Midrange Buyer's Guide - September 2006

Upgraded AMD Midrange Platform

Moving on to the upgraded recommendations for our midrange platforms, the AMD vs. Intel story doesn't change much. Motherboard options on the AMD platform are better if you're looking for multiple GPU support, while overall performance is going to be lower. We have upgraded almost every component in order to provide a better overall system. Base performance will be higher, overclocking capability will generally be better, and the expansion options are also improved. Here is the upgraded AMD platform recommendation.

Upgraded AMD Athlon X2 AM2 System
Hardware	Component	Price
Processor	Athlon X2 4200+ (AM2 - 2.2 GHz 2x512K)	$185.00
Motherboard	MSI XPRESS 3200 K9A Platinum	$136.00
Memory	2x1024MB Crucial PC2-6400 Ballistix	$270.00
Video Card	Sapphire Radeon X1900GT 256MB	$206.00
Hard Drive	Seagate 3.0Gbps 320GB 7200RPM 16MB Barracuda 7200.10	$95.00
Optical Drive	NEC ND-3550A 16X DVD+/-RW	$30.00
Display	Acer AL2216Wbd Black 22" 5ms Widescreen LCD	$341.00
Case	Thermaltake Soprano VB1000BWS	$98.00
Power Supply	FSP Group (Fotron Source) FSP550-80GLC 550W EPS 12V SLI	$88.00
Keyboard and Mouse	Microsoft Comfort Curve 2000 with Optical Mouse	$28.00
Operating System	Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 SP2B (OEM)	$115.00
Bottom Line		$1,592.00

If you're willing to choose an AMD platform right now, processor performance shouldn't be your primary concern. As we have stated, Intel's Core 2 Duo is going to be faster at virtually every price point. Nevertheless, we have upgraded the CPU slightly from the 3800+ to the 4200+. That adds 10% more CPU clock speed for a 22% increase in CPU cost. Other than the discontinued 1 MB cache 4000+, which will be slower than the 4200+ in nearly every instance, the next possible CPU upgrade for socket AM2 is the 4600+. That adds another 200 MHz but it costs $110 more, so we really wouldn't go beyond the 4200+ if you're trying to build a midrange computer.

We have a few options on the motherboard as an "upgrade". We typically feel nForce 590 SLI boards are a bit too expensive to fit into a midrange budget, and they really don't offer a lot more performance than nForce 570 SLI anyway. Instead of making a minor upgrade to the chipset performance, we have swapped NVIDIA chipsets for an ATI chipset, thus gaining CrossFire support and losing SLI support (official support at least). Unfortunately, while our initial look at the ATI Xpress 3200 showed that it was a capable overclocker, few manufactures seem to have fully tapped the potential. If you're looking for maximum overclocking capability, you may need to stick with an nForce 570/590 chipset, but the MSI K9A Platinum still performs well and offers a moderate amount of overclocking support.

We upgraded the memory selection for both platforms, although Core 2 Duo is more likely to make use of the extended bandwidth. Memory prices are extremely volatile right now, with both AMD and Intel moving to DDR2 and the impending holiday season. The Crucial 2x1024MB PC2-6400 Ballistix uses high quality Micron memory and is rated for 4-4-4-12 and 2.2V operation. It should reach as high as DDR2-1000 and 5-5-5-15 timings with 2.3V, and possibly a bit more if you go beyond 2.3V. That is certainly enough bandwidth for socket AM2, and all but the most extreme overclocks with Core 2 Duo shouldn't present a problem. As before, many other manufacturers offer competing RAM: Corsair, G.Skill, OCZ, PDP, and others manufacture memory rated at DDR2-800 or higher, although prices can quickly reach extreme levels for the highest performance memory. We have already changed the memory recommendation once, due to rapidly fluctuating prices. Hopefully the RAM prices will return to normal soon, although it may take until the New Year for that to happen.

With the change to an ATI chipset, it shouldn't come as a surprise that we also changed to an ATI graphics card, the Sapphire X1900 GT. The X1900 GT offers competitive performance to its NVIDIA counterpart (the 7900 GS), and prices are similar. Depending on your game of choice, the X1900 GT may be slower or faster than a 7900 GS, and overclocked 7900 GS cards are also available. With the ATI Xpress 3200 chipset, however, you will probably prefer an ATI graphics card. If you should instead decide to stick with an nForce 570 SLI motherboard, 7900 GS cards are readily available. The EVGA GeForce 7900GS KO 256MB HDCP offers some interesting features that the Sapphire X1900 GT lacks, for example HDCP support. For gamers on a budget, either card should suffice, and either card can be upgraded to a dual-GPU solution in the future should you so desire.