Gaming Buyer's Guide - November 2004

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.