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Sharky Extreme : Monthly Value Gaming System Buyer's Guide |
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Monthly Value Gaming System Buyer's Guide |
March Value Gaming PC Buyer's Guide - Page 4By Vince Freeman March 10, 2006When it comes to choosing the memory for our AMD and Intel systems, we still look at these as distinct configurations, rather than using a "one size fits all" memory recommendation. Instead, the configurations are evaluated separately, and the budget is allocated in the most logical way. Each platform has its own set of requirements, and we can use this to achieve the best overall DDR memory value. We believe that maximizing the $1K budget is what real-world buyers would do, which is even more important with fluctuating memory prices.
Current Cost: $67 We continue to have both AMD and Intel platforms using PC3200 DRR, and for very good reason. Although DDR2 has dropped in price in many areas (especially for high-performance systems), at the entry-level position, DDR is still the price leader. Corsair Value Select PC3200 DDR remains the top choice for both platforms, and the configuration remains consistent between platforms. For our dual-channel DDR systems, we're not looking this gift horse in the mouth, and are grabbing 2x512-MB of PC3200 for the bargain price of only $67. Moving any higher on the DDR chart would be overkill, just as going with high-end PC4200 would be a waste of our budget.
Both of our Intel 915P and NVIDIA nForce4 platforms support dual-channel DDR, and we've finally gotten the 915PL's "limit of a single DIMM per channel" monkey off our backs. By utilizing 1-GB of PC3200, we make sure that an immediate upgrade is not required, but both systems can add two additional DDR modules, if a memory upgrade is required in the future. After all, a value system configuration with 1-GB of name brand DDR is not something you will need to upgrade anytime soon. The 2x512-MB format also ensures we utilize the dual-channel memory architectures to its fullest, keeping up with the requirements of the mainstream Pentium 4 and Athlon 64 processors. We've budgeted for Corsair Value PC3200, but there are other brands at the same price range, such as Kingmax, Geil Value, Samsung, PDP, Rosewill, or Komusa DDR. Overall, the 1-GB of total memory capacity ensures that both of our value PCs will be able to handle current 3D games with ease, and have a lot of headroom for upcoming ones as well.
Current Cost: $80
Current Cost: $65 The Intel 915P and NVIDIA nForce4 chipsets are designed with Serial ATA in mind, and have the SATA ports to prove it, so it's only natural we choose this hard drive format. Price is definitely not a factor between the two, as Serial ATA drives continue to drop in relation to PATA models, and most comparable models are priced equivalently. This month we simply did not have the available budget for our Intel system to keep the impressive 120GB Seagate Barracuda SATA drive, so we had to shave some cash off the budget and use the 120GB Western Digital SATA hard drive instead.
120-GB should really be the starting point of any current system design, and both the Seagate and WD drives qualify on this count. Both also include a 7200 RPM speed and a healthy 8-MB of cache, and but only the Seagate drive brings NCQ to the table. NCQ support is nice to have, but it is not a deal-breaking feature at the value system end, and both of these 120-GB hard drives have the capacity and speed necessary to keep our two systems humming along.
Current Cost: $27
Even an entry-level gaming system should have the ability to write to CDR/RW and read DVD media, and there is no easier or more cost-effective method than with a combo drive. These drives are popular for both value and convenience, as these units can handle the gamut of CDR/RW writing, CD reading and DVD playback duties. The Toshiba SD-R1612 combo drive used over the past few months has been moving up in price, and our budget simply could not take the strain. So we're switching to another low-cost unit that has caught our eye in 2006, the Gigabyte GOB-5232AW. It offers the same basic specifications as the Toshiba, including 52X CDR and 32X CDRW write speeds, along with 52X CD and 16X DVD read speeds. It also includes data underrun technology for smooth and stable data writes, and various noise reduction and read/write integrity features. The Gigabyte drive has a 2-MB data cache, and gives us a very inexpensive way of adding CDR/RW and DVD-read options to our value gaming systems.
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