The Guts:
CPU: AMD Duron 700@1000 with Alpha Heatsink
and Fan
$229.00
Ok, so this is just to show you all that I'm not
on Intel's payroll. Frankly the Duron has been kicking the Celeron II around
quite handily of late... and finding a Celeron II that you can buy overclocked
to 1 GHz is pretty impossible. The alternative would be a PIII overclocked to
1.0 GHz, but that would cost you and extra $100... not something that's really a
worthwhile expense for a system under $1,000.
Now a little about the processor, the Duron is
AMD's offering in the low end market. Based on the Athlon much like the Celeron
is derived from the PIII, the Duron is pretty much a cut down version of the
Athlon, but plenty spicy for its price point. In fact, the Durons have better
performance on average than a Celeron II, and they're getting cheaper, so this
decision was pretty much a no-brainer even before overclocking factors in.
Overclocking was something that wasn't really worthwhile for the Ultimage Gaming
Rig, but for a value oriented customer it's something that can drastically
increase the performance of your computer for a minimal cost.
Of course overclocking can be risky business,
especially for the novice. Worrying about unlocking multipliers, what heatsink/fan
to use, if your CPU is even capable of higher speeds, these are all things that
are easy for a more informed user, but to a beginner might seem rather daunting.
So, with the help of
OverclockWarehouse we've selected a Duron 700 with an Alpha cooling unit
running at a sweet 1GHz guaranteed, and for only $229!
So we've got a sweet overclocked cpu at an
amazing price, in the processor department we're set. Motherboard:
Motherboard:
ABIT KT7 Socket A
$131.50
The KT7 also comes with ABIT's much talked about
SoftMenu BIOS system and all the overclocking features we'll need for our Duron.
The KT7 is rounded out by some pretty standard specs, ATA66, plenty (6) of PCI
slots, 4 USB ports, supports AGP 4x, hardware monitoring, and pretty much
everything else you'd expect from a midrange motherboard.
What we're really looking for in this space is a
good stable motherboard that can handle our overclocked Duron, the KT7 does this
and doesn't cost much so I'm going to go with it. Of course other options exist,
if you want to spend a bit more, but this will do nicely and the motherboard
isn't really missing anything overly critical for a value gaming system.
Memory: Corsair 128MB PC133 SDRAM
$103.00
Well the theme here is value, so we're going to
go with some 'value' RAM. However we also want to build a capable gaming system
so we really shouldn't be skimping in the important areas, and memory is a very
important area for any system. Since we do have to go with value ram, we're
going to with value RAM from Corsair, a very respected memory company that has
some great high end stuff to boot. The quality that goes into their high end RAM
should most certainly trickle down to the low end.
Next page: Drives
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