Your ever ready daily hardware buys

LET US SEE what the USA has to offer to budget gamers for a grand total of $915 and for extreme budget gamers for $458. Deals do not include P&P, software or assembly. Items are in stock or in auction at time of writing. If you ever find cheaper prices elsewhere in UK, don't hesitate to contact me. This guide as well as the subsequent ones will be updated regularly. One explanation for the low cost of components is the fact that we are reaching the end of a cycle and exciting new products like BTX or DDR-II are just behind the door. So, let's start.

A superb ECS motherboard with the nForce 2 Ultra 400 chipset, coupled with an AMD Athlon XP 2600+ and a fan ($120 - unitedmicro.com). Having such a high quality chipset on an ECS board would have been a contradiction in itself some times back, but much to its credit, ECS has decided to attack the market. The N2U400a features dual Channel DDR400, 5.1 audio and good overclocking options. Next, we have found a very attractive ATX casing with six 3.5" and four 5.25" bays together with two audio and two USB2.0 front ports. The casing is complemented by a 420W ATX PSU which should keep everything rolling perfectly ($28 - computergeeks.com). Also in the bundle, 1024Mb (2x512Mb) worth of PC2700 memory to take advantage of the nforce 2 chipset ($146 - enetshoponline.com). Nikimi seems to have a small brother in MDT (Magnetic Data TecH) which is specialised in White Label Hard disk drives. The 120 Gb model features a 2Mb buffer and a 7200 rpm rotational speed ($76 - 3btech.net). We also snapped a 21" monitor from Nec, the E1100 Multisync can go up to 1600x1200. It features a dot pitch of 0.26mm as well as few scars ($115 - priza.com). Although second hand B-grade, it should still be able to give you value for money. For the video card, we chose one of the fastest available (until the X800 and 6800 came that is). The Sapphire Atlantis features an ATI Radeon 9800 and 128Mb DDR pro was selected ($163 - buyxtremegear). It is still new and cheaper than on ebay! We got ourselves a new floppy drive ($6.99 - opinias.com) and a iomagic 8x dual format DVD writer ($59 - consumerdepot.com) for our secondary storage. For the input devices, the Genius model KD-998B which is a bundled wireless black keyboard and an optical mouse combo ($19.99 - computergeeks.com) seems to offer the best value for money especially since it is Radio Frequency based rather than IR. The sound department is handled by the now famous Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS featuring firewire ports, 7.1 speakers sound support, EAX 4.0 support and THX ($78 - us-depot.com) and a Creative Labs Inspire T7700 speaker system which is the top of range from Creative Labs ($115 - excaliberpc.com).

Comments : you would be hard pressed to find something better than the computer we assembled virtually. The US provides with even better sources as compared to UK. Again, calling such a rig, "budget" is a contradiction in itself. Twelve months ago, this system would probably have earnt a first place in benchmarks elsewhere. For around $927, you get a nForce 2 Ultra 400 system with an XP 2600+ with prospects of a XP 3000+ performance via overclocking, a DVD writer, a Radeon 9800 Pro and a 21" monitor together with hi-end sound and plenty of storage. What could you asked for more at this price? Expect it to last at least until next year, EVEN after DOOM 3 and Half Life 2

Our US extreme budget gamer PC system will be build using the following components. A PC Chips/Syntax SV266AD featuring the KT266a chipset, the same motherboard which was chosen yesterday. It has 6 USB2.0 ports together with onboard LAN, Audio and 5 PCI ports. It is coupled with an AMD Athlon XP 2200 and an HSF ($65 - compubuzz.com). One 512Mb PC2100 CL2.5 memory modules are added ($49.97 - parts.com). As secondary drive, we chose an old samsung 12x8x32x8 DVD/CD Writer ($25 - matrixsurplus.com). The hard disk drive chosen is a 40Gb model from the MDT range used in the budget gamer PC. It features a 2 Mb buffer and a 7200rpm rotational speed ($37- 3ttech.net). Everything can be housed in an OEM 11-bay ATX case with a 300W PSU ($20.50 - computergeeks.com). A new floppy drive can be purcashed at Opinias ($6.99 - opinias.com). For input devices, we chose a Genica black wired keyboard together with a 3 button beige PS2 optical scroll mouse ($10.25 - computergeeks). For sound, since our budget was becoming dangerously low, we chose to go for an Altec Lansing XA3021 2.1 speaker system to go with a Crystal 4620 4 channel sound card ($30.94 - computergeeks). Finally, a 19" second hand brand name monitor was chosen with a 0.25dpi and a maximum resolution of 1600x1200 ($69 - Priza.com) which will be powered by the best video card we found, a Sapphire ATI radeon 9700 Pro ($150 - ebay).

Comments : While keeping our budget checked, we were able to get a AMD XP 2200+, 512Mb DDR, ATI Radeon 9700 Pro card, DVD/CD Writer, 19" monitor and Altec Lansing speakers... Would you still call this an extreme gamers budget PC? This is supposed to be the poor guy's gaming rig!!!. It has a relatively small hard disk but that system can now be purchased for a fraction of what it would have cost some time back. Don't be deceived by the price. The Radeon 9700 pro is still capable of miracles. In Call of Duty or other games for example, it is systematically AHEAD of newer cards like the FX5900 or the FX 5700.

Tomorrow, we'll go to France for their version of Theinq's budget gaming PC and extreme Gaming PC. Until now, the United States have proved to be the better of the game.

**I received emails yesterday regarding the website of MCS, its actual website is MCScom.co.uk not mcs.co.uk.** Sorry