Price Roundup

AMD Athlon 64 X2 System

Case: RAIDMAX Smilodon ATX-612WBP (with 500W PSU) - $90
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ (3.0 GHz) Retail - $160
Cooling: included Retail HSF - $0
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-M57SLI-S4 (570 SLI) AM2 - $87
Memory: Corsair XMS2 PC2-6400 DHX 2x1-GB - $75
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB SATA 3.0 Gb/s - $65
Video Card: GeForce 8600 GTS 256MB (PCIe) - $147
Monitor: 19" LCD with 5-8ms Refresh - $165
Sound Card: 8-Channel Integrated - $0
Speakers: Logitech X-530 6-Piece Speaker System - $55
CD/DVD-ROM: LG GSA-H62NK 18X SATA DVD Writer - $29
Communications: Onboard LAN - $0
Mouse: Logitech MX310 - $24
Keyboard: Microsoft Digital Media Pro Keyboard - $15
Operating System: Windows XP Home or Vista Home Basic- $80

Total: $992

Intel Core 2 Duo System

Case: RAIDMAX Smilodon ATX-612WBP (with 500W PSU) - $90
CPU: Core 2 Duo E6750 (2.66GHz) Retail - $189
Cooling: included Retail HSF - $0
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L (P35) - $87
Memory: Mushkin PC2-6400 2x1-GB - $53
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB SATA 3.0 Gb/s - $65
Video Card: GeForce 8600 GTS 256MB (PCIe) - $147
Monitor: 19" LCD with 5-8ms Refresh - $165
Sound Card: 8-Channel Integrated - $0
Speakers: Logitech X-530 6-Piece Speaker System - $55
CD/DVD-ROM: LG GSA-H62NK 18X SATA DVD Writer - $29
Communications: Onboard LAN - $0
Mouse: Logitech MX310 - $24
Keyboard: Microsoft Digital Media Pro Keyboard - $15
Operating System: Windows XP Home or Vista Home Basic- $80

Total: $999

Closing Remarks

The latest Value Gaming PC Buyer's Guide configurations are not the quantum leaps we saw in the previous two guides, and the value sector seems to be cooling down somewhat. We've already moved up the line considerably on the processor side, with the 2.66 GHz Core 2 Duo E6750 and 3.0 GHz Athlon 64 X2 6000+ powering our "value" systems. We did manage to upgrade a few areas, like a larger hard drive and faster DDR2, but not in the two core areas. There was absolutely no way to squeeze a Radeon HD 3850 256MB into the equation, but the GeForce 8600 GTS 256MB is certainly a powerful second choice.

While both the AMD and Intel value gaming PCs continue to show very high performance levels, we would give the edge to the Intel system. Including a 2.66 GHz Core 2 running on the 1333 MHz bus for under $200 is incredible, and this type of "perfect storm pricing" is the main reason why the Intel value system gets the nod over the AMD configuration. The Athlon 64 X2 6000+ is certainly no slouch, and this was the flagship AMD processor until just recently, before the 3.2 GHz Athlon 64 X2 6400+ and Phenom quad cores.

The rest of the AMD and Intel system configurations are solid, and each includes high-end PCI Express motherboards, a 19" LCD, a 7200 RPM SATA 3.0 Gb/s hard drive, a SATA DVD writer, and a fast GeForce 8600 GTS 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.