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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Intel Pentium 4 640 (3.2GHz) SRP: US$172
Before the dual-core craze began, the Pentium 4 640 at 3.2GHz was the staple best bang-for-buck processor in the mid-range. Today, it is still very much the speedy performer featuring both Hyper-Threading and Intel EMT64 64-bit technologies. The best part is that it costs a fraction of the equivalent Pentium D processor, a perfect choice for the casual gamer.
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