Buyer's Guide: High-End Systems - September 2000

High-end Gaming System
The purpose of this system is simple – maximum frame rates at all costs.  Of course, we already have a “cost is no object” dream system, so "all costs" isn't taken quite so literally. We’ve decided to shoot for a price in the $3500 range on the high-end gaming system.  That price is without floppy, keyboard, mouse, or software.  Even though it’s not in the price, we will recommend an OS configuration.

Processor – AMD Athlon "Thunderbird" 800 - $200
While we've generally recommended Intel CPU's in the past for our gaming systems, prices on AMD CPU's are dropping all the time, while Intel CPU's remain relatively unchanged. This month, we're not longer able to justify the 50% higher cost of an Intel CPU at similar clock speeds, considering the minimal performance difference in games. The Athlon 800 seems to be the best compromise of high performance without breaking the bank.

Besides the direct performance benefits of full speed on-die cache, we also get the side benefit of enhanced overclockability. If you're willing to overclock our CPU, you can save some money by going with the 700 MHz model, most of which will hit 900 - 950 MHz at default voltage, all without exotic cooling. The 800 MHz chip will overclock to the same range, so there's little point in spending the extra money on it if you do plan to overclock.

For more information on all Athlon processors, read our Athlon "Thunderbird" 1GHz Review and our Thunderbird / Duron Overclocking Revealed Aritcle.

Motherboard – ABIT KT7 - $160
We recently looked at as many Socket-A boards as we could get a hold of and one board stood out head and shoulders above the rest - the ABIT KT7-RAID. As we noted in the roundup, the KT7 is the perfect board to overclock with thanks to its completely jumperless Soft Menu III CPU setup. For about $30, you can add the RAID option, which of course changes the model name to KT7-RAID.

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The ASUS A7V is also an excellent choice that also offers complete overclocking/multiplier control, albeit not in 100% jumperless form.

If you don't plan on overclocking, Gigabyte and Microstar offer solid products that can save you a a bit of money.

For more information, read our Socket-A Motherboard Roundup (August 2000) and our ABIT KT7-RAID Review.

Memory – 256MB Corsair or Mushkin PC133 SDRAM (2x128MB DIMM’s) – $175 x 2
Even though memory is relatively cheap these days, 256MB is more than enough.  We could have dropped down to 128MB, but the savings didn’t justify the performance loss.  Besides, this is our high-end gaming machine, and there’s room in the budget. 

As for the exact brand of memory, we recommend Corsair or Mushkin modules.  We use them in our test systems and have had absolutely no problems with them. 

Video card – Creative Labs 3D Blaster Annihilator 2  - $250
Once again, the Radeon or GeForce 2 GTS question comes up and once again NVIDIA gets the nod for their solid driver support.

The majority of GeForce 2 GTS cards on the market are retailing for $350 and selling closer to $300. Creative has undercut the competition with a retail price of $300 and street price closer to $250. True, it's just a plain jane card, with no TV-in/out, but it gets the job done and is the most overclockable GeForce 2 GTS we've tested to date. We were able to push our sample up to 250/395 MHz (core/memory), making it the first 2 Gigatexel (theoretical fillrate) card in the AnandTech lab.

For more information, read our Annihilator 2 Review, GeForce 2 GTS Overclocking Guide, and GeForce 2 GTS Review.

Monitor – iiYama VisionMaster PRO 450 - $600
Using a Mitsubishi Diamondtron NF, the iiYama VisionMaster Pro 450 provides a perfectly flat display surface using the same technology in Sony’s FD Trinitron models, but at a lower cost.  The VisionMaster PRO 450 is a 19” monitor and has been highly acclaimed here on AnandTech and by owners alike.  If you’ve got the funds, we highly recommend you go with the 22” VisionMaster PRO 510 for about $1000.

For more information, read our iiYama VisionMaster PRO 450 and VisionMaster PRO 510 Reviews.