June Value Gaming PC Buyer's Guide - Page 8

Price Roundup

AMD Athlon XP System

Case: Aspire X-Dreamer II (with 350W PSU) - $52
CPU: AMD Athlon XP 3000+ Barton Retail - $144
Cooling: included Retail HSF - $0
Motherboard: MSI K7N2 Delta-L - $63
Memory: 512-MB (2x256-MB) Corsair PC3200 DDR - $97
Hard Drive: 80GB Western Digital SE (8-MB) - $68
Video Card: ATI Radeon 9700 Pro 128-MB OEM - $184
Monitor: Samsung 955DF - $185
Sound Card: 6-Channel Integrated - $0
Speakers: Logitech Z640 6-Piece Speaker System - $58
CD/DVD-ROM: AOpen COM5232 Combo Drive - $45
Communications: Onboard LAN - $0
Mouse: Microsoft Intellimouse Optical - $15
Keyboard: Microsoft Multimedia Keyboard - $15
Operating System: Windows XP Home - $81
Floppy: - $0

Total: $1,007

Intel Pentium 4 System

Case: Aspire X-Dreamer II (with 350W PSU) - $52
CPU: Pentium 4-2.8 GHz (533) Retail - $154
Cooling: included Retail HSF - $0
Motherboard: MSI 865PE NEO2-PLS - $74
Memory: 2 x 256-MB PC3200 DDR - $81
Hard Drive: 80GB Western Digital - $60
Video Card: ATI Radeon 9700 Pro 128-MB OEM - $184
Monitor: Samsung 955DF - $185
Sound Card: 6-Channel Integrated - $0
Speakers: Logitech Z640 6-Piece Speaker System - $58
CD/DVD-ROM: AOpen COM5232 Combo Drive - $45
Communications: Onboard LAN - $0
Mouse: Microsoft Intellimouse Optical - $15
Keyboard: Microsoft Multimedia Keyboard - $15
Operating System: Windows XP Home - $81
Floppy: - $0

Total: $1,004

Conclusion

This month we get managed to slide in a few upgrades, but for the most part, the components remained unchanged. This is due to stagnant, and even rising, prices in much of the entry-level market, and AMD's insistence on raising the bar at the high-end, yet not tossing back any table scraps back to the entry-level buyer. Intel isn't doing much better, and it's been a long time since across-the-board Pentium 4 price cuts have taken effect. We're still very pleased with the overall system configuration, as both Intel and AMD systems sport fast CPUs, dual-channel DDR platforms, and a powerful video card to really pump the game frame rates.

The value performance race is sticking at close to a draw between the two PCs, and neither Intel nor AMD can really lay claim to a noticeable advantage. We'd have to give AMD and their Athlon XP 3000+ a slim edge this time out, but for those who want to overclock to the hilt, it's tough to pick the potential champ. One area we want to solidify in the future is the video components, and if this means nabbing a scaled down Radeon 9800 Pro with 128-bit memory and a different monitor, then that's where we're going to hit. Otherwise, it'll be another exercise in penny pinching and tight system configuration, with the emphasis on performance and quality components.

This month's systems are again a nice mix of the mid-range and high-end, and it's quite amazing what you can buy for a cool $1K. These include high-performance CPUs, 512-MB of dual-channel PC3200 DDR, 7200 RPM hard drives, CDR/RW and DVD-ROM capabilities, and a powerful Radeon 9700 Pro 128-MB video card to top it all off. 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.