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

Price Roundup

Intel Pentium 4 System

Case: Lian Li PC-65 USB PC Case w/Antec 480W NeoPower Power Supply - $218
Processor: Pentium 4-3.4 GHz (800 MHz) Retail - $329
Cooling: Thermalright SLK-948U w/Vantec Stealth 92mm - $39
Motherboard: ASUS P4C800-E Deluxe - $174
Memory: 2 X 512-MB Corsair TwinX XMS DDR400/PC3200LL - $286
Hard Drive: 2 X Seagate 200GB 7200RPM SATA 8MB Cache - $250
Video Card: eVGA GeForce 6800 GT - $379
Monitor: NEC/Mitsubishi DP930SB-BK 19", NEC/Mitsubishi FE990-BK 19"- $284
Sound Card: SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Retail - $159
Speakers: Creative Inspire T7700 7.1 Speakers - $80
DVD-/+RW: NEC 16X Double Layer DVD+/-R ND-3500A OEM- $79
Communications: None or (optional Intel Pro/1000 T or USR External v.92) - $0
Mouse: Logitech MX1000 Cordless Mouse - $70
Keyboard: Microsoft Natural Multimedia Keyboard - $21
Operating System: Windows XP Pro - $129
Floppy: Generic - $8

Total: $2,505

AMD Athlon 64 System

Case: Lian Li PC-65 USB PC Case w/Antec 480W NeoPower Power Supply - $218
Processor: Athlon 64 3500+ Retail - $353
Cooling: Thermalright SLK-948U w/Vantec Stealth 92mm - $39
Motherboard: MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum - $140
Memory: 2 X 512-MB Corsair TwinX XMS DDR400/PC3200LL - $286
Hard Drive: 2 X Seagate 200GB 7200RPM SATA 8MB Cache - $250
Video Card: eVGA GeForce 6800 GT - $379
Monitor: NEC/Mitsubishi DP930SB-BK 19", NEC/Mitsubishi FE990-BK 19"- $284
Sound Card: SoundBlaster Audigy Platinum 2 ZS Retail - $159
Speakers: Creative Inspire T7700 7.1 Speakers - $80
DVD-/+RW: NEC 16X Double Layer DVD+/-R ND-3500A - $79
Communications: None or (optional Intel Pro/1000 T or USR External v.92) - $0
Mouse: Logitech MX1000 Cordless Mouse - $70
Keyboard: Microsoft Natural Multimedia Keyboard - $21
Operating System: Windows XP Pro - $129
Floppy: Generic - $8

Total: $2,495

Closing Remarks

There were a large number of changes in this edition, as it has been two months since we have performed an update to this guide. In preparation for our potential move to LGA775, we upgraded the power supply to support 24-pin motherboard inputs, PCI Express, and SATA. The video subsystem received a substantial speed injection this month, with the inclusion of the eVGA GeForce 6800 GT video card, while the AMD side of the system got a boost with the move to a Socket 939 motherboard and Athlon 64 3500+ processor. Our multimedia recording capability got a substantial upgrade, and the NEC burner is twice as fast as the model we included in the previous guide. We also shifted to higher capacity SATA hard drives this month, adding an additional 80GB to the previous guide's capacity at a minimal increase in cost.

Later this fall we should see an influx of enthusiast-level PCI Express graphics cards, as well as new PCI Express motherboards for Athlon 64 systems. While PCI Express does not hold a very substantive performance improvement over AGP right now, as the AGP bus becomes increasingly bottlenecked the improvements made in PCI Express will become increasingly apparent. Further down the road are dual-core CPUs from AMD, and hopefully 64-bit compatible models from Intel. Next month should be very interesting, but with a $2500 budget and constantly fluctuating prices, it is difficult to say what we will be able to purchase, and only time will tell.

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.