December Value Gaming PC Buyer's Guide - Page 8

Price Roundup

AMD Athlon 64 X2 System

Case: Antec Sonata II (with 450W PSU) - $87
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ (2.2 GHz) Retail - $173
Cooling: included Retail HSF - $0
Motherboard: Biostar TForce 550 AM2 - $78
Memory: 1-GB (2x512-MB) Generic PC2-4200 - $86
Hard Drive: 120GB WD Caviar SE (8-MB) SATA 3.0 Gb/s - $55
Video Card: GeForce 7900 GS 256MB (PCIe) - $179
Monitor: 17" LCD with 8-12ms Refresh - $160
Sound Card: 8-Channel Integrated - $0
Speakers: Logitech X-530 6-Piece Speaker System - $50
CD/DVD-ROM: Samsung SH-S182D 16X DVD Writer - $29
Communications: Onboard LAN - $0
Mouse: Logitech MX310 - $23
Keyboard: Microsoft Multimedia Keyboard - $15
Operating System: Windows XP Home - $74

Total: $1,009

Intel Core 2 Duo System

Case: Antec Sonata II (with 450W PSU) - $87
CPU: Core 2 Duo E6300 (1.86GHz) Retail - $178
Cooling: included Retail HSF - $0
Motherboard: MSI 945P Neo3-F (i945P) - $76
Memory: 1-GB (2x512-MB) Generic PC2-4200 - $86
Hard Drive: 120GB WD Caviar SE (8-MB) SATA 3.0 Gb/s - $55
Video Card: GeForce 7900 GS 256MB (PCIe) - $179
Monitor: 17" LCD with 8-12ms Refresh - $160
Sound Card: 8-Channel Integrated - $0
Speakers: Logitech X-530 6-Piece Speaker System - $50
CD/DVD-ROM: Samsung SH-S182D 16X DVD Writer - $29
Communications: Onboard LAN - $0
Mouse: Logitech MX310 - $23
Keyboard: Microsoft Multimedia Keyboard - $15
Operating System: Windows XP Home - $74

Total: $1,012

Closing Remarks

Our latest Value Gaming PC Buyer's Guide is basically a fine-tuning of the overall mix, and not a total system overhaul. This time we've targeted one specific area, and it is an extremely important one for a gaming system. The addition of the GeForce 7900 GS 256MB card represents a noticeable upgrade over the GeForce 7600 GT, and is the perfect mix of value and performance in a sub-$200 video card. This gives both our AMD and Intel systems a decidedly high-end polish, and gives us more power where we need it most. Unfortunately, there was not much we could do in the other areas, as processor and memory prices have dropped significantly since our last guide, and other peripheral prices have stagnated as well. On the bright side, the GeForce 7900 GS 256MB upgrade did not force any downgrades, although we were forced to move just above the $1K limit in pursuit of the top gaming systems.

Both of the AMD and Intel systems continue to show very similar performance levels, and a very evenly matched in terms of price-performance ratings. Either of the two configurations would make a killer holiday system, as these systems 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. Our value gaming systems come complete with impressive Core 2 Duo and Athlon 64 X2 processors, new PCI Express motherboards, 7200 RPM SATA 3.0 Gb/s hard drives, CD and DVD writing capabilities, and a very fast GeForce 7900 GS 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.