May 2005 High-end Gaming PC Buyer's Guide - Page 8

Price Roundup

Intel Pentium 4 System

Case: Cooler Master WaveMaster TAC-T01-E1C w/Antec 480W PSU - $231
Processor: Intel Pentium 4 660 3.6GHz LGA775 - $611
Cooling: Retail HSF - $0
Motherboard: ASUS P5AD2-E Deluxe - $194
Memory: 2x512-MB Corsair TWIN2X1024-4300C3 - $199
Hard Drive: Maxtor DiamondMax 10 250GB 7200RPM SATA 6B250S0 - $159
Video Card: GeForce 6800GT 256-MB PCI Express - $340
Monitor: ViewSonic VP171B-2 17" LCD - $319
Sound Card: SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS Retail - $81
Speakers: Logitech THX Z-5300e 5.1 Speakers - $115
DVD-/+RW: Pioneer 16x DVD+RW/-RW DVR-109 OEM - $54
Communications: None or (optional Intel Pro/1000 T or USR External v.92) - $0
Mouse: Logitech MX1000 Cordless Mouse - $53
Keyboard: Microsoft Natural Multimedia Keyboard - $21
Operating System: Windows XP Pro - $139
Floppy: Generic - $8

Total: $2,524

AMD Athlon 64 System

Case: Cooler Master WaveMaster TAC-T01-E1C w/Antec 480W PSU - $231
Processor: Athlon 64 4000+ OEM - $499
Cooling: Thermalright XP-120 w/Vantec Stealth 120mm - $62
Motherboard: DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 SLI-DR - $179
Memory: 2 X 512-MB OCZ PC3200 EL Platinum Rev 2 - $208
Hard Drive: Maxtor DiamondMax 10 250GB 7200RPM SATA 6B250S0 - $159
Video Card: XFX GeForce 6800GT 256-MB PCI Express - $340
Monitor: ViewSonic VP171B-2 17" LCD - $319
Sound Card: SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS Retail - $81
Speakers: Logitech THX Z-5300e 5.1 Speakers - $115
DVD-/+RW: Pioneer 16x DVD+RW/-RW DVR-109 OEM - $54
Communications: None or (optional Intel Pro/1000 T or USR External v.92) - $0
Mouse: Logitech MX1000 Cordless Mouse - $53
Keyboard: Microsoft Natural Multimedia Keyboard - $21
Operating System: Windows XP Pro - $139
Floppy: Generic - $8

Total: $2,468

Closing Remarks

Like last month, we were only able to make a few minor upgrades and improvements to our guide, and basically shuffled the memory and motherboards around. On the Intel front there was a more significant upgrade, as we moved to a Intel EM64T processor which means that both systems now have full 64-bit support, and right on time for Windows XP Pro 64-bit. On the AMD side we changed to the slightly faster Athlon 64 4000+, which keeps the AMD system competitive with the Intel upgrade this month. We also traded in the ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe for the more feature rich, and overclocker-friendly DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 SLI-DR. The speakers also received an improvement, as we shifted to the popular Logitech Z-5300e set. But other than those select areas, it was a fairly mild month with only a few upgrades to report.

All the relative silence on the CPU front can only mean that both AMD and Intel are quietly readying their next wave of desktop-level dual-core processors. NVIDIA also recently began to sample nForce 4 chipsets for Intel motherboards which presents a unique twist of events, and allows SLI goodness for the Pentium 4 crowd. The video card market has also grown relatively stale as of late, which means that ATI and NVIDIA should be ready to announce their next generation units sometime late this spring or early summer. Overall, this month marks the calm before the storm, as we should start to see a new wave of hardware in the months to come.

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.