May 2006 Value Gaming PC Buyer's Guide - Page 8

Price Roundup

AMD Athlon 64 System

Case: Aspire X-Dreamer II (with 420W PSU) - $55
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Retail - $187
Cooling: included Retail HSF - $0
Motherboard: MSI K8N Neo4-F - $72 (+ $4 for 24-pin adapter)
Memory: 1-GB (2x512-MB) Corsair Value PC3200 - $80
Hard Drive: 120GB WD Caviar SE (8-MB) SATA 3.0 Gb/s - $67
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT 256MB (PCIe) - $168
Monitor: 17" LCD with 8-12ms Refresh - $180
Sound Card: 8-Channel Integrated - $0
Speakers: Logitech X-530 6-Piece Speaker System - $51
CD/DVD-ROM: Samsung SH-M522C Combo Drive - $24
Communications: Onboard LAN - $0
Mouse: Logitech MX310 - $20
Keyboard: Microsoft Multimedia Keyboard - $15
Operating System: Windows XP Home - $72

Total: $995

Intel Pentium D System

Case: Aspire X-Dreamer II (with 420W PSU) - $55
CPU: Pentium D 920 (2.8 GHz) Retail - $203
Cooling: included Retail HSF - $0
Motherboard: MSI 945PL Neo-F (i945PL) - $76 (+ $4 for 24-pin adapter)
Memory: 1-GB (2x512-MB) Generic PC2-4300 - $68
Hard Drive: 120GB WD Caviar SE (8-MB) SATA 3.0 Gb/s - $67
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT 256MB (PCIe) - $168
Monitor: 17" LCD with 8-12ms Refresh - $180
Sound Card: 8-Channel Integrated - $0
Speakers: Logitech X-530 6-Piece Speaker System - $51
CD/DVD-ROM: Samsung SH-M522C Combo Drive - $24
Communications: Onboard LAN - $0
Mouse: Logitech MX310 - $20
Keyboard: Microsoft Multimedia Keyboard - $15
Operating System: Windows XP Home - $72

Total: $1,003

Closing Remarks

This latest Value Gaming PC Buyer's Guide, while not the same kind of total system overhauls we saw during 2005, still holds some very important upgrades and improvements. These were due to a combination of opportune price drops and new mainstream product introductions, and in a bit of a surprise, mostly affected the Intel configuration. The major upgrade was the addition of the dual core Pentium D 920 processor, which was aided by the incredible price drops Intel recently introduced, with some prices being cut in half. This upgrade brings the Intel system up to speed, and potentially pushes it by AMD in terms of entry-level platforms.

The other noticeable upgrade was the GeForce 7600 GT 256MB graphics card, which improves both performance and features quite noticeably, while offering a cooler-running, more streamlined card. The other changes to the AMD and Intel configurations were mostly due to price, availability, and new products entering the market. Because of the Pentium D 920, the Intel system required a new motherboard and a shift to DDR2 memory. Both systems received a Western Digital Caviar 120GB SATA 3.0 Gb/s hard drive and Samsung SH-M522C Combo drive, which was due to value and availability more than performance considerations.

As usual, both the AMD and Intel systems are looking very fit for Summer 2006, and these two systems continue to offer mainstream or higher performance, but at a budget price. As we like to say each month, it is surprising what kind of PC you can put together for a cool $1K. At the end of the day, these are two very well-equipped PCs. Our value gaming systems come complete with mainstream CPUs, PCI Express motherboards, 7200 RPM SATA 3.0 Gb/s hard drives, CDR/RW and DVD-ROM capabilities, and an upgraded GeForce 7600 GT 256MB PCIe video card. If overall value is your main goal, these AMD and Intel gaming PCs certainly deliver, and both offer a noticeable price-performance advantage over our higher-end buyer's 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.