/Mitsubishi DP930SB-BK 19" - $299
Sound Card: SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Retail - $166
Speakers: Creative Inspire T7700 7.1 Speakers - $110
DVD/CD ROM: Pioneer 16X DVD-120S/2 - $30
CD-RW: Lite-On 52x32x52 CD-RW LTR-52327S - $33
Communications: None or (optional Intel Pro/1000 T or USR External v.92) - $0
Mouse: Logitech MX700 Cordless Mouse - $52
Keyboard: Microsoft Natural Multimedia Keyboard - $20
Operating System: Windows XP Pro - $134
Floppy: Generic - $8

Total: $2,512

AMD Athlon 64 System

Case: Lian Li PC-65 PC Case w/ 480W or higher name brand PSU - $191
Processor: Athlon 64 3400+ Retail - $423
Cooling: Retail Heatsink/Fan - $0
Motherboard: ASUS K8V Deluxe - $139
Memory: 2 X 512-MB Corsair TwinX XMS DDR400/PC3200LL - $249
Hard Drive: Western Digital 250 GB 7200RPM SATA - $212
Video Card: ATI Radeon 9800 Pro- $421
Monitor: NEC/Mitsubishi DP930SB-BK 19" - $299
Sound Card: SoundBlaster Audigy Platinum 2 ZS Retail - $166
Speakers: Creative Inspire T7700 7.1 Speakers - $110
DVD/CD ROM: Pioneer 16X DVD-120S/2 - $30
CD-RW: Lite-On 52x32x52 CD-RW LTR-52327S - $33
Communications: None or (optional Intel Pro/1000 T or USR External v.92) - $0
Mouse: Logitech MX700 Cordless Mouse - $52
Keyboard: Microsoft Natural Multimedia Keyboard - $20
Operating System: Windows XP Pro - $134
Floppy: Generic - $8

Total: $2,487

Closing Remarks

Aside from the dearth of hardware changes from last month's guide to this month, the Pentium 4 Prescott failed to dislodge the Northwood from the performance chart, and we'll have to wait for greater-than 3.4 GHz clock speeds for that to happen. Apart from that, price changes abounded this month, and some of the AMD and Intel system components were slightly more expensive this month compared to last, especially the big jump in the price of our monitor.

The future of the high-end market hinges on a few important areas. Intel will release Pentium 4 Prescott models at ramped up clock speeds, but we'll have to wait and see exactly when these hit and how high Intel decides to go. Intel has also expressed interest in moving to 64-bit on the desktop, especially after seeing the success of AMD's Athlon 64/FX chips. Microsoft recently released a preview version of the 64-bit version of Windows XP, which means that the final version can't be too far away, and once people start moving to 64-bit Intel surely won't want to be left behind.

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.