Think our ultimate gaming rig is over-the-top? Well it was meant to be since it was built to be the best for the most hardcore. For the casual, non-elitist gamers, you don't require the highest-end components or give up an arm and a leg to have an enjoyable gaming experience. You want to frag with peace of mind, not to obliterate your bank balance. Drawing a line between price and performance, we've come up with a more mainstream system that will still be able to undertake all the rigors of gaming today while packing enough next-generation technology to give you headroom in future titles.
We do away with much of the fats to leave a lean PC with its core components still packing a punch. A Pentium 4 processor is used instead of a Pentium D, though you notice that both are actually equal in raw clock speeds. We chose a Radeon X1600 XT graphics card for this system. As far as mainstream is concerned, this baby will probably be ATI's next price/performance sweet spot for the X1000 range. You will still get SM 3.0 and HDR capabilities and with ATI's AVIVO video technology onboard, you can take a break from gaming and watch HD videos without any worries.
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Creative Audigy 4 SRP: US$77
You're not extreme, but that doesn't mean you're a philistine either. Although alternative audio solutions may prove better for other applications, gamers will get the best experience with a Creative sound card due to universal support for audio technologies like EAX Advanced HD. The Audigy 4 has it all, 8-channels, 24-bit quality and DTS-EX support.
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