PERFORMANCE Doom 3: System Summary
| Hardware | Component | Price |
| CPU & Cooling | AMD Athlon 64 FX53 Socket 939 Retail | $825 |
| Motherboard | Abit AV8 (VIA K8T800 PRO) Socket 939 | $121 |
| Memory | 2GB (2 X 1024MB) OCZ PC3200 EB | $594 |
| Video Card | 256MB NVidia 6800 Ultra | $538 |
| Monitor | NEC/Mitsubishi FP2141SB 22" Diamondtron CRT | $664 |
| Computer Case | Coolermaster Praetorian (PAC-T01-E1) Silver $114 plus 520W OCZ Power Stream $138 Shipped |
$252 |
| Sound Card | Creative Labs Audigy 2 ZS 7.1 Retail | $83 |
| Speakers | Klipsch Pro Media Ultra 5.1 | $349 |
| Networking | Onboard 10/100/1000 Ethernet | $0 |
| Hard Drive | 74GB Western Digital 74GB Raptor 10,000 RPM (BOOT) + Hitachi 250GB 7200RPM SATA (Model 13G0255 - 8Mb) |
$177 $183 |
| DVD/CD-RW | Plextor PX-712A 12X DVD+/-R/RW | $140 |
| Bottom Line | $3926 | |
For $3926 you can put together a Performance Doom 3 system that will be the standard to which everyone else will compare. It certainly is not cheap, but if you want the best Doom 3 experience that you can find, this system will not disappoint.
Keep in mind that you still need to purchase a keyboard, mouse, Operating System, and of course, Doom 3.
The combination of the nVidia 6800 Ultra, the 22" Diamondtron NEC/Mitsubishi, and the FX53 will crank a beautiful Doom 3 picture at the highest frame rate possible and the greatest detail of any desktop system today. Add the wonderful surround capabilities of the Doom 3 played through an Audigy 2 driving Klipsch Pro Media speakers, and Doom 3 can actually make the hair on your neck stand up.
There are many reasons why most gamers prefer a CRT for gaming, but if you prefer a flat screen monitor the big and fast 20" Dell 2001FP at its new $810 price would be a great choice for Doom 3 or any other gaming. Dell recently reduced the price of the 2001FP from $999 to $810 which makes this very fast flat panel an easier pill to swallow. If you want the biggest, best flat-panel monitor you can buy, our Display Editor still recommends the Samsung 213T with a 21.3" screen. The 213T has also recently dropped to around $1040, which is a nice decrease from the $1200 of just a couple of months ago.
We included 2GB of OCZ 3200EB in a kit with two 1GB dimms. We chose the 2x1GB configuration over 4x512MB since you can still use 1T Command rate with 2 dimms. 4 dimms require a slower 2T command rate on the Athlon 64. None of the 1GB dimms we have seen can match the timings of the best 512MB dimms, but the OCZ 3200EB comes much closer than most with rated 2.5-2-3 timings. We found the performance was very close to a pair of the fastest 512's with the added advantage of 2GB of memory for Doom 3. It is even possible to go to 4GB with four of the 1GB dimms, but that seemed overkill based on what we saw in testing the impact of total memory on Doom 3 performance.
The Plextor 12X DVD burner is used due to Plextor's superb reputation and responsiveness to customer needs. It is also the only 12X DVD burner we have seen with 8MB of cache, which could make a difference at high DVD burning speeds. As a personal side note, when I have problems burning CDs or DVDs, or I have a game CD/DVD that is unreadable I always got to my Plextor. It normally will read most anything, and I'm confident that if the Plextor won't read it, then it is likely nothing will read it. That is always great assurance on a gaming PC.
We also used a 74GB 10,000RPM SATA hard drive for the fastest boot and Doom 3 load you can get short of high-end SCSI, plus a 250GB Hitachi with quiet fluid bearings to store the games, downloads, images, and add-ons that a hard-core gamer will accumulate.
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Wesley Fink - Monday, August 9, 2004 - link
#41 - This is a Buyers Guide for Doom 3. I doubt your friend would go out to buy a Ti200 system to play Doom 3. If $278 is too much video card for you then you could save $78 with a 9800 PRO and have half the framerate at 1024x768. Or you could save $140 by getting a 9600XT or 5700 Ultra and still get playable (over 30FPS) frame rates at lower quality at 640x480 and 800x600.Value means best performance for the buck as I see it. The two options above gave up too much perfomance for the savings in my opinion, but you are entitled to your opinion.
Perhaps I should have added a 4th Category called CHEAP Doom 3 System - if it can boot the game it is A-OK by me :-)
brian_riendeau - Monday, August 9, 2004 - link
$1000 value system? I thought I went to AnandTech, not Dell.com.Not everyone needs a $300 video card to be happy. You are WAY to caught up in "...another $100 you can get 40% more performance". Do you actually need that 40% more to enjoy the game? No. The game runs fine on cards much slower than a 6800. I have a friend who plays the game on a GF3 Ti200. I am not sure what his settings are, but the game runs fine for him. Maybe the difference is that he actually spends his time playing the game, not staring at textures on the walls and looking for 10 more frames per second to help kill those zombies.
//Editted
brian_riendeau - Monday, August 9, 2004 - link
$1000 value system? I thought I went to AnandTech, not Dell.com.Not everyone needs a $300 video card to be happy. You are WAY to caught up in "well another $100 you can get 40% more performance". Do you actually need that 40% more to enjoy the game? No. The game runs fine on card must slower than a 6800. I have a friend who plays the game on a Ti200. I am not sure what his settings are, but the game runs fine for him. Maybe the difference is that he actually spends his time playing the games, now staring at textures on the walls and looking for 10% more frames.
Zebo - Monday, August 9, 2004 - link
I always thought "value" was the highest point in the price to performance curve.If the Fx-53 were 8X faster than the A64 2800+ it would constitute a value as well. But since it's only about 30% faster for 700% more money it's a horrendous value.
This is why a lot of builders above are correct in recommending the 9800pro instead of the generic 6800. In fact, either the more expensive 6800 GT or the 9800pro repersent the best "value" of all video cards out right now since thier price to performance curve is the highest.
Anyway I agree with you guys, get the 9800 then a real nice monitor, which will make a huge diff:
9800pro OC $190
A64 2800 OC to 2.4 $140
ChainTech $70
Cheapest branded 512 cas 2.5 $75
NEC diamondtron DP930SB-BK 19" $280
Antec case Slk3700w 350W $65
Sony combo drive $40
Samsung 80 giger $63
Logitech Z640 5.1 $55
=980
link130 - Sunday, August 8, 2004 - link
reply to #32 Wesley Finkyou forget that we are talking about "Value PC" which is synonymous with "Buget PC" I also said you can upgrade the 9800pro to a 6800 with $80. with a 6800 the difference btw a 2800+ A64 and a 2.4ghz barton are very small if you refer to the charts on this site.
Murst - Sunday, August 8, 2004 - link
The review seems to make some good reccomendations... except I really cannot see why you would reccomend a 3400+ over a 3500+ when the difference in price is 75$ and the socket 939 has a future. I suppose if its ONLY to play Doom3....mickey - Sunday, August 8, 2004 - link
What I would really like to see in future articles especially based on a single game (no doubt the same will be done for hl2) is benchmarks of the corresponding systems so that we can make a decision as to whether or not going for a better system is worth the extra $$$$Wesley Fink - Sunday, August 8, 2004 - link
Yes, it is a bit freaky, pliers. I would also personally choose the 2800+ at just $27 more for twice the cache and 64-bit architecture. The 2800+ is also a decent overclocker.pliers - Sunday, August 8, 2004 - link
freaky that twice now youre like a few mins a head of me.pliers - Sunday, August 8, 2004 - link
So now your price is around $782. It a nice system but I would still lean more towards the anandtech system with the 2800+ a64 cpu which totals $1025. If you look at the two systems for $240 more youre getting a geforce 6800, a 19" monitor, and a 64bit processor. Thats insane for $240 more.