Weekly Buyer's Guide: Overclocking System - March 2004

Overclocking System Summary

Hardware	Component	Price
CPU & Cooling	AMD Athlon XP 2500+ Mobile (OEM). SLK-947U HSF + Vantec Fan	$151
Motherboard	ABIT NF7-S Rev.2 (nForce2 Ultra 400)	$98
Memory	2 X 512MB Mushkin PC3500 CAS2	$215
Video Card	128MB Gigabyte Radeon 9600 Pro	$138
Monitor	Samsung 955DF DynaFlat CRT	$200
Computer Case	Kingwin K11 Aluminum ATX plus $68 430W Antec PSU	$138
Sound Card	Creative Labs Audigy 2 6.1 OEM	$70
Speakers	Logitech Z640 5.1	$62
Networking	Onboard 10/100 Ethernet or 10/100/1000 Gigabit controller	$0
Hard Drive	Western Digital 1200JB (120GB)	$87
CD-RW	Plextor 52x32x52 CDRW	$44
Bottom Line	-	$1203

$1203 is the final price of our overclocking system, not including any money you'll spend on software (Windows XP Home or Professional, Office, etc.) or a keyboard and mouse.

Long-time overclockers are absolutely going to love a setup like this. They'll have quality DDR that they can use for many months, if not years, to come, and will enjoy great performance and stability at the same time. Beginning overclockers should consult our forums for more information on how to overclock, as it can be dangerous for inexperienced users. What we've talked about in this guide may be difficult to understand if you don't have some type of background in modern day overclocking, making AnandTech's forums (or any good online hardware forum, really) the best place for you to ask for building advice.


UPDATED March 18th, 2004