May 2002 Value Gaming PC Buyer's Guide

Introduction

We've dusted off the Sharky Extreme Value Gaming PC Buyer's Guide and taken $1,000 in cold, hard cash and been given the green light to spend it on the fastest PC gaming rig we can find. As in our SE High-End and Extreme Buyer's Guides, we match up each component's price and performance, and then make the pick as to the best combination of red-hot gaming hardware. If you are the type of gamer who counts your pennies before buying any new system, then this is the buyer's guide for you.

Configuring a value gaming system is not simply a process of picking the best components, but one of concessions made in your choices. After all, you could buy a high-end Pentium 4-2.4 GHz and a 21" monitor but have little cash left for the other required components. In our Value Gaming PC Buyer's Guide, we attempt to find a happy medium between spending a fortune on a new PC and making the mistake of choosing sub-par components just to hit a certain price. Our value gaming rigs will produce high framerates, have more than enough CPU power, provide excellent image quality, as well as not forgetting gaming sound and overall features. We also don't scour the bargain bins for available hardware, but choose from name brand components that offer the best price-performance ratio.

Since our last edition, there has been a swift transition to PC2700 for performance gaming systems, as well as some nice price points for this higher-speed memory. Overall DDR prices are still high, but there isn't a huge premium in choosing the faster speeds. This transition has also come about through the arrival of several PC2700-capable platforms from SiS, VIA and ALi. Overall CPU pricing has also dipped down of late, making both the Athlon XP and Pentium 4 Northwood very nice values. If you want to know how all of these technological enhancements have affected our value system choices, then read on and get ready for what a grand can buy you in today's market.

In this month's edition, we have also tried our best to ensure that the selected hardware is available in a few of the online vendors that Sharky readers love to frequent. You know who they are, and although the stated price may not be exactly the same with each, you can reckon on finding a significant percentage of the component list in their catalogues. This really didn't limit our choices this month, but is more an added benefit of knowing that many online vendors do indeed carry the same items.

Value Gaming PC Budget: $1000

Case: Antec SX630 (PP303XP PSU)

Even with a value system, the choice of a case is still a very important one. Our goal is to find a mini-tower that has the features we need, but still won't break the bank. One case line that continues to impress comes from Antec, a company renowned for their high-end power supplies. Antec also offers several cases at different sizes and price points, and even have a few options for the entry-level buyer.

The Antec SX630 is an excellent mini-tower case with nice expansion options and cooling, all for a bargain price of around $60. The best part of the deal has to be the included power supply, an Antec PP303XP. This is a 300W, ATX 2.03 compliant PSU that functions equally well with Pentium 4 or Athlon XP systems. We all know how good Antec power supplies are, and the SX630 case is an incredible value for an entry level system. To top it off, Antec cases are becoming more common with retailers and the big online dealers usually carry this particular model, as well as the slightly more expensive SX635.