Test Setup
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| Platform | |
|---|---|
| CPU AMD | AMD Athlon X2 BE-2350 (65 nm; 2100 MHz, 2x512 kB L2 Cache) |
| CPU Intel | Intel Pentium Dualcore E2160 (65 nm; 1800 MHz, 1 MB Shared L2 Cache) |
| Motherboard AMD | MSI K9AGM2-FIH, Socket AM2 (Rev. 1.02)AMD 690G Chipset |
| Motherboard Intel | Elitegroup G33T-M2, Socket 775 (Rev. 1.0)Intel G33 Chipset |
| RAM | Patriot PDC21G6400LLK2x 512 MB DDR2-800 (CL 5-5-5-15 2T) |
| Hard Disk Drive | Seagate Barracuda 7200.10320 GB, 7.200 RPM, 16 MB cache, SATA/300 |
| DVD-ROM | Samsung SH-S183 |
| Graphics Card | Gigabyte Radeon HD 2600 Pro w/ Silent Pipe II CoolingGPU: ATI Radeon HD 2600Pro (600 MHz)RAM: 512 MB GDDR2 (800 MHz DDR) |
| Sound Card | Integrated |
| Power Supply | Silverstone ST50EF-PlusATX 2.2, 500 Watt |
| System Software & Drivers | |
| OS | Windows XP Professional 5.10.2600, Service Pack 2 |
| DirectX Version | 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904) |
| Platform Drivers AMD | Version 8.40 |
| Platform Drivers Intel | Version 8.3.0.1013 |
| Graphics Drivers ATI | Catalyst 7.8 |
Our $500 Shopping Cart
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| Header Cell - Column 0 | AMD Platform | Intel Platform |
|---|---|---|
| Processor | Athlon X2 BE-2350$ 95 | Pentium Dual Core E2160$ 92 |
| Motherboard | MSI K9AGM2-FIH$ 69 | Elitegroup G33T-M2$ 89 |
| RAM | Patriot PDC21G6400K, 2x 512 MB DDR2-800$ 49 | |
| Graphics Card | Gigabyte Radeon HD 2600 Pro$ 85 | |
| Hard Drive | Seagate Barracuda 7200.10, SATA/300, 320 GB$ 65 | |
| Power Supply | Silverstone ST50EF-Plus$ 99 | |
| Case | Coolermaster Centurion 5 CAC-T05 Black/Silver$ 49 | |
| Other | Samsung SH-S183 DVD-ROM$ 30 | |
| Total Cost | $ 541 | $ 558 |
We haven't included the lowest-available prices, but usually picked the second best price, which better reflects what you will end up paying, including shipping cost, or when you buy the components at your local computer store. You can certainly save some money by selecting a cheaper power supply, recycling your optical drive or going with a simpler graphics card. However, in our opinion, this doesn't make much sense. A price range of $500 to $520 is what you can expect when you invest in these components or similar ones.
Benchmarks And Settings
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| Benchmarks and Settings | |
|---|---|
| 3D-Games | |
| Quake 4 | Version: 1.2 (Dual-Core Patch)Video Mode: 1280x1024Video Quality: highTHG Timedemo waste.maptimedemo demo8.demo 1 (1 = load textures) |
| Audio | |
| Lame MP3 | Version 3.97 Beta 2 (12-22-2005)Audio CD "Terminator II SE", 53 minwave to mp3160 kbps |
| Video | |
| Mainconcept H.264 v2 | Version 2.1260 MB MPEG-2 source (1920x1080) 16:9Codec: H.264Mode: NTSCAudio: AACProfile: HighStream: Program |
| Applications | |
| Winrar | Version 3.70(303 MB, 47 Files, 2 Folders)Compression = BestDictionary = 4096 kB |
| Cinebench | Version: R101 CPU, x CPU run |
| Bapco Sysmark | Version: 2007 PreviewOfficial Run |
| Synthetic Benchmarks | |
| Sisoft Sandra 2008 | Version: 12.30Memory Bandwidth |
