MAINSTREAM Doom 3: System Summary
| Hardware | Component | Price |
| CPU & Cooling | AMD Athlon 64 3400+ (Socket 754) Retail | $290 |
| Motherboard | MSI K8N Neo (nForce3-250Gb) Socket 754 | $123 |
| Memory | 1GB (2 X 512MB) Crucial PC3200 Ballistix | $267 |
| Video Card | 256MB nVidia 6800 GT | $389 |
| Monitor | PHILIPS 201B45 21" CRT Monitor | $389 |
| Computer Case | IN WIN Black/Silver ATX Mid Tower Prescott CAG 1.1 with 430W Power Supply, Model S564T.430BFD2BDA ($69 plus $19 Shipping) |
$88 |
| Sound Card | On-Board | $0 |
| Speakers | Logitech Z-5300 5.1 THX Certified Speaker System | $143 |
| Networking | Onboard 10/100/1000 Ethernet | $0 |
| Hard Drive | Seagate 200GB 7200RPM SATA (8Mb) (STORAGE) | $131 |
| DVD/CD-RW | Lite-On 12X DVD±RW Drive, Model SOHW-1213S | $75 |
| Bottom Line | $1895 | |
Our selections for the Mainstream Doom 3 system total a much more mainstream $1895. They include one of the fastest Athlon 64 processors in the 3400+ and a motherboard that will provide all of the unique nForce3 features. The system also includes the best-buy nVidia 6800 GT, which is basically the same card as the 6800 Ultra at a lower clock. Sound is still excellent, with the proven Logitech Z-5300 THX Certified 5.1 surround system. We have actually been playing Doom 3 with this speaker system running off an on-board ALC850, and we don't think that you will be disappointed with Doom 3 in this setup.
Also upgraded is the DVD burner, to a 12X model, and the memory is the Crucial Ballistix, which proved to provide 2-2-2 performance at DDR400 on an Athlon 64 board, as well as overclocking capabilities to DDR500+. You can check out how the Crucial performed in our recent =F-A-S-T= DDR Memory: 2-2-2 Roars on the Scene. A Doom 3 system also deserves all the monitor that you can give it, so we opted for a good value 21" flatscreen CRT. With the richness of detail in Doom 3, you will appreciate every extra square inch of a 21" CRT.
Because this system almost says "Please overclock me", we upgraded the Case and power supply to a new Inwin case designed to feed and cool a Prescott system with a decent 430 watt power supply. The use of large fans and the attention to details in the Inwin case will please many of you.
The Mainstream Doom 3 system is well-balanced to deliver the best Doom 3 experience for the money, which spells value. If $1895 is still a bit much, you can certainly drop to a 3200+ or 3000+ and save $70 to $115. The monitor can also be down-sized to 19" to save another $200. Substituting a 3000+ and 19" monitor drop the total to $1580. You can also go with the cheaper Logitech 5.1 speakers used in our Value Doom 3 system and save another $90, which still keeps the 5.1 speaker setup that Doom 3 supports. This gets the Mainstream total to $1490. Below this point, you should really take a look at the Value Doom 3 system.
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wjh - Monday, September 13, 2004 - link
Hello, and thanks alot for such a great article! I am currently doing the research to build an FX-53 system with 2 Gb of memory.I'm having trouble locating the OCZ memory that you describe-- it could not be found on pricewatch, so I went to the vendor's site and found this:
2GB Dual Channel Kit PN- OCZ4002048EBDCPE-K
but it has these timings:
CL 2.5-3-2-8
(CAS-TRCD-TRP-TRAS) Available in 512MB (2x256MB), 1GB (2x512MB) and 2GB (2x1GB) Dual Channel Optimized Kits
and you specified default timings of 2.5-2-3.
Did you really mean 2.5-3-2, or do I have the wrong part?
I would appreciate your help in finding the right 2 Gb kit, hopefully at a decent price.
Thanks alot!
MAME - Wednesday, August 11, 2004 - link
You guys are being too critical of the article. $1,000 is a lot for a value system for general use, but this article is about getting a system that can play the highest demanding game DECENTLY.With that in mind, $1,000 is actually a good price for most of the hardware (minus the actual game).
$280 for the 6800 is a lot but that's the price you gotta pay for top of the line performance these days. It's only $80 more than the 9800 pro, and has almost twice the performance.
Wesley, you did a good job with the choices for the most part. Don't worry about these guys.
archcommus87 - Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - link
I agree for the most part with what Anandtech has posted here. True, it seems ridiculous that the value system has a nearly $300 video card, however it doesn't say budget, it says value, and they really are just trying to list the best bang for the buck.For the record though, I'm running an Athlon XP 2100+ overclocked to 2800+ speeds, 1 GB of cheapo memory and a 9800 Pro at stock speeds, and I'm running the game at usually 20-25 FPS or higher at 10x7 res, high settings, 6x AA and 16x AF.
link130 - Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - link
Wesley Fink, think carefully before your responseActually even if we use YOUR definition of the term "value" of performance/price. a modest overclock of an 2400+ xp-M is about 2.4ghz while a modest overclock of a 2800+ A64 is 2.0ghz.
the A64 costs 2x the AXP while by extrapolating the AXP cpu graphs from this site, you can expect them to perfrom within 5fps in doom 3. still a good value for this game?
I actually get an average of around 40 fps at 800x600 medium quality with all the effects on except aa and vsync. in real gameplay on my 2.4ghz AXP-Bobile with a $50 ti4200 64mb @ 300/600 and cheap 512 ddr400 ram. after tweaking the cache settings in the cfg file, the game runs very smooth (almost no jerking effect even opening doors). now THAT is real value.
TrogdorJW - Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - link
I'm actually playing D3 reasonably well on an Athlon XP 2.3 GHz (2500+ XP-M OC) with 1 GB RAM and a 9800 Pro. Still, 1024x768 HQ can be a bit choppy.Honestly, though, timedemo is NOT the way to determine gaming performance. Especially since the timedemo in Doom 3 disables audio. Yes, it's repeatable, but that doesn't make it accurate. And if the AI is actually running during a timedemo, I would be surprised. If you want to give a real recommendation for system performance, you probably need to use a utility like FRAPS and play through an entire level of the game, then report low, average, and high FPS. But then that would take a lot longer.
I also have to wonder how the lack of sound comes into play with the RAM use, as sound effects can chew up a decent amount of RAM. The benchmarking method (run timedemo 3 times and report the highest or average of the last two, I think?) would also negate the advantage of having more RAM. I know the first time I run the timedemo, even with 1 GB RAM, there is a lot of hard drive use and the average FPS is usually 25% or so less than on subsequent runs. In real gameplay, you don't continually rerun the exact same sequence, so you don't always get the benefit of cached data.
But all that's a bit off topic. The main thing is, the recommendations are pretty good, if expensive. I would think that a current Athlon XP system with a high end video card would go a long way to reaching good performance, if that's what you want. If you're building a new machine, the 9800 Pro isn't the best choice, but if you already have one (I do), I'm not sure it's worth $300 or $400 to upgrade to the 6800/GT.
And for you ATI people, I have to wonder how this will affect things:
http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1487...
MercenaryForHire - Monday, August 9, 2004 - link
Doom 3 is playable on ANYTHING.http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=...
Now quit bitching and play. :P
- M4H
Jbog - Monday, August 9, 2004 - link
#45 Runamile, what do you mean by "very playable" and "just fine?" Maybe you could put that into terms that we can all understand, such as FPS and Image Quality? Otherwise your remarks have no objective quality.Runamile - Monday, August 9, 2004 - link
I too also agree that $1000 for a value system is a little steep. It probally should of been around $700 IMHO.But thats cool. Ive already beaten D3 on an AMD 2200+, 512MB 2100, and ATI 8500 128MB. With it all @ 1024x768 w/o bump mapping, the system was very playable and looked just fine. And that rig will run about $350 these days.
Momental - Monday, August 9, 2004 - link
I'd also like a little clarification as to why the 3400+ was recommended over the 3500+. True, the former is cheaper than the latter and actually seems to offer a wee bit better performance, in some cases. However, having a 939-based system allows one to merely upgrade a processor, should they become less expensive rather than replacing the board and the processor. Yes? No? I'm new to all this, so bear with me. ;)Fantastic article, by the way!!
Kung Lau - Monday, August 9, 2004 - link
"The purpose of this Doom 3 Buyer's Guide is take all that we've learned in these reviews and make some basic recommendations for a killer Doom 3 system. Since desires, designs, and pocketbooks are different, you will find three recommendations here - Performance, Mainstream, and Value."It's almost like Wesley saw all these comments coming...
Value= 2004 Honda Civic for $12,000k
Budget= 1967 Volkswagon Beetle for $200.00
They will both get you from point A to point B, but I would hardly consider them synonymous, except for both being vehicles.
I can put together a system for under $800 using Newegg too, but I won't know what works well together for Doom 3 (specifically) until I've assembled the system after delivery. If something doesn't mesh or isn't quite up to par, I would have to send it back for another part.
I think the recommended lists provides for a basic groundwork to build from. Many will have different variations on the builds.
People take stuff too seriously around here.
And btw, I, along with many others here on Anandtech, bought a Dell 4600 system with 9800pro for GAMING for under $500 without monitor (had already) from the Hot Deals forum a while back when the deals were outrageous.