Gaming Buyer's Guide - November 2004
by Jarred Walton on November 21, 2004 5:54 PM EST- Posted in
- Guides
Core Component Summary
As we have up to now listed entire system configurations, we won't bother summarizing the systems again. Instead, we will do the reverse and list the various components and price segments of each component, including the alternatives that we have listed throughout the article. As long as you make sure that the CPU, RAM and motherboard choices match up, you can use this page as a summary of potential components and piece together your own dream system.Our RealTime Pricing Engine is also available for those seeking additional options in each category. We have been working on improving the search capabilities, so give it a shot if you haven't yet! We have linked in several searches into the tables below to help out.
We begin with the core components relative to gaming: the motherboard, processor, RAM and video card. Your choice of motherboard will determine your platform - i.e. what type of CPU, RAM and video card you can use - but there are still many levels of performance within each platform.
Motherboards | ||
Target Segment | Component | Price |
Budget | Chaintech VNF-250 (754) (Socket 754 Components) | 71 |
Budget+ | Abit AV8 (939) (Socket 939 Components) | 101 |
Mid-Range | DFI 915P-TAG i915P (Socket 775 Components) | 118 |
Mid-Range | Abit AG8 i915P Chipset | 129 |
Mid-Range | MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum | 131 |
Starting with the motherboard, in the budget bracket, we have socket 754 coming in with the lowest price of $71. There are some other motherboards that are slightly cheaper, but reliability is a concern with most of them, so we opt instead to spend the extra $10 to $15. Coming in at a slightly higher price is the Abit AV8 socket 939 motherboard. With dual-channel memory support, the platform will outperform a socket 754 setup clock for clock; however, the additional cost of the motherboard, CPU, and dual DIMMs is outweighed by the option to simply purchase a faster socket 754 processor - at least, this is true in the budget segment. We've already talked about the performance advantage that AMD has over Intel in processors, but the Intel chipsets are still some of the best and they are reasonably priced. At the top end, we have the socket 939 motherboards. You'll notice that there really aren't any "high-end" parts that we would recommend. $200+ motherboards do exist, but they don't offer enough in the way of additional features to make us recommend them. That should change once the NForce4 SLI and other dual-PEG (PCI Express Graphics) boards start shipping.
Processors | ||
Target Segment | Component | Price |
Budget | AMD Athlon 64 2800+ 512K 1.8 GHz (754) (AMD socket 754) | 127 |
Budget | AMD Athlon 64 3000+ 512K 2.0 GHz (754) (AMD socket 939) | 146 |
Budget+ | Pentium 4 520 2.8 GHz 1MB Cache (Intel socket 775) | 158 |
Budget+ | AMD Athlon 64 3000+ 512K 1.8 GHz (939) 90nm | 166 |
Budget+ | Pentium 4 530 3.0 GHz 1MB Cache | 171 |
Budget+ | AMD Athlon 64 3200+ 512K 2.2 GHz (754) | 189 |
Mid-Range | AMD Athlon 64 3200+ 512K 2.0 GHz (939) 90nm | 216 |
Mid-Range | Pentium 4 540 3.2 GHz 1MB Cache | 218 |
Mid-Range | AMD Athlon 64 3400+ 512K 2.4 GHz (754) | 219 |
Mid-Range | Pentium 4 550 3.4 GHz 1MB Cache | 277 |
Mid-Range | AMD Athlon 64 3500+ 512K 2.2 GHz (939) 90nm | 285 |
High-End+ | AMD Athlon 64 FX-55 1MB 2.6 GHz (939) | 877 |
You can see the price scaling compared to performance quite well here. Socket 939 chips generally outperform their socket 754 clockspeed counterparts by 5% to 10%, but you can see that the socket 754 parts are still significantly cheaper. For instance, the 939 3000+ runs at 1.8 GHz and sits in between the 754 3000+ 2.0 GHz and the 754 3200+ 2.2 GHz in price. For games, it's also right in between those two chips - at least when paired with dual-channel RAM. When every penny counts, we'll stick with 754 for the budget system, but saving up the extra $75 to upgrade might be a better idea. In the mid-range, where price/performance isn't the overriding concern, socket 939 clearly wins out. The dual-channel memory roughly matches the performance of the higher clocked 754 parts, and the 90 nm chips improve it with an additional few percent in performance. At the high end, we feel that the FX-55 is the only option truly worth considering. If you feel that the price is too much for that level of performance, the same can be said of the 3800+ and 4000+. The 3800+ is double the cost of the 3500+ and is only clocked 200 MHz faster, while the 4000+ doubles the L2 cache to 1 MB. Together, these only add 10% to 20% to the performance of the processor.
Video Cards | ||
Target Segment | Component | Price |
Budget+ | XFX GeFORCE 6600GT 128 MB PCIe (NVIDIA 6600 Series) | 178 |
Budget+ | ATI X700 Pro 250 PCIe (ATI X700 Series) | 189 |
Budget+ | Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro 128 MB 256-bit AGP (ATI 9800 Series) | 196 |
Mid-Range | XFX GeForce 6600GT AGP 128 MB | 229 |
Mid-Range | Leadtek GeFORCE 6800 128MB GDDR AGP (NVIDIA 6800 Series) | 273 |
Mid-Range+ | Albatron GeFORCE 6800 GT 256MB GDDR3 AGP | 374 |
High-End | ATI X800 Pro VIVO PCIe (ATI X800 Series) | 449 |
High-End | Gigabyte X800 XT 256 MB GDDR3 AGP | 456 |
High-End | XFX 6800 GT 256 MB GDDR3 PCIe | 456 |
High-End | eVGA 6800 Ultra 256 MB GDDR3 AGP | 524 |
High-End | Sapphire X800 XT PE 256 MB GDDR3 AGP | 555 |
High-End+ | Two XFX 6800 GT 256 MB GDDR3 PCIe (SLI) | 912 |
Graphics cards are an interesting phenomenon among computer components right now. Unlike processors and motherboards where the price can double for only small improvements in performance and/or features, video card performance scales almost linearly with price. In fact, the PCI Express 6600GT is actually faster and/or cheaper than the comparable AGP parts. The X700 Pro is also an option, but we feel that the increased RAM and core speeds of the 6600GT are preferable to the additional RAM. As this is the most important component in a gaming rig, we suggest that you spend as much money as possible on this component. Anyone seriously considering waiting for SLI components to ship should take a look at our reality check. Assuming the parts are SLI compliant and not counting the additional cost of the SLI-capable motherboard, two of the cheapest 6800 GT PCI Express parts currently cost over $900. Two 6600 GT cards in SLI would be a lot less expensive, but our early testing showed that the 6600GT in SLI was only able to match the performance of a single 6800 GT at best. SLI does have the potential to nearly double your GPU performance, but you'll need to shell out a lot of money for it when it first launches.
Memory | ||
Target Segment | Component | Price |
Budget | 1x512MB Mushkin Basic 2.5-4-4 (512 MB PC3200 RAM) | 75 |
Mid-Range | Mushkin Dual Pack 2x512 PC3200 2.5-3-3 | 159 |
Mid-Range | 2x512MB PDP Systems (Patriot) PC3200 2-3-2 1T | 192 |
High-End | 2x512MB Crucial Ballistix 2-2-2 1T | 262 |
High-End | 2x512MB OCZ Platinum Rev. 2 PC3200 2-2-2 1T | 275 |
Notably absent from our RAM recommendations are any DDR2 parts. Perhaps in another 3 to 6 months, prices will have come close enough to parity with DDR that we will begin recommending DDR2; but for now, low latency DDR outperforms the best DDR2 and still costs less. The fact that DDR2 is at present an Intel-only option doesn't help matters. For the small increase in performance that lower timings provide, more RAM is a much better choice for the budget and mid-range segments. For overclockers and performance enthusiasts, though, low latency RAM is the way to go. The fastest 2-2-2 PC3200 may only be 5% to 10% faster than the slowest PC3200 RAM, but then the FX-55 is only 5% to 10% faster than the 3800+ and costs several hundred dollars more.
For those looking at the budget system and wondering which upgrades would provide the most tangible benefit, we would recommend them in the following order of increasing performance. First GPU, then CPU, and lastly, RAM. (Motherboards generally don't vary all that much in performance, so the only real benefit is the additional features like Firewire and RAID that come on the more expensive models.) Here is our reasoning on the upgrade importance:
First, graphics cards are usually the most expensive component in any gaming system, but they also have the largest impact in most games. They don't really hold their value too well either, so if you purchase a 9800 Pro and decide it's too slow, you'll be looking at $250+ to upgrade to something faster and you may only get about half of your investment in your original card back. It's better to start with a 6800 or 6800 GT if you can afford the extra cost.
The same goes for processors, although they cost less than graphics cards. If you buy a 2800+ and find it to be somewhat sluggish, you'll end up with an extra CPU - which you can try to sell - and a faster model can cost over $200. The AMD 3200+ to 3500+ is the sweet spot in terms of price/performance, which is what we recommend shooting for when possible. Note that for some game types like flight simulators, the CPU can be more of a bottleneck than the GPU, so if you play more simulations than first-person shooters, take that into consideration.
Finally, we have the memory. Unlike GPUs and CPUs, RAM can be upgraded at any point in the future with no loss in investment. You can start with 512 MB in single channel mode and then upgrade to 1 GB and dual-channel mode when you have the funds available - at least on socket 939 and 775. Unfortunately, additional RAM is less likely to help performance, particularly after you pass the 1 GB mark.
Taken together, these upgrades would push the price of the budget system to $1000 or more. If you feel the Mid-Range system is too expensive, however, taking these four parts from the Mid-Range and sticking with the remainder of choices on the Budget system is a good compromise. Overclocking would also be a way to improve performance, but you would want better RAM for that - you might look at the PDP (Patriot) 2-3-2 PC3200 RAM, as people have reported overclocks in the 230 to 250 MHz bus range with relaxed timings and it only costs about $20 more than the Mushkin RAM that we've recommended. Your mileage may vary, of course, and we won't dwell on this much more as this is not intended to replace the Overclocking Guide.
Those looking at our high-end parts as a list of potential upgrades would be in a similar situation, only that we would focus more on the graphics card than the CPU and RAM. If you're looking for the ultimate in graphics performance, waiting for SLI is still the best advice even though it adds $500 to the mid-range system. The CPU is overkill for all, but the wealthiest (or most serious) gamers, but so is SLI. SLI shifts the bottleneck so far towards the CPU that only those who run 1600x1200 with 4xAA and 8xAF will realize its full potential, and some games will still be bottlenecked by the CPU. For serious overclocking, the high-end RAM that we've listed would be a good upgrade, especially when paired with one of the 90 nm processors.
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benk - Monday, November 22, 2004 - link
The Dell 2001FP is listed at 799 and is often on sale for well below 700.Swaid - Monday, November 22, 2004 - link
Illissius -I was just about to suggest that. The Epox motherboard is a much better "buy" then the Chaintech now.
Illissius - Monday, November 22, 2004 - link
I agree with nearly all the choices, which can't be said for most other buying guides I've read :)My one suggestion is that the EPoX 8KDA3J costs nearly the same as the Chaintech VNF3-250, and has more functionality -- namely, it uses the 250Gb chipset.
kherman - Monday, November 22, 2004 - link
AGP:Anyone wondering aobut when it will be phased out, just look back to old PCI video cards. Took about 1-2 years for manufacturers to drop AGP support altogether. It's a supply demand issue.
As for mobo's I'd expect to see new mobo's w/AGP for atleast a year more. Some people iwll be using those older video cards after all. Also, multiple PCI-X slots are the goal and if I understand correctly, PCI altogether will be dropped, menaing network and sound cards will also need a PCI-X home.
Anyways...my 2 cents.
kherman - Monday, November 22, 2004 - link
How about RAID 5 for the "fully employed" system? Would be redundant and should give slightly faster load times ;)kherman - Monday, November 22, 2004 - link
"Budget Gaming System, Part Two"IMHO: Keep the 2800+ part and spend that extra $50 on a better video card. That will give better frame rates, IMO of course.
JarredWalton - Monday, November 22, 2004 - link
I've heard conflicting reports about the quality of gaming on the Dell 2001FP. Some people love it, and others think it's good but perhaps not great. The price on it is also subject to quite a bit of variation. Right now, I believe it's on sale for about the same as the Viewsonic, while "normally" it might be $1000 plus shipping. I have not actually used one in person, so I can't really comment on interpolation quality, but of the LCDs that I have used, I have yet to see one that offers interpolation of such a quality that I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it. Opinions on that, of course, differ.The same goes for the wireless mouse. Some people swear by the MX510. I've tried it, and I simply did not like it. The Microsoft wireless mice I've tried were even worse, however. Anyway, the choice of mouse is very personal. I really like the standard MS Optical five button. It's light and accurate enough that I don't have any complaints. Even with an unlimited budget, I would still buy that same mouse for my own use. I *could* go out and try numerous other mice, but I'm just not that concerned with that one peripheral. If you are, more power to you! :)
MiLLeRBoY - Monday, November 22, 2004 - link
Also, for the High-End Gaming, check out the new the Logitech Z-5500 Digital speakers. It's just a revamped version of the Z-680's design as well as adding more power. The subwoofer is noticeably larger than the former though. The retail price is $400.MiLLeRBoY - Monday, November 22, 2004 - link
DEMO24 - I have the 20.1" Dell 2001FP and it only has a 16ms response time. However, I don't see ghosting when playing games. I also play my games at 1024x768 with 4xAA when the LCD's native resolution is 1600x1200. The image interpolation is great, it doesn't look horrible even at 1280x1024 or 1024x768. And the price is around the same as the ViewSonic VP912B. However, I probably wouldn't mind using any of those two LCDs, they're both great.xsilver - Monday, November 22, 2004 - link
?? min 18A on 12v rail -- crap my PSU doesn't have that... will it not run a AMDs939? (15A -- enhance brand, respectable, heavy)