July 2002 Value Gaming PC Buyer's Guide

We're back once again with $1,000 in cold, hard cash and the green light to spend it on the best PC gaming rig we can find. As in our other Sharky Extreme Buyers Guides, we match up each component's price and performance, and then make the pick as to the best combination of red-hot gaming hardware. The only real difference is in the actual budget allowed, which naturally has an effect on the overall hardware mix. Our Value Gaming PC Buyers Guide offers potentially the best deal of all, and if you are the type of gamer who counts your pennies before buying any new system, then this is the buyer's guide for you.

Configuring a value gaming system is not simply a process of picking the best components, but one of concessions made in your choices. After all, we could just run out and buy a high-end Pentium 4-2.53 GHz and a 21" monitor, only to discover later that our budget had been eaten up in one fell swoop. In our Value Gaming PC Buyer's Guide, we attempt to find a happy medium between spending a fortune on a new PC and making the mistake of choosing sub-par components just to hit a certain price point. Our value gaming rigs will still allow ultra-smooth gameplay, have more than enough CPU power for business and AV tasks, provide excellent image quality, as well as not forgetting gaming sound output and overall features. We also don't scour the bargain bins for available hardware, but choose from name brand components that offer the best price-performance ratio.

Since our last edition, there have not been a wide range of shifts in the market. Most of the action has occurred with pricing, with some components rising, while a few others decreased. AMD did release the Thoroughbred core, but Intel has remained uncharacteristically quiet about upcoming processors and the 2.53 GHz remains the top dog. We certainly won't be shopping at the deep end of the pool, but new processors usually translate into lower prices for the lower-speed models. We can still pack a whole lot of power into our $1,000 gaming system, but with DDR and Pentium 4 Northwood prices headed up, manufacturers simply aren't doing us any favors.

In this month's guide, we have also continued to confirm that the selected hardware is available at a few of the larger and most popular (with Sharky readers) online retailers. Although the price stated in the guide may not be exactly the same as in a specific online dealer, you can reckon on finding a significant percentage of the component list in their catalogues. This didn't limit our choices this month, but is more an added benefit of knowing that many online vendors do indeed carry the same items we are recommending.

Value Gaming PC Budget: $1000

Case: Antec SX630 (PP303XP PSU)

Even with a value system, the choice of a case is still a very important one. Our goal is to find a mini-tower that has the features we need, but won't put too much pressure on the wallet. Antec is a company renowned for their high-end power supplies, and their line of cases has really impressed us. Best of all, Antec offers products at different price points, and even have a few options for the entry-level buyer.

The Antec SX630 mini-tower case impresses with its excellent design, expansion options and cooling, and checks in at a bargain price of only $60. The SX630 also ships with an Antec PP303XP 300W power supply, and for many, the PSU alone is worth the cost of admission. The Antec PP303XP is not only a powerful, name brand unit, but is ATX 2.03 compliant and supports both all AMD and Intel platforms. These factors make the Antec SX630 just about as safe a pick as you can find for a value system, and with high availability among large online retailers, you certainly won't have a hard time finding one.