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Gaming Buyer's Guide - November 2004

 by Jarred Walton on November 21, 2004 5:54 PM EST
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70 Comments

Intel Mid-Range Gaming System

Unlike in the value sector, there really isn't much benefit to selecting an Intel system for the Mid-Range. They cost more and offer less performance. How much of a difference is there? Well, the price is about $75 more, which isn't too bad, but the performance of the CPU in games is going to be 10% to 20% slower in CPU-limited situations. With the powerful video cards that we're using, the CPU will definitely play more of a factor than in the budget range. You can refer to the gaming benchmarks in our Athlon FX-55 article for a better look at this. The graphics card used was the X800 XT in both PCIe and AGP versions, and the Athlon 64 3500+ would sit between the 3200+ and 3800+ 939 chips in performance.

Mid-Range Intel Pentium 4 System
Hardware Recommended Component Price
Processor Pentium 4 550 3.4 GHz 1MB Cache 277
Motherboard Abit AG8 i915P Chipset 129
Memory Mushkin Dual Pack 2x512 PC3200 2.5-3-3 159
Video Card ATI X800 Pro PCI Express VIVO 449
Hard Drive Seagate 160GB SATA 7200RPM 8MB Model ST3160023AS 93
Optical Drive NEC DVD+/-RW Drive Model 3500A 72
Case and Power Supply Antec SLK3700-BQE with 350W 91
Display Samsung SyncMaster 997DF 19 CRT 234
Speakers Logitech Z-640 5.1 52
Keyboard Logitech Internet Keyboard 17
Mouse Microsoft IntelliMouse Optical 24
Bottom Line   1597


Click to enlarge.
Due to the current scarcity of high-end PCI Express graphics cards, we have selected the X800 Pro for the Intel Mid-Range System. This particular model includes VIVO functionality. 6800GT PCIe cards are also available at a similar price point, but it is difficult at best to find them. One option is the eVGA 6800GT, but that's about the only NVIDIA PCIe 6800 series card we've seen that doesn't cost $600 or more. Hopefully that will change when the NForce 4 motherboards start shipping.

Other than that and the motherboard and processor, our selections remain the same. You might notice that we have stayed with DDR1 RAM instead of DDR2, and the reason for this is that DDR1 almost always outperforms equivalently priced DDR2 RAM, not to mention that you can get inexpensive DDR1 for about $100 less than similar DDR2 RAM. If you are considering an Intel platform, there is little benefit in purchasing a DDR2 configuration. Integrated graphics can use the additional bandwidth that DDR2 offers, but we're obviously not going to recommend an integrated graphics solution for a gaming system.


Click to enlarge.
As far as features go, there is little advantage to either system. Both include Firewire, native SATA, RAID, etc. AMD chips still have the 64-bit potential while Intel chips have HTT as we mentioned before, but here, the AMD system clearly wins out in performance and PCI Express is more of a liability than a help in this price bracket. You'll still get very good performance from either system, and if you're very pro-Intel, this is probably the best that the platform has to offer in terms of price/performance. We won't be providing an Intel configuration in the High-End Gaming segment, as the best Intel is too far outclassed by the AMD offerings.

Going back to the AMD side of things, we expect that the first shipping PCI Express motherboards are going to cost somewhat more than currently available 939 boards, and as with this Intel system, the selection of PCI Express graphics cards other than the X700 Pro and 6600GT is limited and rather expensive. Unless you plan on keeping your next video card through several system upgrades, or if you're looking into NVIDIA's SLI functionality, we are more than happy with the price/performance of the AGP cards. SLI is not yet an option on Intel systems either, as the only motherboards supporting dual PCIe X16 slots are workstation boards costing over $300. We are awaiting the release of motherboards using competing chipsets from the likes of VIA and ATI to get dual X16 slots at a reasonable price.

Gaming for Graduates Gaming for the Gainfully Employed
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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)
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