Mid Range Guide
That P2 in the corner is fading in power modes and you dont feel a budget system is for you, your a power house! the main question a lot of you email us about is, what hardware should I get? I feel that there is such a range of solutions that no one can possibly find the answer but....This is something that we feel we can help you with many of you will remember our last article and now need the next step up to "mid range". The following systems are only recommendations, you don't have to follow them exactly. All parts of the systems are covered from cases to monitors with prices. If you have any questions about the systems please feel free to email us or talk about them in the forums
This week its the turn of the :-
Mid Range Gaming System
CPU - Duron @ 850 or 900
Last week we were going to recommend this CPU for the budget system but it wasnt avaliable and now it is at many places also the TBird is but thats more a power house piece of kit. 99% of the 600s and 650s will clock to these speeds so theres no need to even worry about it not clocking and if it doesnt you could always have an accident with it ;) This CPUS are CHEAP! at around £100
Motherboard - Asus A7V
The A7V is a VIA KT133 chipset in ATX form factor for the latest support in AMD DuronTM 550MHz ~ 1GHz processors. Such new chipset is ASUS's first Socket A (and only in the UK apart from Soltek) and it incorporate 200MHz FSB and 1.5GB PC133 with full PC100 SDRAM capability in the x86 platforms. This motherboard features support for Stepless Frequecy Selection, a new technology which allows CPU frequency setting to be set in 1MHz-increments and also Ultra-Fast DMA/100 data transfer, and AGP Pro/4X, etc. This is a damn nice motherboard with Dip Switches to change the mutliplier and clock up the Durons!
Memory - Crucial 256mb PC133
Memory is something that you cannot save money on by buying cheap generic stuff. We therefore recommend a stick of Crucial 128 mb PC133 ram, priced at £95 (online orders direct to crucial incur a 10% discount). Getting PC133 memory is a must as it means to can take advantage of the Abit VT6X4 memory features and it will help when overclocking.
Graphics Card - Annihilator PRO
Even though we used this in our budget system we still feel it is a very nice graphics card and until the MX is released in the UK this is a must! Since Nvidia brought out the Geforce2 GTS the original Geforce prices are falling like stones. We recommend Creative Labs Annihilator range. The normal SDR memory version is priced at £115 and the DDR memory version is priced at £130. Either way you can't go wrong but the Annihilator PRO (DDR Memory) probably provides the best price to performance ratio.
Hard Drive - Maxtor 20.4Gb DimondMax Plus 40
Spin speed is paramount these days so its probably best to go for a 7,200 RPM beastie. We came across Maxtor DiamondMax 40 Plus range, which offers extremely good performance for the price you pay. Typically a 20.4Gb model costs £115 which with a specification that includes 7,200 RPM and 2mb Cache you can't go wrong.
Monitor - Belinea 10 60 20 19"
Nice cheap good value monitors...You probably want a 19" monitor but are thinking you can't afford it, right? Well that's where your wrong the Economy range from Belinea fits the bill perfectly. The Belinea 10 60 20 19" Monitor is priced at around £200. With a maximum resolution of 1600 x 1250 @ 75 Hz and a dot pitch of 0.26mm surely we've got the price wrong, but we haven't!
Sound Card - Sound Blaster Live! Player 1024
There is no point in a live plainum you will definatly want surround sound anyway. With Aureal no longer in action theres no question about going for one of the SB Live based cards. The Sound Blaster Live! Player 1024 is the affordable Environmental Audio card for the gamer, internet and entertainment enthusiast. Delivering the same unparalleled quality and sound performance as the Sound Blaster Live! Platinum It incorporates the powerful EMU10K1 audio processor, Environmental Audio technology, multi speaker surround sound with fantastic environmental effects. The 1024 is available for around £40
Speakers - Creative Labs FPS 2500
What better to complement the SB Live 1024 sound card than Creative Labs Four Point Surround 2500 speaker system. Available for around £200.
Case - Enlight 7237
We still think this is the case of cases, A mid range system really can't justify anything bigger than a mid tower case. Therefore we thought that the Enlight 7237 fits the bill perfectly. Enlight’s popular ATX sized case line includes all the easy assembly features you have come to expect: huge selection of snap-on interchangeable front bezels, slide guides for quicker FDD/HDD installation, virtually screw less case assembly, universal I/O shields, more drive bay options than other cases on the market and more. Available at just £50
CD-Rom
At the moment it really isn't worth getting a DVD drive for a gaming system. You'll probably be safe getting a 50x CD-ROM drive, that are widely available, for around £30.
Conclusion
There you have it the Mid Range Gaming System recommended by Hexus.net . Above are just the basics for a really good value gaming system of course you'll have to include the O/S, Keyboard, Mouse etc but those are really personal preference.
The above system totals at less than 1G
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