The Battlefield 2

Optimal Game System

September 10, 2005

Optimal Game System: Battlefield 2 Edition

I decided to give a slightly different slant to this edition of the Optimal Game System Guide.  While the Optimal Game System continues to be a high performance game machine, which is designed to also help you get the most performance for your money, I've put together the components for this system with an eye towards making sure that it will fully meet what is needed for playing the latest installment to the Battlefield series, Battlefield 2.  This very popular online game (EA reports that 1.2 million copies have been sold) significantly raised the bar when it comes to hardware requirements for PC game computers.  My thinking is that putting together a computer that will handle Battlefield 2 with ease will also result in a system that will handle any other current game.  If recent game demos and reports of games in beta testing are any indication of what the future holds, Battlefield 2 is simply in the vanguard of a new generation of resource hungry computer games. 

(If you're not sure what Battlefield 2 is and you are wondering what all the excitement is about, I suggest that you take a look at the video review of the game that can be found on the GameTrailers website.  I further recommend that you go ahead and download the high definition version of this review, since it does the best job of letting you see how detailed and impressive the 3D rendering in today's games can be.) 

A few words on my philosophy about what an Optimal Game System is, while it's always fun to put together a list of components for the Maximum Game System, by selecting flagship components from various manufacturers' products lists, this approach always seems a bit too easy and not entirely satisfactory.  Unfortunately for buyers, the cost of components often goes up exponentially as you approach the top of a product line, especially for things like processors and video cards.  In many cases, this makes it difficult to justify the large additional costs in order to get what in some cases may be a small increase in performance.  The point of the Optimal System Guide is to raise the question of how much more do you get for the extra cost of a top end component and to consider whether sufficient performance (and savings) is available one or two rungs down from the top of a particular component's product line, making this a better choice.

Make no mistake, the Optimal Game System is not some kind of cheesy computer, and it will be expensive.  Nevertheless, the ideas for keeping the cost down that are mentioned here may bring a high end computer system into the price range of some people who might otherwise feel that such a system is beyond their budget.

There are a number of factors that should go into deciding which is the best case for meeting your computer needs.  These include questions about how much room is available for oversized components, how well does the case draw cool air in and exhausts the warm air out, how much noise do the fans make, and how appealing is the case to look at?  Some cases include a power supply; so, we also need to consider whether one of these is adequate or whether we should purchase a case and power supply separately.  With so many options to choose from, and so much depending upon individual tastes, it seems best to mention several alternatives and point out some of their pros and cons.

I'm going to start out with a case that does include an adequate power supply; the Antec Performance TX 1050B comes with a 500 watt Antec power supply.

This model is a good place to begin our discussion of computer cases, because it well represents all the basic features that we are looking for.  It has good ventilation provided by an included 120mm fan in the back, room for two more 80mm fans in the front, and open grills over the CPU and video card on the side of the case.  The included 500 watt power supply will be adequate for most all system needs, with the exception, perhaps of running two very high end video cards together, in an SLI arrangement.  This power supply even includes modular power cables, which allows you to install only the cables that you actually need.  The case is nothing fancy, based on a basic design that has been around for years, but it looks good enough that you won't have to worry about needing to hide it under the desk.  The one thing that detracts slightly from this case is the relatively shallow dimension from front to back.  This can make for a rather tight fit for some very large (i.e., long) video cards, though this should still be possible.  NewEgg is selling this case for around $139, which seems reasonable for the combination of a quality case and power supply.

If you would rather have the flexibility of selecting your own power supply, the Cooler Master Cavalier 3 represents a solid choice.

Like the Antec 1050B discussed above, the Cooler Master Cavalier 3 has a 120mm fan in the back and comes with a 80mm fan in the front.  It also follows Intel's TAC design (Thermally Advantageous Case) by including side ventilation for the CPU and video card.  On style points, the Cooler Master comes out ahead with it's brushed aluminum front.  The Cooler Master case is shorter in height but longer in length (from front to back) than the Antec Case.  This leaves more room between the back of the hard drives and long add-on cards, but it means that there is less room between the motherboard and the power supply.  This might be a problem if you are using a very large CPU heatsink that might over hang the edge of the motherboard; this can occur if the CPU socket is near the top edge of the board.  

We'll return to the issue of what power supply to use with this case in a the next section.  First, let's look a some more cases.

While I think that either of the two mentioned above will get the job done (and really that's what the Optimal System is all about), I know other folks will be looking for something more or different.  For instance, there are some advantages with going to an aluminum case, especially when it comes to weight savings and portability (for LAN parties, for example).

Aluminum cases tend to be more expensive; so, the Antec Performance P160 actually is pretty reasonably priced, at around $110.  

 

This case comes with one 120mm fan in the back and there is room to add a second 120mm fan in the front for better air intake.  This case is roughly the same size as the Antec TX1050B, but it is about an inch longer, which should be helpful when using large video cards.

A couple of other aluminum cases that deserve mentioning are the Lian Li 60A Plus (below)

and the Cooler Master Praetorian 730 (below).

Although these cases are significantly more expensive than the others that we've looked at (about $125 for the Lian Li case and about $145 for the Cooler Master), I think the workmanship on these is about as it good as it gets for aluminum cases.  The Lian Li is a bit more compact, which might be of interest to those who sometimes like to take their computer with them to a computer event.  They both use slide out motherboard trays; so, despite the smaller size of these cases, installation of components should still be easy.  The Lian Li case comes with two 120mm fans and two 80mm fans; so, there is plenty of circulation.  The Cooler Master comes with a 120mm fan in the front and two 80mm fans in the back.  It also has a vent on the side over the CPU's location.  Given all these fans, you might want to consider adding a fan controller to get the best balance between noise levels and cooling with these cases.

A couple of other favorites among computer aficionados include the Antec P180 (both pictures below)

and the Cooler Master Stacker (below).  

Both of these are fairly large all steel cases; so, they will be of most interest to those who are looking for a case with lots of room for cooling options and who don't mind sacrificing portability.  Note how the Antec P180 follows an unconventional design of putting the power supply in the bottom of the case.  The P180 comes with three 120mm fans, and the Cooler Master Stacker comes with two 120mm fans and one 80mm fan.  The Stacker has room for the installation of a number of other fans, as well.  Given the great cooling capacity of these two cases, I think that they would appeal most to people who are overclocking some of their components (such as video cards and processors) or to those who will be running two high-end video cards in a SLI configuration (along with a high end processor), since such a system could produce quite a bit of heat.

Driven primarily by the increased power requirements of today's ever faster processors and video cards, computer systems are more power hungry than ever.  The use of increasing amounts of RAM, the installation of multiple drives and cooling fans, and even the growing popularity of running pumps for water cooling have accelerated this trend further.    With the demands placed upon today's power supplies being so great, choosing the right power supply is critical for your system's stability.  At the level of performance expected from the Optimal Game System, I recommend, as a minimum, a power supply in the 450 watt range.  If you think that things like RAID and SLI are in your future, you probably should consider a power supply in the 500 watt range.  

However, simply looking a power supply's total output is not enough.  You should also investigate the capacity on each of the individual voltage rails (i.e., 3.3v, 5v, and 12v).  In particular, pay attention to the capacity of the increasingly important 12 volt rail.  Compare the 12 volt capacity of an inexpensive power supply to those I list below, and I think that you'll see that the inexpensive power supplies often have much less 12 volt capacity.  Although high end power supplies can get quite expensive, one can easily argue that this is money well spent; after all, there is little evidence that the tendency for computer systems to use more power is changing any time soon.

Besides looking at the wattage output, one should also examine how the connectors are configured.  The primary reason for this is that the new PCI-Express motherboards have adopted a 24 pin main power connector; this 24 pin connector previously was seen only on some high end server motherboards.  A special 6 pin connecter, for high end PCI-E video cards, has also been introduced.

 

Above, we see the 20+4 pin main connecter found on the latest Enermax power supplies, as well as a view of the PCI-E, 6-pin, video connecter.  Most power supplies that support all the features that PCI express motherboards and video cards require will be designated as ATX 2.0 power supplies.

Something like the 485 watt Enermax Noisetaker EG495P-VE is probably a good place to start when looking at power supplies.  At $82, it not overly expensive, and it fits well with my notion of what the minimum capacities are that you should be considering.

If you are looking for a bit more reserve power, the 550 watt Antec True Power 2 would the next step up in capacity, and it should get you into the range of what you would need for running two video cards in a SLI arrangement.  It sells for around $105.

Moving up into the heavy-weight 600 watt class, Enermax has the Noisetaker EG701AX-VE, which sells for around $150.

Some other brands and models that you might want to consider, when you are comparison shopping and looking for the bargains, include the Seasonic S12-600 600 watt power supply, OCZ's 520 and 600 watt Power Stream power supplies, and PC Power and Cooling's 510 watt power supply.  The OCZ and PC Power and Cooling power supplies tend to be rather expensive (especially the PCP&C model).  The OCZ models are significantly longer than the usual dimensions for a power supply, which can be an issue with some cases.

I'm going to start this section off by mentioning the processors that I won't be looking at for use in this Optimal Game System.  First of all, Intel processors really are not very satisfactory for game systems these days.  The Athlon 64 processors tend to yield better performance, and they do so without producing as much heat as the Pentium 4 processors.  You also can continue to use regular DDR memory with an Athlon 64 system, while the Pentium 4 systems are now using the more expensive DDR2 memory.  I think that this situation will stay like this until Intel has their successor to the Pentium 4 available.  These future Intel processors will be making use of some of the architecture currently found in Intel's mobile line of processors, and the potential for this CPU design in a game system looks very promising.

Among the Athlon 64s, I only will be considering the processors using the socket 939 format.  Socket 754 processors are still available, but these seem to have become AMD's budget line of Athlon 64 processors.  If you want the advantages of a dual channel memory controller, a 90nm core, SSE3 instructions, and the option of going to a dual core processor, later, you'll only have all of this with the socket 939 processors.  (Actually, the socket 754 Semprons use a 90nm core, but all the other socket 754 processors are still 130nm cores.)  While at one time there was a rather large price premium to be paid for a socket 939 system, compared to a roughly equivalent socket 754 system, this is no longer the case, and what extra cost there is seems justifiable when the extra features (mentioned above) are considered.

Among the different socket 939 processors, we'll be looking at the newer Venice and San Diego cores, which are built using a 90 nm process and support the SSE3 extensions.  A dual core Athlon 64 is also available, but these really don't offer any advantages for someone who is primarily interested in game performance.  Dual core processors in a desktop system, now,  really can only make their presence felt in situations where you are running more than one processor-intensive program at a time.  Perhaps in the future, more programs will be written that can take advantage of dual processors, by dividing up their work into threads that can be run simultaneously, but these sorts of programs are few and far between, and no games show any advantages when run on a dual core system, at this time.

Looking at the chart, below, you can see that the socket 939 Athlon 64s range in speed from the Athlon 64 3000, which runs at 1.8 GHz and has 512 KB of cache, up to the FX57 which runs at 2.8 GHz and uses 1 MB of cache.  They range in price from $140 to $1016.  The retail versions come in a boxed package that includes a heatsink and fan, and they are covered by a 3-year manufacturer's warranty.  The OEM versions are just the bare processor, without the heatsink, and they usually are limited to a 30-day warranty from the vendor.  

Socket 939 Athlon 64s
Athlon 64	Speed	Cache	Fab Size	OEM	Retail
3000	1.8 GHz	512 KB	90 nm	$140	$146
3200	2.0 GHz	512 KB	90 nm	$190	$190
3500	2.2 GHz	512 KB	90  nm	$?	$224
3700	2.2 GHz	1 MB	90 nm	$?	$289
3800	2.4 GHz	512 KB	90 nm	$329	$329
4000	2.4 GHz	1 MB	90 nm	$?	$381
FX 55	2.6 GHz	1 MB	90 nm	$799	$811
FX 57	2.8 GHz	1 MB	90 nm	$?	$1016

If you look at how the prices and the speeds scale upward, you'll notice that the prices increase in a fairly smooth and gradual fashion, until you get to the FX models.  Over the last several months, the slower speed Athlon 64s have not dropped very much in price.  The price cuts have come with the middle range Athlon 64s; so, at this point in time, only the FX models are left with what I would consider an inflated price.  This means that you'll pretty much get what you pay for with the non-FX Athlon 64s.  The only question is how much are you comfortable spending on your new processor.  Personally, I think either of the 2.2 GHz processors should offer enough processing power for today's games, but if you can afford to bump your choice up to one of the 2.4 GHz processors, go for it.

Even though the retail version of the Athlon 64 comes with a heatsink and fan, it is not an especially quiet one; so, you might consider replacing it.  Arctic Cooling's $14 Silencer 64 Ultra (ACS64U) makes for a good, inexpensive replacement of the stock heatsink or for use with an OEM model that lacks a heatsink.  Arctic Cooling also make a temperature controlled version, which is only a couple of dollars more.  A relatively quiet fan, used in conjunction with AMD's "Cool'N'Quiet" feature, should result in a CPU heatsink that is nearly silent when the CPU is idle.  However, I'm not sure that I can recommend using Cool'N'Quiet in a game system, until you are sure that it will play well with your games.  In particular, you don't want Cool'N'Quiet underclocking your CPU in the middle of a game, because it thinks it has become too idle.

Ideally, the process of selecting a motherboard should be one of determining what features you want to have and then finding a motherboard that supports these.  Although motherboards with PCI-Express don't necessarily provide any better performance than what you can obtain from a motherboard with an AGP slot and a regular PCI bus -- at least in systems with only one video card -- PCI-Express appears to have  taken the industry by storm and become the accepted standard.  PCI-Express motherboards were first made available for Intel's 90nm Prescott Pentium 4s, back when Intel introduced their 915P and 925X chipsets in June, 2004.  (These chipsets also brought along the new LGA775 "socket" for the Pentium 4.)  Nvidia brought PCI-Express the the Athlon 64 platform with the introduction of the Nforce4 chipset.  Other chipset makers, such as VIA and ATI, have followed suit and offer Athlon 64 PCI-Express motherboard chipset, too.  However, I'm going to focus exclusively upon the Nforce4 chipset, since it is so commonly used by motherboard manufacturers and offers the widest range of integrated features.  

We can begin by sorting out the differences among the three versions of the Nforce4 chipset.  The most full featured is the SLI model.  This version offers the option of running two video cards at the same time so that they share the load of rendering 3D graphics.  Nvidia calls this capability Scalable Link Interface (SLI), and it requires a SLI capable, Nvidia based, video card, such as a 6600 or higher model.  Other less dramatic capacities of the Nforce4 SLI chipset are that it supports a 1000 MHz hyper-transport and some sophisticated networking capabilities that Nvidia has dubbed ActiveArmor.  The second version of the Nforce4 chipset is the Ultra version.  It basically is the same as the SLI version, except that it doesn't support SLI.  The third version is the most basic, and it is simply referred to as the Nforce4.  This version not only lacks the SLI feature, it only supports a hyper-transport speed of  800 MHz (not that this makes any difference in a system running only one CPU).  It doesn't appear to have the ActiveArmor feature, either.  You can read about the Nforce4 chipset in more detail at hardware review sites, such as Anandtech.  (See their quick summary of the Nforce4 family, for example.)

In the last few months, the prices for all Nforce4 based motherboards have dropped in price.  At this time, you can easily find the basic Nforce4 chipset motherboards in the $80 to $90 range.  The Nforce4 Ultra motherboards are a little more expensive, running from around $90 to $130, and the SLI capable motherboards pick up where the Ultra boards leave off, running all the way up to $180.  It is because there are some pretty good SLI motherboards in the $130 range, that I can justify recommending these motherboards over the non-SLI models.  Part of my reasoning is that the option of running two video cards in an SLI configuration is still the only tangible advantage to be gained in switching over from AGP to PCI-E video cards.  

The Expox EP-9NPA+ SLI is good, moderately priced SLI board, available for around $138.  Anandtech gave Epox's Ultra chipset version of this board good marks, and I think it is safe to assume that the SLI version will do as well.

Anandtech has also recently reviewed a motherboard from a less well known manufacturer, Jetway.  Their 939GT4-SLI surprised the reviewers with it's excellent capabilities and its simple but innovative way of switching between single video card capabilities and two video card SLI mode (they make three slots available for use by video cards, instead of the usual 2 slots that are controlled by some sort of switch or jumper).  This motherboard is selling for around $130.  (Note: This board appears to be the same as the 133-K8-NF41 SLI offered by Evga, and Evga is currently offering a free Evga motherboard with the purchase of one of their 7800 series video cards.)

There is one expensive motherboard that I think is worth considering, the A8N-SLI Premium from Asus.  Although it currently is selling for around $175, this motherboard makes use of a passive heatsink connected to the chipset by a heatpipe.  

Typically, because of the location of the chipset on the motherboard, manufacturers have been constrained to use low profile heasinks with relatively high-speed fans on them.  Using a taller, passive heatsink on this chip usually is not possible.  Asus has solved this problem by using a heatpipe to carry the heat from the chipset to another location on the motherboard where there is room for a large, passive radiator.  If you are someone who likes to keep the noise of their computer to a minimum, this is the Nforce4 SLI motherboard for you.  (Note: A few cases such as the Enermax MaxFlow, Silverstone's Temjin TJ06, and Lian Li's PC-V1000 (and related Lian Li models) probably are not the best choice for this heatpipe cooler, since they flip the motherboard into a upside down configuration.  This puts the radiator below the chipset being cooled, and this orientation probably interferes with the circulation of the coolant in the heatpipe.)

This is one area where Battlefield 2 has really made an impact on the system hardware requirements.  Previously, a gigabyte of memory seemed like it was plenty, but Battlefield 2 proved that more than this was necessary for smooth play.  This particularly seemed to be true for those using video cards with 256 MB of video memory.  What people with 1 GB of system memory were realizing was that Battlefield 2 was soaking up all their available RAM and then needing to make use of the windows swap file.  As a result of the hard drive seeks, the game would frequently stutter.  (I did a quick study of Battlefield 2's memory usage, which I think illustrates pretty well the need for more than 1 GB of RAM with this game.)

Because we are talking about a system that supports dual channel memory, we want to install matched pairs of memory modules.  The best configuration probably is to install two 1 GB memory modules.  While the memory timings are not quite as tight as those found on high performance 512 MB modules and while these 1 GB modules don't overclock as well, they are a better option for those running their memory at PC3200 speeds.  By using just two modules, instead of four, to achieve a 2 GB total, you don't have to worry about the flakiness that sometimes is experienced when trying to fill all four DIMM slots, and you you still have some memory slots open, if you ever do feel the need to use even more memory.

Fortunately, memory prices remain fairly moderate.  You can find Patriot's 2 X 1GB package of low latency (2-3-2-5) PC3200 memory selling for around $256 at Monarch, and NewEgg is selling OCZ's 2 X 1 GB Platinum memory (2-3-2-5) for around $257.  Mushkin has some similar memory (part number 991434) that is selling for a bit more, at around $289. 

Below, I've tried to round up a representative sampling of the specifications and costs for various video cards from the middle to the very top end of this range.  Over the last few months, the prices for many of these cards have dropped significantly, and Nvidia has introduced two, new, high-end models, the 7800GT and 7800GTX.  ATI should be releasing their own new, top-end cards sometime between now and the end of the year.  However, this ATI video chip has seen numerous delays; so, there is no knowing exactly when it will show up.

I've tried to list the cards, roughly, in increasing performance capabilities.  There are so many variations on these cards that this list in not exhaustive.  For example, you can find some cards, such as the Radeon X850 Pro, in a versions with and without VIVO; the non-VIVO version will sell for less than the price I've listed for the VIVO version.  These prices should be taken as a rough idea of what you might expect to pay for these cards, since prices and the availability of these cards can vary significantly over time and between vendors.

Video Card Comparison
Model	Clock Spds	Memory Amount	Memory Connection	Pipelines P/T/V	AGP Price	PCI-E Price
Radeon X700 Pro	420/860	128 MB	128 bit	8/1/6	NA	$123
Nvidia 6600GT	500/1000	128 MB	128 bit	8/1/3	$159	$154
Radeon X800	392/700	128 MB	256 bit	12/1/6	NA	$179
Nvidia 6800	325/700	128 MB	256 bit	12/1/5	$165	NA
Radeon X800 VIVO	392/700	256 MB	256 bit	12/1/6	$235	$189
Nvidia 6800	325/600	256 MB	256 bit	12/1/5	NA	$213
Radeon X800 Pro	475/900	256 MB	256 bit	12/1/6	$239	$254
Radeon X850 Pro VIVO	520/1080	256MB	256 bit	12/1/6	NA	$289
Nvidia 6800GT	350/1000	256 MB	256 bit	16/1/6	$304	$295
Radeon X800 XL VIVO	400/950	256 MB	256 bit	16/1/6	$288	$276
Radeon X800 XT	500/1000	256 MB	256 bit	16/1/6	$399	NA
Nvidia 6800 Ultra	400/1000	256 MB	256 bit	16/1/6	$425	$469
Nvidia 7800GT	445/1070	256 MB	256 bit	20/1/7	NA	$379
Radeon X850 XT VIVO	520/1080	256 MB	256 bit	16/1/6	NA	$457
Nvidia 7800GTX	450/1200	256 MB	256 bit	24/1/8	NA	$470

As with most new computer games that feature the latest 3D rendering effects, Battlefield 2's game performance is more dependent upon video power than CPU power.  This means that if you want to be able to play this or similar games at high resolutions and with high detail settings, you are going to need a very high end video card.  (Keep in mind, if you are using an LCD monitor, that LCDs look best when they are run at their native resolutions.  For a 17" or 19" LCD this means a 1280 x 1024 resolution, and for a 20" LCD this means a resolution of 1600 x 1200.)  For a game as demanding as Battlefield 2 is, I think we need to be looking at cards in the $300 range, at a minimum.  This would include Nvidia's 6800GT and ATI's X800XL.  Only the Nvidia card, at this time, has the option of being paired with an identical card later and run in an SLI configuration.  ATI's dual card configuration, cross-fire, is not yet available.

Beyond these cards in the $300 range, we need to take notice of Nvidia's new 7800GT and 7800GTX cards.  The prices on these high end cards already have dropped into the range that the previous generation's high-end cards are still selling for.  This means that there is little reason to even consider cards such as the Nvidia 6800Ultra, Radeon X800XT, or the Radeon X850XT.  At around $380, the 7800GT is less expensive and just as fast as any of these older generation card, and the 7800GTX is roughly in the same price as these older cards and considerably faster.  (X-bit Labs has a recent round up of 17 video cards that they put through their paces in 30 game and other 3D benchmarks.  This is a good way to check out a particular card's strengths and weaknesses across applications, as well as to see how it stacks up against the competition.)

My choice goes to the 7800GT, as many of these cards are showing up with clock speeds and performance that is not that much different than what the 7800GTX has to offer and yet they are selling for $100 less.  The 7800GTX does have more pipelines than the 7800GT; so, the extra cost of the 7800GTX is understandable.  Nevertheless, this appears to be one of those situations where dropping down a notch can result in a significant savings without a big loss in performance.  

The one complaint that I've seen about the 7800GT cards is that the fan on the heatsink is fairly noisy, at least compared to the fan on the 7800GTX.  While you can always get an aftermarket heatsink to replace the one that comes with the 7800GT, doing so eats into the price difference between the 7800GT and the 7800GTX.  To some this concern may sound trivial, but I know for many, who are concerned about keeping the noise level low in their new system, this will be enough to tip the balance towards investing in the higher-end 7800GTX.

Finally, since this is the Battlefield 2 Optimal Game System Guide, I should mention that some of Evga's 7800GT and 7800GTX video cards come with Battlefield 2 bundled into the package.  

Although today's motherboards come with decent onboard sound, I know that many game enthusiasts are not going to be satisfied unless they can have the extra hardware based sound channels that a dedicated sound card makes available.  

Creative continues to dominate the market when it comes to sound cards that support the 3D sound effects found in games.  A major reason for this is that only Creative's cards provide full hardware support for Creative's semi-proprietary EAX sound effects, particularly the latest EAX features.  

Although the OpenAL audio library may offer an alternative to EAX, it is not clear whether this standard will become fully established.  Although Creative claims that their cards support OpenAL, at this time, there is some question about whether they are doing so in an effective manner.  This seems to be forcing game developers to write their code to fit Creative's hardware and drivers.  As a result, many gamers (although perhaps reluctantly) turn to Creative's cards to be assured the best compatibility between their sound cards and the games they play.  

Creative recently released the latest addition to their sound card product line, the X-Fi series of audio cards.  These cards are just now becoming available; consequently, they aren't easy to find in stock and they carry a very hefty price tag.  Although on paper these cards boast some very impressive specifications, the jury still seems to be out with regard to whether there is enough real or tangible benefit to be gained from these new cards to justify paying around $200 for one.  So, for now, the fairly well supported Audigy 2 ZS seems to be the best choice for a PC gamer.  These can be found for around $80 for the basic retail version.

Since many people would rather try anything but another Creative sound card, I'll mention that Blue Gear's X-Mystique 7.1 Gold (shown below) has been getting a lot of acclaim from its users.  Although you won't find the full range of EAX support, which Creative's latest cards can claim, the X-Mystique does come with a Dolby digital encoder on the card.  It also looks like Cmedia, who produces the main chip on this card, is doing a good job of providing updated drivers for this card, which should allow it to support all of your favorite games.

Almost all motherboards come with integrated ethernet ports, these days, and these should be adequate for most users' needs.

When thinking about hard drives for desktop systems, I divide these drives into three groups.  First, there are drives that still use the EIDE interface; second, there are drives using the newer SATA interface; and finally, there are 10,000 rpm drives (which actually are a subset of the SATA drives).  Each type of drive has its place, depending on how someone plans on using their computer.  

As the technology for SATA hard drives has matured, we are beginning to see some unique features for these drives, such as command queuing.  SATA2 controllers on Nforce4 motherboards can take advantage of this, and these newer SATA drives do show a slight performance increase over EIDE drives because of this feature.  For this reason, SATA drives have become the default choice for someone building a desktop system.    

On the other hand, I prefer the EIDE drives for a system where someone knows they will be manipulating bus speeds in order to overclock their computer.  There is some variation in how well motherboards actually lock a PCI bus speed at 33 MHz when other, non-standard, bus speeds are being used.  EIDE drive controllers seem to tolerate being run out of spec better than do SATA drive controllers in this situation.  Since there still isn't much difference between EIDE drives and SATA hard drives (Western Digital, for example, only recently started building their drives with a native SATA design), you don't give up too much in the way of performance in order to assure yourself of a more stable system. 

Western Digital introduced their 10,000 rpm Raptor drives quite a while ago, and the faster platter speed does offer a real performance boost, compared to what your typical 7200 rpm drive can achieve.  However, the advantage of these drives in many real world situations is relatively small, especially compared to the rather high cost of these drives.  The largest of these drives is the 74GB model, and it sells for around $180.  By comparison, you can buy a 7200 rpm, 250GB drive for around $115.  Therefore, I see these 10000 rpm drives as being more a specialty drive and as a useful alternative to SCSI drives (which are even more expensive).  I think that these Raptors will find their best use in a system where reading and writing to the hard drive with speed is very important.  This would be the case in a system being used for the capture and editing of video, for example. 

Following the above rules of thumb, I'm going to suggest Seagate's 250GB SATA drive for this system.  The newest models (7200.8) use higher density platters than the previous generation (7200.7 models), though this seems to be reducing costs more than increasing the performance of these drives.  While other manufacturers, such as Maxtor, can boast of models that perform somewhat better than do Seagate's, Seagate continues to be the only manufacturer to offer a 5 year warranty on their desktop drives.

The cost of DVD burners has come down dramatically; so, there is little reason not to make one of these standard on today's higher end systems.  NEC's latest Dual Layer, 16X, DVD burner (ND-3540A) sells for around $44, and the BenQ DW1640 is available for maybe a few dollars more.  Both of these recorders function well with a wide range of media.

I still include a floppy drive with my recommendations, despite it being a "legacy" device.  I find them to be a useful boot device when I want to run a non-windows utility, and they are inexpensive.  Any $11 OEM model should be fine, but Mitsumi makes a floppy drive that also incorporates a Digital Memory Card Reader.  I'm going to include this in my Optimal Game System recommendations to add a bit of uniqueness, as well as extra functionality.

When we are dealing with input devices, the best choice becomes more individualized and dependent upon a user's preferences; so, my recommendations, here, will tend to be more general and aimed at suggesting things that might be of interest to you.  Each person will have to get their hands on some different keyboards, mice, etc. to see what suits them best.

For keyboards, I tend to stick to the known quantities found in brand name like Microsoft and Logitech.  You might use their models as a place to start and see how they compare to other brands and models that you can find on display at your local computer store.  There also are specialty keyboards, such as those from Ideazon and Saitek, which are billed as gaming keyboards.  And, there are special keypads, just for gamers, such as Belkin's Nostromo N52 and the innovative (though rather expensive) ErgoDex DX1, with it's movable and programmable keys.

For mice, I like the optical versions from Logitech.  At $40, their MX518 is a moderately priced mouse with lots of features that are meant to appeal to those who play computer games.  Razer is back in business, too, offering their Diamondback for about the same price that the MX518 is going for.

For Battlefield 2, many folks will prefer to use a joystick for flying the jets and maybe the helicopters (others prefer a mouse and keyboard for the helicopters).  Since we're not talking about a true flight sim, here, and you'll want to be able to move easily back and forth between joystick and mouse, I think a four-axis joystick will be the best choice.  Either the Logitech Extreme 3D Pro or the Saitek Cyborg Evo would be good choice.

Battlefield 2 has a voice communication utility built into the game.  This will allow you to talk directly to other members of your squad, and it allows the commander and the squad leaders to coordinate tactics.  So, if you don't have one already, you should definitely consider picking up a microphone.  They aren't very expensive, and with the right group of players, it can definitely add a new dimension to your enjoyment of the game.  You can pick up a microphone that plugs directly into your sound card, such as this Logitech model; or, for a bit more money, you can get a version that uses a USB port, instead.  

Logitech makes some good quality, but relatively inexpensive, speaker systems.  Their Z5300e 5.1 speaker system (shown below) is THX certified, capable of delivering 280 watts of music power, and costs $138.

If you are looking for something more, their Z5500 5.1 system delivers 505 watts of music power, adds a hardware digital dolby decoder (which might be of interest, if you plan on watching a lot of DVDs on your computer), and costs around $278.

If you don't have the space to make use of a five speaker system, the Klipsch Pro Media 2.1 speaker system is available for $150.  These speakers are also THX certified and capable of a total music output of 200 watts.  Klipsch also makes a 5.1 speaker system, the Pro Media Ultra, that costs $303.

Every time that I update one of my system guides, it is apparent how the days of the CRT monitor are coming to a close and that the LCD monitor is the new standard.  Aperture grill CRTs are becoming difficult to find in any size, but especially sizes less than 21 inches.  It appears that the 22 inch Diamondtron tube from Mitsubishi is about the only CRT still in production.  While monitors using this tube are excellent, they are also huge, weighing in at around 65 pounds.  They are also expensive, if you can find a new one for sale.  These days, your best bet for high-quality CRT monitors will be to shop for second-hand or refurbished models; for example, AZATek seems to be a good source for these.

New and improved LCD monitors in 19 inch and larger sizes are available to fill in the gap left by the departure of the aperture grill CRTs.  The 19" LCDs typically have a native resolution of 1280 x 1024 and a true 19 inch diagonal screen size (the 19 inch CRT only has a viewable screen dimension of 18 inches, measured diagonally).  

For someone interested in playing computer games on a LCD monitor, the first thing that they are going to look at is the response time, or how quickly the monitor can change the color shades of its pixels.  There are some relatively inexpensive TN panel LCDs that offer quick response time, but they do sacrifice viewing angles and color reproduction in the process.  (See my Monitor Guide for more information on the types of panels being used in LCDs and what their relative strengths and weaknesses are.)  The Hyundai L90D+ is a popular 19 inch gaming panel that uses a Samsung TN type panel.  It can be found selling for around $346.  The very similar Samsung 930B can be found for sale in many brick and mortar stores, such as CompUSA, CircuitCity, Staples, etc., usually selling for around $400.

If you are looking to combine fast response times with good viewing angles and a true 8 bit color range, the Viewsonic VP191B seems to be a good choice.  

Viewsonic has taken a MVA panel, which is known for its good viewing angles, high contrast capabilities, and good color production, and used some electronic trickery, often referred to as overdrive technology, to speed up the MVA panel's otherwise sluggish response times.  (Note: Viewsonic has used the same VP191B model number over the course of three major revisions of this monitor.  This latest version, which is being recommended, can be recognized by its boasting of a 8ms grey to grey response time.  It's typical response time is given as 20ms.)  This monitor is selling for around $440.  Samsung appears to have their own version of an "overdrive technology" monitor in the 193P+.  This uses a Samsung 19 inch PVA panel, and it also boasts of a 8ms grey to grey response time.  This monitor is more expensive than the Viewsonic, however, as it usually is selling for more than $500.

Further options start getting more expensive at this point.  Monitors using IPS panels tend to have the most well rounded characteristics, when you are talking about their response times, color fidelity, and viewing angles, but the relatively fast versions of these panels are only found in larger displays, such as the 20.1 inch Dell 2001FP.  Currently, this LCD is selling for around $562, but Dell often offers these for less when it is running a sale.  Although the Viewsonic VP201B and the LG Flatron L2013P appear to be very similar monitors, the Dell is almost always the less expensive option.

Another popular option is to go to a 20 inch screen with a wide format, such as the Dell 2005FPW, which also uses a low response time IPS panel.  Sometimes, this panel can be found selling for significantly less than the regular format Dell 2001FP, but at the moment the Dell 2005FPW is selling for $559.

Keep in mind that these 20 inch monitors have fairly high native resolutions.  While the 19 inch LCDs have a resolution that most high-end game computers can handle (1280x1024), the regular format 20 inch LCD is running at a 1600x1200 resolution and the wide format version is running at 1680x1050.  To keep your framerates high at these high resolutions, you really should plan on investing in a top end video card, such as the 7800GTX.

The last few months have brought good news to those putting together a high end game system.  The price premiums that use to be present in choosing a socket 939 processor and motherboard, as well as a PCI-E video card, have pretty much disappeared.  This makes the process of picking out components much more straightforward.  It also means that these high end system are bit less expensive and more powerful.

This is a good thing, since the appearance of Battlefield 2 has made clear that the latest round of complex games with lots of "eye candy" is going to need all that power for them to be played smoothly at high resolutions with all those wonderful graphics features enabled.