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This week's edition of What's Hot, What's Not focuses on what Gamers are getting these days. If you're a Gamer, have a look and see what the hottest components of a Super Gaming System are!
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Editorial >
PCSTATS |
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RAM, ROMS and Conclusions
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| RAM |
Every gamer wants lots of ram! 128MB is the
realistic "requirement" for the vast majority of games these days. Quake III
and Unreal Tournament run a lot smoother (less hard drive
thrashing) with 128MB of ram, or more. 32MB, 64MB, and 128MB PC-100 modules
are going for $43, $78, and $149 CDN ($30, $54, and $102 USD.) PC-133
modules are priced quite competitively with PC-100 modules. This is important because many
gamers / overclockers do NOT want to gamble with buying PC-100 ram
that may or may not run stably at 133MHZ FSB. VIA KX-133 motherboard users will definitely want to
maximize their system's performance by using PC-133 modules to take advantage of the extra
bandwidth provided by a 133MHZ memory bus.
Pentium III-E (Coppermine) overclockers
should also purchase PC-133 modules to remove the ram as the bottleneck when
overclocking that Pentium III 500-600E to the 133MHZ FSB (666 - 800MHZ.) Yes I
am aware of the beauty of 'asynchronous' ram timings that are available with
the VIA 133/A chipsets, however the memory bandwidth scores on these boards
are already low, so why use slow ram to save a few dollars? I do not have any
pricing on 32MB PC-133 modules, but 64MB and 128MB modules are priced at $85
and $157 CDN ($58 and $108 USD.)
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| ROMS |
I want
a 10X DVD-Rom drive, I really do, but I simply refuse
to pay $190 - $210 CDN ($130 - $144 USD) on something
that should be selling for quite a bit less. Most gamers only require a fast CD-ROM drive to
install their games from, and for that job, the Panasonic (Matsushita) 40X IDE
CD-ROM drive ($55 CDN / $38 USD) is the most commonly purchased model.
This particular drive is being used at our store, and it is quite capable
at reading various types of recordable cd-media, and is also a pretty
fast reader too.
CD-Rewritable
drives are now affordable, reliable and fast. My current favourite drive is
the Creative CDRW Blaster 8432 IDE Retail Boxed drive ($327 CDN / $224 USD.) I
really like retail boxed products, and CDRW drives are almost always a better
deal with retail packaging versus their OEM counterparts. You rarely get
software with OEM drives, and the price difference is rarely shocking. Saving
$30 - $50 CDN ($21 - $34 USD) by purchasing an OEM drive is not such a great
deal when you are forced to find and register your own CD-burning software
which often costs more than the savings that you had originally "gained" when
you purchased the OEM drive. Ultimately, the decision is up to you, but for
certain products like CDRW drives, getting the retail boxed version is always
a better deal.
The End?
I enjoy doing these roundups, and I hope that this has been helpful... but
please send me some feedback if you want me to try another approach for the
next roundup... thanks!
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