March Value Gaming PC Buyer's Guide - Page 8

Price Roundup

AMD Athlon XP System

Case: Aspire X-Dreamer II (with 350W PSU) - $50
CPU: AMD Athlon XP 2800+ Barton Retail - $121
Cooling: included Retail HSF - $0
Motherboard: ASUS A7N8X - $85
Memory: 512-MB (2x256-MB) Corsair PC3200 DDR - $92
Hard Drive: 80GB Western Digital SE - $70
Video Card: ATI Radeon 9700 Pro 128-MB OEM - $179
Monitor: Samsung 955DF - $175
Sound Card: 6-Channel Integrated - $0
Speakers: Logitech Z640 6-Piece Speaker System - $60
CD/DVD-ROM: AOpen 48x24x48x16 Combo Drive - $47
Communications: Onboard LAN - $0
Mouse: Microsoft Intellimouse Optical - $15
Keyboard: Microsoft Multimedia Keyboard - $15
Operating System: Windows XP Home - $82
Floppy: Panasonic, TEAC, etc. - $8

Total: $999

Intel Pentium 4 System

Case: Aspire X-Dreamer II (with 350W PSU) - $50
CPU: Pentium 4-2.8 GHz (533) Retail - $165
Cooling: included Retail HSF - $0
Motherboard: ABIT IS7-E - $80
Memory: 2 x 256-MB PC2700 DDR - $72
Hard Drive: 80GB Western Digital - $56
Video Card: ATI Radeon 9700 Pro 128-MB OEM - $179
Monitor: Samsung 955DF - $175
Sound Card: 6-Channel Integrated - $0
Speakers: Logitech Z640 6-Piece Speaker System - $60
CD/DVD-ROM: AOpen 48x24x48x16 Combo Drive - $47
Communications: Onboard LAN - $0
Mouse: Microsoft Intellimouse Optical - $15
Keyboard: Microsoft Multimedia Keyboard - $15
Operating System: Windows XP Home - $82
Floppy: Panasonic, TEAC, etc. - $8

Total: $1,004

Conclusion

Usually, the value guide updates are a collection of incremental improvements and status quo choices, but this time out, we tried to rise to the challenge. We really wanted to take the bull by the horns and determine if a faster 3D video card could be added to enhance game speed, all without impacting the overall design or features of our two systems. It was a pretty tight race, but in the end, these are without a doubt the two highest-performing systems ever included in the value guide. The Radeon 9700 Pro really jump-starts both the AMD and Intel systems, and we haven't dropped back much at all in terms of other components. Basically, we made use of some price decreases, and moved back our hard drive selections to be more in tune with an entry-level gaming system.

The overall performance race is pretty even when it comes to AMD vs. Intel, and it may remain this way for some time. The Athlon XP 2800+ and Pentium 4-2.8 GHz both represent the best overall price-performance level at the mid-range, and there is a steep climb up to the 3.0 GHz and 3000+ level. At stock clock speeds, these two would give some high-end systems a good run for the money, and any real differences between the AMD and Intel configurations would likely come out when overclocking.

This month's component list is another mind-boggling collection of seemingly-high-end parts that have been stuffed into a $1K budget. These include high-performance CPUs, 512-MB of dual-channel PC3200 DDR, 7200 RPM hard drives, CDR/RW and DVD-ROM capabilities, and a hotrod Radeon 9700 Pro 128-MB video card to give it the finishing touch. If overall value is your main goal, these value gaming systems certainly deliver, and offer a noticeable price-performance advantage over our higher-priced guide configurations.

* 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.