Well, its that time again for PC buying recommendations. This time, great kudos to AnandTech's June Overclocking Guide. I love this particular guide because it includes what machines overclock well to get you additional price/performance. I'm also in the middle of building up a high-end PC for my own video editing, gaming and digital photography as well as a low-end PC to replace Calvin's failing computer.
High-end PC
Lots happening in this category this month. Intel announced their new Prescott, PCI Express and 925X chipsets while AMD shipped their Athlon 939-socket processors and motherboards. The net of that is that the new Prescotts are hotter but not much faster and that the Athlon 64s remain a leader particular when you start overclocking.
So here is my dream system with prices from pricegrabber (although most of the time newegg.com or zipzoomfly.com are the cheapest but highest quality):
| Component | Price | Comments and Alternatives | |
| AMD Athlon 64 3500+ | $350 | Athlon 64 2800+ is socket 754 for 2-9% slower but can be had for $150 | |
| MSI Neo2 K8N Platinum | $180 | 5% faster in Winstones, the Abit AV8 at $121 is value leader or Chaintech "VNF3250": for socket 754 at just $80 although without firewire | |
| OCZ 3700EB | $340 | No clear alternatives for overclocking | |
| Western Digital WD740GB | $180 | Or get the Hitachi 7K400 as a huge drive if you can find it at $400 | |
| nVidia 6800GT | $439 | ||
The recommended board is the MSI K8N Neo2.
is the way to go ||
| Antec True Power 480 | $87 | Don't skimp on the power supply |
Good comments are that good value for overclocking is:
CPU: AMD Athlon XP 2500+ Mobile Barton (512K L2 cache)
Motherboard: DFI Infinity NFII Ultra (nForce2 Ultra 400)
Price: CPU - $88 shipped (OEM). Motherboard - $91 shipped. HSF - $12 shipped
This is exactly the system that I overclocked, but used the standard Barton. The Mobile version uses less than half the wattage and is a great overclocker. It is not super fast performance-wse, but look at the price!
This chip is also multiplier unlocked so instead of just running against a 133 FSB, many folks run it at 11×200 or even 12×200MHz successfuly. With the DFI board, folks are reaching FSB speeds of 280MHz!
Another recommendation would be:
Athlong 2800+ or 3000+ combined with a 2nd generation socket 754 board like the MSI K8 Neo or the Abit KV8 Pro
