June 2004 High-end Gaming PC Buyer's Guide - Page 5

Video Accelerator: Sapphire ATI Radeon X800 Pro 256-MB OEM

Current Cost: $425
Months on list: New
Price Change: N/A

The ATI and NVIDIA next-generation parts are slowing beginning to trickle out into the marketplace, but only ATI's Radeon X800 Pro series of cards have become widespread enough for us to include in this guide. Each month we strive to include the highest performing and easiest to find part that meets our budget requirements, and the Sapphire ATI Radeon X800 Pro does just that. Sapphire actually produces the majority of ATI's Radeon cards so performance and quality is a non-issue. At $425, the Sapphire ATI Radeon X800 Pro OEM is not inexpensive, but has the best price-performance of the competing brands.

ATI's X800 series of cards are considered by some to be the R3xx series on steroids, and with a total of twelve (12x1) pipelines, and 475 MHz core and 900 MHz memory clocks, the X800 Pro is much faster, even clock for clock, than last generation of cards. The Sapphire ATI Radeon X800 Pro uses 256-MB of GDDR3 memory and rides on an 8X AGP bus, with PCI Express versions to follow soon. While the R420 series of chips does not support DX9.0c like the NVIDIA GeForce 6 Series, it does increase the number of vertex and pixel shader instructions it can do, beyond that of previous generations. The card also supports Temporal FSAA, ATI's new 3Dc compression scheme, as well as a number of other improvements that greatly boost the performance and quality of the previous generation Radeon cards.

Monitor: NEC/Mitsubishi DP930SB-BK 19"

Cost: $269
Months on list: 4
Price Change: -$33

As companies move toward larger 21+" CRT and high-end LCD units, our choices for a 19" monitor becomes increasingly narrow. Nevertheless, there still are a number of quality 19" monitors on the market, and the NEC/Mitsubishi DP930SB-BK 19" monitor is currently one of the best in its price range. It features a 0.24mm grille pitch, totally flat aperture grille CRT, 1920 x 1440 at 73 Hz maximum resolution, and three year warranty. As prices of LCD monitors have been decreasing, and size increasing, it is only a matter of picking the right time to include on in this guide, but for now this CRT monitor is our top pick.

For those of you who can't live with aperture grill monitors we recommend the NEC/Mitsubishi FE990-BK ClearFlat Shadow Mask CRT. The FE990-BK features a maximum resolution of 1792 X 1344 at 68 Hz, and a 0.20-0.24mm horizontal pitch, all without those two annoying stabilization wires found in Aperture grill monitors. This monitor can be found for a few dollars cheaper than the DP930SB-BK at various retailers and comes with a 3 year warranty.

Please keep in mind that when buying any type or brand of monitor, there is always the chance of receiving a defective unit, so be certain to purchase only from a vendor that offers liberal return and replacement options.

Sound Card: SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Retail

Cost: $165
Months on list: 6
Price Change: +$1

The Creative Audigy 2 ZS is only a mild evolutionary step up from the original Audigy 2, but includes a number of improvements that make the upgrade worthwhile. The card has a slightly-improved 108 signal-to-noise ratio, full 7.1 channel surround sound, DTS ES and Dolby Digital decoding, and updated EAX 4.0 support. For the audiophiles out there, the Audigy 2 ZS has 24-bit, 192 kHz audio support for things such as DVD-Audio, just like the Audigy 2 before it. We prefer to recommend the Platinum version of this card, as it comes with a handy drive that fits nicely into a 5 1/4" drive bay and has a wealth of additional connectors for input and output, not to mention a remote control.

On the software side, the Audigy 2 Platinum includes a number of worthwhile programs. For the gamer it comes with full retail copies of Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness, and Rainbow Six: Raven Shield. For the audio aficionado, Steinberg Cubasis VST 4.0 Creative Edition and Wavelab Lite 2.0, and Image Line FL Studio 4 Creative Edition, can certainly handle the audio creation and editing duties.

Speakers:

With a high end soundcard, a good set of surround sound speakers is a great way to immerse yourself in games, movies and music. Choosing the right speakers is an important investment, as they will likely stay with you as long as your case or monitor.

System Speakers: Creative Inspire T7700 7.1 Speakers

Cost: $96
Months on list: 5
Price Change: -$10

Lately, Creative has significantly stepped up the quality of their branded speakers to the point where it makes sense to include a set in this guide. While their basic speaker lineup certainly cannot compete with high-end models from the likes of Klipsch or Logitech, the lower price and overall value more than makes up for the difference. For the fifth straight month in a row we are going to recommend the Creative Inspire T7700 set of 7.1 speakers. This set delivers a total of 92 watts RMS power and 125 watts of total system power, which make them a bit more powerful than the Creative 6.1 set. These speakers can be found online for less than $96, which is a real bargain.