March Value Gaming PC Buyer's Guide - Page 8

Price Roundup

AMD Athlon XP System

Case: Antec SX630II Case (PP303XP PSU) - $65
CPU: AMD Athlon XP 2200+ - $91
Cooling: ThermalTake Volcano 7 - $10
Motherboard: MSI K7N2-L - $90
Memory: 2 x 256-MB PC2700 DDR - $70
Hard Drive: 60GB Seagate Barracuda V - $84
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon 9500 Atlantis Pro - $170
Monitor: Samsung 955DF - $190
Sound Card: SoundBlaster Live! 5.1 OEM - $25
Speakers: Logitech Z-640 6-Piece Speaker System - $60
CD/DVD-ROM: LITE-ON 16X DVD ROM - $32
Communications: Onboard LAN - $0
Mouse: Microsoft Intellimouse Optical - $10
Keyboard: Microsoft Multimedia Keyboard - $15
Operating System: Windows XP Home - $83
Floppy: Panasonic, TEAC, etc. - $8

Total: $1.003

Intel Pentium 4 System

Case: Antec SX630II Case (PP303XP PSU) - $65
CPU: Pentium 4-1.8A GHz Retail - $125
Cooling: included Retail HSF - $0
Motherboard: Soyo SY-P4I 845PE Lite - $85
Memory: 512-MB PC2700 DDR - $52
Hard Drive: 60GB Seagate Barracuda V - $84
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon 9500 Atlantis Pro - $170
Monitor: Samsung 955DF - $190
Sound Card: SoundBlaster Live! 5.1 OEM - $25
Speakers: Logitech Z-640 6-Piece Speaker System - $60
CD/DVD-ROM: LITE-ON 16X DVD ROM - $32
Communications: Onboard LAN - $0
Mouse: Microsoft Intellimouse Optical - $10
Keyboard: Microsoft Multimedia Keyboard - $15
Operating System: Windows XP Home - $83
Floppy: Panasonic, TEAC, etc. - $8

Total: $1.004

Conclusion

Okay, so we went over budget by a few bucks, but anytime you can add some serious hardware to the mix and keep the overflow under $5, then go for it. These are both extremely powerful gaming systems, especially when the $1K budget is taken into consideration for a fully-loaded gaming system complete with 19" monitor. The upgrade to the Athlon XP 2200+ and nForce2 motherboard is a great one, as is the incredible addition of the Radeon 9500 Pro to the overall mix. We've also doubled the memory to 512-MB, and upgraded the hard drive, speakers and keyboard selections as well. There are certain times when the prices and new product announcements collide and make buying a new value system a great deal. Guess what, that time is now.

In terms of overall performance, the AMD system is a bit faster at stock speeds and the nForce2 motherboard is a real gem for gaming performance. The Intel system is no slouch either, and the i845PE is certainly high-performance, and since the Soyo board also features a wealth of overclocking options (including AGP/PCI bus locking) 1.8 GHz is just scratching the surface of what this system can achieve. Once you start playing with the FSB speeds, the Pentium 4 Northwood will advance rapidly and potentially overtake the Athlon XP. The MSI nForce2 board also has its share of tweaks and newer Athlon XP cores are getting rave reviews from overclockers. Either way you slice it, both systems are very high-performance for the price range, and are starting to look like some High-End systems of not that long ago. As we stated above, the timing is definitely right to put together one killer of a value gaming system.

* 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.