Buyer's Guide: Value Gaming - July 2002

Case - Antec SX630 - $65

We got quite a bit of flack for the case we recommended last week in our value SOHO system buyer's guide. This week we listened to your input and chose something a bit more reasonable with some additional features: the Antec SX630.

The SX630 features many of the same features present on our previous case choice, the Antec Value Line KS388, but offers additional cooling. The SX630 is a mini tower system that includes 8 drive bays (five 3.5" bays and three 5.25" bays), seven expansion slots, a swing-out side panel, and an 80mm rear case fan standard. The SX630 can also accept two front mounted 80mm case fans. The SX630 also comes with an AMD approved 300 watt power supply.

Sound card - Integrated 6 Channel Avance Logic ALC650 - "Free"

Thanks to Avance Logic's new ACL650 AC'97 codec, a discrete sound card is no longer necessary. The MSI 6380E KT3 Ultra motherboard we chose to power our value gaming system makes use of the ACL650, providing a very low cost 6 channel audio that provides audio functionality not previously available in an integrated audio solution.

Avance Logic's software allows you to remap the three 1/8" jacks on the KT3 Ultra to handle front, rear and LFE outputs. Because of this, these three jacks enable 5.1 channel analog outputs without the use of any additional brackets. The audio quality of this solution should be just about as good as a high end discrete audio card with a price much more attractive: free.

Check out our page covering on-board audio in our KT333 roundup for more information.

Speakers - Logitech Z-540 - $57

Deciding which audio solution to go with on a value gaming system is rather tough. On one hand you want a high quality 5.1 speaker setup but on the other any decent 5.1 speaker set is going to set you back a pretty penny. We decided to compromise some when it came to audio, opting to go with a quality 4.1 channel speaker setup over a very low quality 5.1 setup.

Although we have not yet had a chance to review the Logitech Z-540 speakers we have heard very good things about them and one would be hard pressed to find a 4.1 setup that sounds as good at a similar price point. If you are not too picky when it comes to sound, you can save a good $30 or more by going to a stereo sound setup. At the same time, if you are a sound snob, very high quality stereo sound setups are available in the same price range as the Z-540.

Ethernet: Linksys EtherFast 10/100 - $20

Since our motherboard did not offer integrated ethernet, we had to chose an add-in card to provide broadband connectivity. We use Linksys products here in the AnandTech lab all the time and have never been disappointed. Besides, at just $20 for a card with full support directly from the manufacturer under the major OS's, including Linux and Windows 2000, the EtherFast 10/100 is a deal that's impossible to pass up.

Hard drive - Maxtor DiamondMax D740X 6L040J2 40GB - $65

Another area of our buyer's guide that we listened to your feedback in was the hard drive choice. Many readers were quick to point out that the Western Digital drive we recommended in our value SOHO setup was not necessarily the best option available. For this reason, we modified our recommended hard drive to a drive that offers superior performance at a similar price.

The Maxtor DiamondMax D740X drive that we recommend today is a high performance 7200rpm drive that is able to offer speed at a good price. Larger versions of the D740X are available for about $20 more and offer the same performance as the 40GB model chosen here. In a gaming system such as this one, we recommend that you stick with a 7200rpm drive as the hard drive remains one of the largest PC bottlenecks.

CD-ROM/CD-RW/DVD-ROM - Name brand 40X - 50X CD-ROM - $30

Our recommended optical solution is the same as the one made last week in our value SOHO system recommendation. A DVD drive or a CD-RW drive is just not necessary in a machine being built on a budget. Again, we suggest going with a brand name CDROM drive, not just the cheapest one available. We have seen no-name CDROM drives choke when trying to read less than perfect discs and not perform as advertised even under ideal situations. Try going with Acer, ASUS, Creative Labs, Toshiba, or Teac.

If you are looking for good CD-R or CD-RW functionality, those drives can be had for about $25 more but feature lower read speeds.

OS - Microsoft Windows XP Professional - $275

Windows XP Professional is not only the clear operating system choice for those wanting to get work done but also for those wanting to play the latest and greatest games. The OS offers great stability and performance while maintaining compatibility with almost every application imaginable. In addition, the built in DirectX 8 functionality ensures that the current generation games will run flawlessly. Those looking for an alternate OS could go with a recent Linux build for a fraction of the cost but may be disappointed with the limited number of 3D games such a setup would be able to can play.

Bottom Line: $752 (without software)