January Value Gaming PC Buyer's Guide - Page 8

Price Roundup

AMD Athlon 64 System

Case: Aspire X-Dreamer II (with 350W PSU) - $55
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3400+ Retail - $218
Cooling: included Retail HSF - $0
Motherboard: MSI K8T Neo-FSR - $70
Memory: 512-MB Generic PC3200 DDR - $66
Hard Drive: 80GB Western Digital SE (8-MB) PATA - $60
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT 128-MB (AGP)- $206
Monitor: Iiyama Vision Master 1451 (LS902UT) - $136
Sound Card: 6-Channel Integrated - $0
Speakers: Logitech Z640 6-Piece Speaker System - $43
CD/DVD-ROM: AOpen COM5232 Combo Drive - $35
Communications: Onboard LAN - $0
Mouse: Microsoft Intellimouse Optical - $15
Keyboard: Microsoft Multimedia Keyboard - $15
Operating System: Windows XP Home - $78

Total: $997

Intel Pentium 4 System

Case: Aspire X-Dreamer II (with 350W PSU) - $55
CPU: Pentium 4 540 (3.2 GHz) Retail - $214
Cooling: included Retail HSF - $0
Motherboard: EPoX EP-5EPAJ - $84 (+ $4 24-pin adapter)
Memory: 2 x 256-MB PC3200 DDR - $75
Hard Drive: 80GB Seagate Barracuda (8-MB) SATA - $69
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT 128-MB (PCIe)- $179
Monitor: Iiyama Vision Master 1451 (LS902UT) - $136
Sound Card: 8-Channel Integrated - $0
Speakers: Logitech Z640 6-Piece Speaker System - $43
CD/DVD-ROM: AOpen COM5232 Combo Drive - $35
Communications: Onboard LAN - $0
Mouse: Microsoft Intellimouse Optical - $15
Keyboard: Microsoft Multimedia Keyboard - $15
Operating System: Windows XP Home - $78

Total: $1,002

Closing Remarks

We have been taking the upgrade path with the last few updates to our Value Gaming PC Buyer's Guide, but nothing can compare to this edition. Not only did we upgrade both processors, we also moved to a higher-end Intel motherboard, and were able to tone a few of the other components as well. The cherry on top has to be the addition of the incredibly powerful GeForce 6600 GT 128-MB video card to the mix, and the sheer gaming performance it allows us. This is a significant upgrade to say the least, and we were glad to be able to work a PCI Express system for the Intel side, and make use of the lower PCIe video card prices. The only area we really needed to make concessions on was the monitor, which due to a low budget and increasing CRT prices, needed to be downgraded a bit.

The AMD and Intel systems are looking especially good for 2005, and both sport a very attractive mix of mid-range and high-end hardware, with the processors and video cards being the most impressive. These are both kick-ass gaming systems for the class, and it is very surprising what kind of PC you can put together for a cool $1K. Both systems include high-performance CPUs, fast motherboards, 512-MB of PC3200 DDR, 7200 RPM hard drives, CDR/RW and DVD-ROM capabilities, with the powerful GeForce 6600 GT 128-MB video card pumping up the framerates. If overall value is your main goal, these value gaming PCs certainly deliver, and both 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.