Price Guides - AMD

High-End

Case: Cooler Master Stacker 830 - $279.00
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-MA790FX-DS5 AM2+ 790FX - $189.99
Processor: AMD Phenom 9850 Black Edition - $235.00
Video: Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB - $339.99
Sound: Auzentech X-Fi Prelude - $174.99
Memory: Corsair Dominator 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 8500 - $157.00
Power: PC Power & Cooling Silencer 860w - $249.99
Storage: Western Digital Raptor 150GB - $169.99
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 750GB - $109.99
Optical: Lite-ON 20x DVD+R Sata - $23.99
Total: $1929.93

Are you thinking why would anyone go AMD at the moment when Intel is supremely kicking ass across the board? So are we, but we still offer AMD configurations because you demand it! Most of what makes up these high ends builds is relatively the same except in cases where a product selection over another may yield easy upgrading capability in the future. In this case we selected an ATI video card since the Gigabyte 790FX board is CrossFire friendly. Black Edition CPU’s are extremely favored by AMD overclockers since the multiplier is unlocked. This setup can be expected to take on any game on the market today, especially on larger monitors at high resolutions with maximum eye candy enabled. Opting for a Creative-based solution for audio at the moment may be unpopular, but the software suite is more mature than what the ASUS Xonar line offers at the moment.

With the increase in power consumption from video cards, the power supply was upped in order to accommodate possible future CrossFire use. With Western Digital announcing a possible 20k RPM Raptor in the works, RAID might be wise to hold off on, but if you’re apt for extreme everything you can certainly add another, otherwise a good balance of speed and storage supplemented by the Seagate drive should be enough to hold you over. Since our last update, Blu-ray has become the next generation disc standard, but the prices have remained high and the technology hasn’t progressed fast enough to recommend it.

Medium-Range

Case: Antec P182 - $139.99
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-MA790X-DS4 AM2+ 790X - $134.99
Processor: AMD Phenom 9550 Quad-Core - $195.00
Video: Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB - $339.99
Sound: ASUS Xonar DX 7.1 - $99.99
Memory: G.Skill 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR2 PC2 6400 - $139.99
Power: Corsair 620HX - $164.99
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 750GB - $109.99
Optical: Lite-ON 20x DVD+R Sata - $23.99
Total: $1348.92

Our midrange lineup is designed to offer an excellent gaming experience with a great price that will resonate with our readers. Antec’s beloved P182 makes a return along with the newest version of the Gigabyte P35 classic. Coupled with an Phenom 9550 and ATI 3870 X2, this system offers massive performance with CrossFire capability still included. Integrated sound still sucks, so the choice to opt for an ASUS-based sound solution is made easily especially with the PCI-Express connection. If you’re intention is to overclock, G.Skill presents a good solution that’s tended to overclock well for most. Everything is rounded up by a now absurdly cheap Seagate 750GB drive and a cable-management friendly power supply via Corsair.

Entry-Level

Case: Antec Sonata III 500 with PSU - $129.95
Motherboard: ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI - $134.99
Processor: AMD Phenom 8650 Triple-Core AM2+ - $165.99
Video: BFG Tech NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB - $259.99
Memory: Corsair XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR2 PC2 6400 - $48.00
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 750GB - $109.99
Optical: Lite-ON 20x DVD+R Sata - $23.99
Total: $872.90

Our entry level system isn’t low end by any means. It retains an impressive price versus performance ratio while staying as far under $1000 as possible. You’ll note most of the components remain the same from other builds with the exception of the Antec case which comes with a solid PSU and the exclusion of a sound card. Sacrifices can be made and opting for a slightly lower end video card may allow you to add a sound card, but it’s all a matter of preference. Our last update included a Windsor based processor, and now we’ve shifted to the triple-core Toliman CPU. This system will certainly be no slouch even if it isn’t quad-core

As always we welcome critique and your own suggestions so don’t forget to leave your comments below!

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