Enthusiast's Game System

(Updated September 9, 2004)

Processor (Athlon): Athlon 64 3000 (2.2GHz 512KB cache) socket 754 (oem)

Processor (P4): Pentium 4 2.8C 800mhz bus (retail)

Heat-sink (Athlon): Alpha PAL 8150T

Heat-sink (P4): Alpha PAL 8952T

Heatsink Fan: Enermax 80mm Adjustable Speed (1800-3400 rpm)

Motherboard (Athlon): MSI K8N Neo Platinum (MS-7030) NForce3 socket 754

Motherboard (P4): Abit AI7 (Intel 865PE chipset) socket 478

Memory (Athlon): Crucial Ballistix PC3200 DDR 512MB

Memory (P4): OCZ EL PC4400 DDR  2x256mb (pack)

Video: MSI Radeon 9800 Pro 128mb (retail)

Sound: Creative Audigy 2 ZS (retail)

Hard Drive: Seagate 120GB 8mb cache 7200 RPM SATA (OEM)

CD Burner and CD/DVD Player Combo: Lite-On 52x32x52x16x Black (OEM)

Floppy Drive: Generic Black (OEM)

Operating System: Windows XP Pro Edition (OEM)

TOTAL for Athlon System

TOTAL for Pentium 4 System

$174

$187

$ 28

$ 31

$  5

$127

$105

$140

$175

$194

$ 86

$ 92

$ 42

$ 10

$140

$1167

$1196

Enthusiast's Game System

Since computer enthusiasts never really stop shopping for new computer hardware, it is important for them to be able to get as much out of each dollar they spend on their systems as possible.  The Enthusiast's System is put together with this in mind.  In some ways, this system occupies a middle position between our Budget Game System and our Maximum Game System.  However, given the range of interests and the various budgets that different enthusiasts have, an Enthusiast's Game System has to cover a lot of ground.  For example, in its more basic configurations, this system picks up where our Budget Game System leaves off, by adding some higher performance components. However, since many enthusiasts are comfortable with running their hardware beyond the manufacturer's specifications, this avenue to increased performance is also considered.   

It would be counterproductive to try and come up with one computer system to fit every enthusiasts' needs, and after all, the whole point of being able to customize your computer configuration is to get away from the one-size-fits-all system that you can buy off the shelf.  So, you'll find a wide range of options considered in this guide, to help you think about what the right mix of components is best for satisfying your interests and budget.

Once again, the list of components represents their approximate costs.  They do not include shipping and are subject to change.  For the most part, NewEgg was used to check prices and availability at the time of this write-up (March 20, 2004).

The information in this guide can be used to do your own shopping and system building, or it can be used as a starting point to have a system built for you (the cost would be whatever the price of the parts, shipping, and $100 would be).  If you are interested, I could even do some over-clocking for you.

This case is about two inches taller than the SLK3700, and and it has three 80mm fans: two in the back for pulling air out of the case and one on the side to blow air down on the AGP and PCI slots.  There is the option of adding two more 80mm fans in the front of the case to pull air in over the hard drives, which would be helpful, if you run multiple hard drives.  True Power power supplies don't share the total output for the  5 volt and the 3.3 volt rails, like most power supplies do.  Another nice extra feature of the True Powers is that they have a couple of special power connectors for hooking up your case fans.  The voltage to these lines is thermally regulated depending on how hot the power supply, itself, is running.  As you increase the load on your system and the power supply starts working harder, it spins up not only the fans within itself, but also the case fans connected to it.  This 430 watt model provides a maximum of 36 amps on the 5 volt rail, 28 amps on the 3.3 volt rail, and 20 amps on the 12 volt line.  

Although the 430 watt True Power will probably be sufficient for the systems described in this guide, there's no doubt that the trend is for higher performance processors and video cards to require increasing amounts of power.  Anyone interested in a more powerful power supply will probably want to start out with a case that doesn't already include one.  For example, the Enermax CD10181 is a no frills case that it has plenty of room in it.  There are six internal 3.5 inch bays for hard drives and four 5.25 inch external bays for optical drives, plus 2 floppy drive bays.  It includes 3 x 80mm fans, and it has places for mounting up to four more 80mm fans.  It's dimensions are similar to those of the Antec Plus 1080AMG, but it provides a few more inches of depth, from front to back.  Selling for less than $70, it helps to make a high end power supply more affordable.  

While I tend to lean towards the value to be found in big cases constructed of steel (the Enermax case mentioned above is essentially small server case), many folks are going to want to go in the other direction and look for a case that is lighter in weight and slightly smaller in size, especially for better portability to events like LAN parties.  Lian Li did a lot to get people excited about computer cases made from aluminum in the first place, and their basic PC-60 and PC-61 cases are relatively affordable these days, starting at just under $100.  The new PC-6077 models sell for a bit more, as they add audio and firewire outlets to the front of the case, in addition to the usual USB ports.  All these models come with four 80mm fans and a removable motherboard tray.

CoolerMaster makes a rather similar aluminum case, the Praetorian PAC T01-E1 (shown below), which sells for about the same price as the Lian Li PC-60 and PC-61.  And, KingWin makes a no frills aluminum mid-tower, the KT 424, which includes three 80mm fans and a removable motherboard tray, that sells for less than $80.  

When it comes to choosing the power supply, itself, the Antec True Power 430, which is included in the Antec 1080AMG case, remains a reasonable choice for an Enthusiast's system, regardless of the case it is used in.  It typically is priced at around $70, if bought by itself, and it establishes a good starting point when looking at power supplies that might be used in this system.  The Enermax EG465P-VE(FC) is slightly more expensive and offers a small step up from the True Power 430.  The EG465P-VE(FC) typically sells for about $85 and is rated as having a total output capacity of 460 watts (5v-35A, 3.3v-35A, 12v-33A, 5v + 3.3v combined output 200w).  Enermax seems to be introducing a new line of power supplies, their "Noisetaker" series.  These are characterized by having two separate 12 volt rails.  They also seem to be slightly less expensive than their older counterparts.  For example, the 470 watt Enermax Noisetaker EG475P-VE-SFMA sells for about $80.  Other power supplies to consider are the Antec True Power 480 (about $88) and the Antec True Power 550 (about $108).  However, some hardcore hardware junkies are going to find themselves drawn to something like the Antec True Control 550, which includes an external control panel for adjusting the output on each of the three voltage rails.  It sells for around  $103.  The Enermax power supplies with capacities over 500 watts are excellent, as well, but they tend to be fairly expensive.  For example, the 550 watt EG651P-VE(24P) sells for around $162.

Just as a reminder and for comparison, our Enthusiast's Athlon XP system previously consisted of an Athlon XP mobile 2500 oem ($93), an Epox EP-8RDA3+ motherboard ($76), with Alpha PAL8055 Heatsink and fan ($36).  After overclocking, you stood a decent chance of having a 2.4GHz processor, which might have been rated as an Athlon XP 3400, if there was such a thing.  While tests have shown that this processor performs quite well when overclocked (e.g., see those done by the Tech Report), its performance is still only as good as the low end of the Athlon 64s, in games.  Typical game benchmarks showed the overclocked Athlon XP @ 2.4GHz falling somewhere between the Athlon 64 2800 and Athlon 63 3000 (though its scores tend to be closest to those of the Athlon 64 2800).  And, comparing the overclocked Athlon XP to the Pentium 4 line, It roughly performs in the same ballpark as a Northwood core Pentium 4 2.8GHz or 3.0Ghz processors.

Since an Athlon XP system built up around an overclocked Athlon XP mobile remains less expensive than either an Athlon 64 or a Pentium 4 system of roughly the same performance level, the overclocked Athlon XP system still provides the best bang for the buck.  However, with retail Athlon 64 2800s selling for $145 and retail Athlon 64 3000s selling for $175, the price gap between these types of systems is shrinking ($67 in the case of the Athlon 64 2800 and $97 in the case of the Athlon XP 3000).  Furthermore, with the Athlon 64 3000, you will end up with a faster game system.  We haven't even considered the possibility of overclocking the Athlon 64s, yet (though admittedly, they do not overclock nearly as well as the Athlon XP or Pentium 4).

So, let's get on with the actual choices.

I'm going to recommend the Athlon 64 3000 processor, which is running at 2.0GHz, has 512KB of onboard cache, and selling for around $174.  Although we could save $36 by going with the Athlon 64 2800, I really like the idea of recommending something that I'm sure is going to perform better in games than our overclocked Athlon XP.  If we're going to pay a bit of a premium (nearly $100 in this case) to make the transition from the Athlon XP to the Athlon 64 line of processors, knowing that the processor I've selected will result in a tangible boost in game performance makes the extra investment feel worthwhile.  In fact, if your budget can tolerate it, the Athlon 3200 (2.2GHz/512KB of cache), which sells for around $218 would make an even better choice for the same reason.

(Note that there were some earlier versions of the Athlon 64 3400 and 3200 that had 1MB of cache.  They have been replaced by the Newcastle version with only 512KB of cache and running at a speed 200MHz faster than the 1MB version.  You may still see these 1MB Clawhammer socket 754 chips for sale, but they are no longer in production, except for the Athlon 64 3700.)

Beyond the Athlon 3200, the Athlon 64 processors tend to get expensive in a hurry.  The Athlon 64 3400 (2.4GHz/512KB) sells for around $295, and the Athlon 64 3700 (2.4 GHz/1MB) sells for around $539.

And these are just the socket 754 Athlon 64s.  You pay yet another premium in cost to move up to the new socket 939 Athlon 64s.  For that reason, I leaving off seriously considering the socket 939 platform until we start looking at our Maximum Game System Guide.

When it comes to socket 754 motherboards, there are two main contenders for the chipsets to be used, VIA's K8T800 and Nvidia's Nforce3 250.  During the first round of Athlon 64 motherboards, VIA's chipset seemed to have a slight performance edge, and it provided this at a lower cost and with a nice set of extra features.  At this point in time, Nvidia offers very good performance and a very attractive set of competing features.  Foremost among these for the computer enthusiast is a solidly working PCI and AGP bus lock, which makes overclocking the multiplier locked Athlon 64s much more viable.  (Actually, the multiplier is only partially locked on the Athlon 64s; it can be set lower than its default setting, but not increased.  Only the FX Athlon 64 has a completely unlocked multiplier.)  Furthermore, the Nforce3 250 motherboards seem to have no difficulty reaching bus speeds much higher than their default 200 MHz.  Integrated into their single chip "chipset" are such interesting features as a Gigabit Ethernet controller and a firewall.

MSI's K8N Neo Platinum (MS-7030) board has gotten good reviews (for example, AnandTech's) due to its features, overclocking potential, and reasonable price ($127).  MSI was also first out of the gate to put together and offer one of these Nforce3 250 motherboards.

[Note: I've seen a preview done by AnandTech on an engineering sample of DFI's socket 754 LANParty UT nF3-250Gb motherboard, and it looks like this board is the going to be the one to have for the serious overclocker.  Since it is still not available in the retail channels, I don't know what the pricing will be like on it.  I hope it doesn't turn out to be too costly to fit comfortably into the typical enthusiast's budget.]

A recent round up by AnandTech of new PC3200 performance memory proved that there were several very good choices for PC3200 memory that offered both low latency timings and the potential for some pretty respectable overclocking.  Crucial's new line of Ballastix memory stood out as a solid performer, especially on Athlon 64 platforms, and it sells for a very competitive price, making it a solid pick for the memory to use in this system. 

Since the socket 754 motherboard is not a dual memory channel design (unlike the socket 939 and 940 platforms), there is no need to buy your memory in matched pairs.  I have recommended only a single 512mb module for this system, as I think that for most games this will be sufficient, but I can easily envision someone wanting to add another 512mb module to this system, if not immediately, then later on.

Although the overclocking of the Athlon 64 processors is not quite as inviting as what can be done with the Athlon XP, or even some of the Pentium 4s, I'm sure this is something that most enthusiasts are still going to want to check out for themselves.  For this reason, I'm recommending picking up a bigger heatsink than what comes with the retail Athlon 64.  

Alpha always does a very good job of offering a no frills but efficient heatsink that stands out for the quality of its manufacturing and the competitiveness of its price.  Alpha's Athlon 64 heatsink is their PAL 8150T.  It weighs in at around 635 grams, which is pretty hefty for a heatsink made largely of aluminum.  They sell a model that comes with a 4000 rpm 80mm fan; or, you can get the "T" model mentioned above and supply your own 80mm fan, such as an Enermax adjustable speed model.  

Although the Athlon 64 based system is the featured choice for this guide, Intel's Pentium 4 still deserves mention as an alternative.  Although the the Athlon 64 processors seem to have the edge when it comes to game benchmarks, the Pentium 4s continue to do very well with other sorts of applications, especially when it comes multimedia encoding.  The Pentium 4s based on the Northwood core also overclock very well, which in itself is a big plus for the computer enthusiast.  Choosing which Pentium 4 is best for you may depend quite a bit on your budget and the current pricing of the Pentium 4s.  From the $157 Pentium 4 2.4C to the Pentium 4 3.0C selling for $218, the Pentium 4 processors in between are fairly closely spaced with regard to their prices.  Not until you get to the Pentium 4 3.2C, selling for $295, do you start to see some big jumps in price with each higher speed grade.

I've settled on recommending the P4 2.8C, in part to help keep this Pentium 4 system in line with the price of our Athlon 64 system.  Someone interested in overclocking probably will want to invest in a better heatsink than what comes with the retail Pentium 4 (though the stock heatsink is a good one).  Again, I'll start by pointing out an Alpha heatsink, in this case, the PAL8952T.  

The Thermalright SP-94 (seen below) is an all copper heatsink that incorporates heatpipes and is a favorite among those who are intent upon overclocking and want the best in air-based cooling.  While the PAL8942T makes use of a 80mm fan, such as the variable speed Enermax mentioned previously, the SP-94 can make use of a 92mm fan.  Enermax makes a 90mm adjustable speed fan, which will also work with the SP-94.  

It is a reasonable to aim for overclocking the Pentium 4 2.8C up to around 3.4GHz, but achieving this will require running a 240MHz frontside bus speed. (The Pentium 4 3.0C seems to be even more capable, with some folks reaching 3.6GHz (15 x 240MHz)).  This means that both a motherboard and system memory that are comfortable operating far beyond Intel's standard specifications are necessary.

Abit motherboards have a well established reputation of catering to the needs of overclocking computer enthusiasts, and they offer a no-frills, reasonably priced ($105 ) i865PE based motherboard for just this purpose, the AI7.  (If you are looking for that little bit of extra performance that comes with the i875 chipset, Abit also offers the IC7-G Max II Advance, for $132.)  Since we are talking about bus speeds up in the 250MHz range with this motherboard, it will be a good idea to pair it with memory that can go along for the ride.  After a history of mis-steps, OCZ appears to be back on track, and their products seem to be quite solid this time around.  Their enthusiast-oriented memory consistently gets high marks for its performance; so, I'm recommending their EL PC440 Gold memory.  You'll want at least their 2 x 256MB kit, for a total of 512MB, but if you can afford the extra outlay, the 2 x512MB kit would be an even better choice, especially for a processor with hyperthreading.

If you are on a tighter budget, the Radeon 9600 XT would be a good choice.  They tend to be selling for $135 to $155, depending on the model.  

For those looking for a faster video card than the 9800 Pro, I'd suggest considering a step up to the Nvidia Geforce 6800.  

Although this card only have 128MB of video memory, it still is faster in most games than the 256MB Radeon 9800 XT.  Selling for around $275-$300, it is less expensive than the 9800XT, as well.  Even if you pick up a 256MB 9800 Pro with the idea of soft-modding it into the functional equivalent of a 9800 XT, you'll end up spending about $250, anyway.

Since all the motherboards we've talked about for this guide have 6-channel sound onboard, there really is no need to get a dedicated sound card.  In fact, it makes sense for someone trying to get the most for their money to give their onboard sound a try, before they invest in a separate sound card.  But, seeing how this is an enthusiast's system, I also know some people won't settle for anything except a dedicated sound card.  And, since the onboard sound is probably decent to begin with, they'll be looking for something significantly better, in order to make the upgrade worthwhile.  These days, there pretty much is only one sound card for the computer game enthusiast, the Audigy 2.  I think that Creative worked out some of the kinks with their original Audigy, making the upgrade to this second rendition worthwhile.  I don't know if there is much need to look past this card to the Audigy 2 ZS, which upgrades the 6.1 sound capability of the Audigy 2 to 7.1 capability; however, there also isn't much difference in price between the two.  An OEM Audigy 2 with a firewire port costs about $70, and a retail boxed Audigy 2 ZS sells for about $80.  

For someone who doesn't burn a lot of CDs, one of these combination CD Burner and DVD players seems to offer the most flexibility for the money.  Lite-On makes a relatively inexpensive combo drive (52x32x52x16x) for about $42. 

If you are a fairly heavy user of your CD Burner and are interested in being able to rip from one drive directly to your burner, then, you'd be better served by getting a separate CD/DVD-ROM drive and CD burner.  The Plextor CD burners are a bit more expensive than other brands, but they are highly rated.  Their 52x24x52x model is no longer their fastest, but the $46 price makes it appealing.  You can pick up an OEM DVD player from various makers for $30 or less.

Another option would be to get a DVD burner.  The NEC 8X Dual Layer DVD burner has been very popular, and it's price is very reasonable, $67 for an OEM model.  For those looking for something more cutting edge, Pioneer's 16X Dual Layer DVR-108D has gotten good reviews, and it is well priced at $86 for an OEM model.

For a hard drive, I'm looking at the 7200 rpm, 8 MB cache models.  These days, from the point of view of price, it doesn't seem to matter too much whether you go with the Serial ATA or the regular EIDE drives.  There also is little difference in performance between them, unless you move up to the 10,000 rpm SATA drives.  Perhaps the main advantage of the SATA drives is that many motherboards support some sort of RAID configuration through their SATA connections.  Although many tout the speed advantages of running two drives in a RAID 0 configuration, there is a fair amount evidence to call into question whether this is really that helpful for your desktop computer.  A RAID 1 configuration that mirrors the contents of one drive to the other seems like a more significant benefit, since if one drive fails, you can restore your system from the backup on the other drive.  

In the past, when many manufacturers were moving to 1 year warranties on their drives, I made it a point to look for makes and models that still carried a 3 year warranty.  Now, Seagate appears to be reversing the former trend by offering 5 year warranties on their drives.  Seagate drives have a reputation for good performance (if not the fastest), reliability, and quiet operation.  Both the SATA and EIDE 120GB models from Seagate cost about $92.  This seems like a good size and a good value, since you are paying about 77 cents per gigabyte of storage with these drives.  This trend to getting more storage for your money continues as you move up to even larger drives, especially the EIDE drives.  A 160GB drive sells for $102, and a 200GB drive sells for $114, which means you are getting a gigabyte of storage for 64 cents and 57 cents, respectively.  The SATA models will cost a bit more, but they show the same trend.

One factor that the overclocker needs to consider is some evidence that SATA drives can get into problems in systems that are heavily overclocked.  This seems to suggest that the AGP/PCI lock is not always working quite as it should under conditions where the front side bus is overclocked to an extreme degree, but the EIDE drives seem to tolerate this adversity better than do the SATA drives.  Also note that some SATA models, such as the Seagate OEM drives, do not come with a power adapter.  You'll either need a power supply that already has power connectors for these drives, or you will need to pick up an adapter.  

Although Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) monitors have become hugely popular, they also are victims of their own success.  The capacity to manufacture these screens has simply not kept up with the demand, and as a result the price of these monitors has stayed high.  This keeps them from being a very good value at this time.  Although the manufacture of Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) monitors has dropped off, with many fewer makes and models to choose from among, there continues to be enough supply that the prices remain stable at a reasonable level, making them a better value.

Samsung makes some nice shadow mask CRTs, such as the 17 inch 793DF and the 19 inch 997DF, which run about $139 and $219, respectively.  The next step up would be to an aperture grill CRT, based on either the Sony Trintron or the Mitsubishi Diamondtron tubes.  These tend to be more expensive; the Mitsubishi DP930SB (shown above) goes for around $284, which is typical for these 19 inch aperture grill screens.  [I'm not sure how long this will last, but NewEgg has a HP 930 for $239, currently.  This is a 19" Diamondtron CRT.]

By contrast, a high quality, 17 inch, LCD screen (which has roughly the same usable screen area as a 19 inch CRT) will cost around $500 to $550.  For people who play computer games, it will be important to find a screen with a low response time of about 16ms.  This determines how quickly the monitor can turn on and off or change the intensity of its cells.  A slow response time will result in visual artifacts when images move quickly across the screen.  One of the most popular of the 17 inch LCDs with a 16ms response time is the Viewsonic VP171B, which sells for around $525.  Samsung has recently entered the arena of low response time, 17 inch monitors with their 172X and their 710T, both of which boast a 12ms response time, .  The 710T model is selling for $489, which is fairly competitive for these kinds of monitors, and the 172X sells for $529.  However, these kinds of prices are getting close to what a high-end, 21 or 22 inch CRT would cost.

For speakers, Logitech has some very competitively priced 6 speaker systems.  Their 71 watt (total output), Z640 5.1 system only costs $52, and this speaker system should be fine for most general usage.  If you really want to crank up the volume, you'll probably be more interested in their Z5300 5.1 THX system (pictured above) with 280 watts of total output.  At $139, once again Logitech delivers a lot for the money.

When it comes to keyboards and mice, I suggest that you get yourself down to your neighborhood computer superstore and get a feel for the the different brands and models before making up your mind.  For example, make sure that the keyboard that you select doesn't feel too mushy, too bouncey, or too loose.  Since these are all subjective judgments, it comes down to the keyboard that feels right for you.  With mice, you'll want one that comfortably fits your hand and feels neither too heavy nor too light for you.  Optical mice have pretty much become the standard, and Logitech, for one, makes some highly sensitive ones with the PC game player in mind, such as their MX300 model, shown above.