PC Type	Basic/Office	Cost		Home Multimedia/Photo	Cost
Processor	Pentium D 820	$245		Pentium D 830	$322
CPU cooler	HSF Included	0		HSF Included	0
Motherboard	ASUS P5LD2-VM (Intel 945G chipset)	100		Intel D945Pvs	115
Case	Antec TX640B	90		Antec P150	150
Power supply	400W included	0		430W included	0
Graphics card	eVGA GeForce 7300 GS*	100		eVGA GeForce 6800 GS 256MB	199
Memory	2 x 512MB Corsair ValueSelect DDR2/533	80		2 x 1GB Kingston DDR400 (KVR400X64C3AK2/2G)	210
Hard drive	Western Digital WD1200JS 120GB	77		Western Digital WD2500JS 250GB	105
Optical drive	NEC ND-3550A DVD Rewriter	38		Sony DRU-810A DVD Rewriter	60
Audio	Integrated HD Audio	0		Integrated Audio	0
Display	ViewSonic VA912B 19" LCD	270		Gateway FPD2185W 21-inch widescreen LCD	599
Keyboard	Microsoft (A4B00007) keyboard/mouse	29		Logitech MX3100 Keyboard/Mouse	100
Pointing device	Included mouse	0		Included mouse	0
Speakers	Creative SBS 270 speakers	15		Logitech Z4 speakers	76
Tuner	N/A	0		N/A
	Total:	$1044			$1936

PC Type	Media Center	Cost		High End Gaming	Cost
Processor	Athlon 64 X2 3800+	$322		Athlon 64 X2 4800+	$775
CPU cooler	Zalman CNPS 7000-Cu	40		HSF Included	0
Motherboard	ABIT AN8-Ultra	115		ASUS A8R-MVP	110
Case	Silverstone LaScala LC-17	120		Antec P180	130
Power supply	Antec NeoHE 430W	75		Antec NeoHE 500W	96
Graphics card	ASUS EAX1600XT Silent	220		ATI Radeon X1900 XT	549
Memory	2 x 1GB Kingston DDR400 (KVR400X64C3AK2/2G)	210		2 x 1GB Corsair TwinX-2048 3200Pro	195
Hard drive	Seagate NL35 400GB SATA	300		Western Digital WD4000YR	215
Optical drive	HP DVD740 DVD Burner	90		Sony DRU-810A DVD Rewriter	60
Audio	Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic	105		Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic	105
Display	NA	0		Dell 2405FP	899
Keyboard	Microsoft ZV1	75		Logitech G15	66
Pointing device	WMCE Remote Control	35		Logitech G5 Laser	48
Speakers	NA—Your home-theater speakers	0		Creative Labs Progamer G500	220
Tuner	Vbox Catseye DTA-150 HDTV tuner and ATI TV Wonder Elite (PCI) analog tuner	199		N/A
	Total:	$1906			$3468

* Note: Not shipping in the U.S. until February 2006

Before we dive into discussions of individual components, we should point out that these are suggestions, rather than rigid requirements. Depending on your budget, you may want to vary some of the component choices. Note that these are complete systems, including displays, speakers, keyboard and mice. However, these systems all have some commonalities:

• All have dual-core CPUs. Given improvements in the Windows scheduler and the emerging generation of multithreaded applications, dual-core processors will be more attractive in the Vista timeframe.
• All the CPUs are 64-bit capable. Since Vista will probably ship 64-bit binaries in the same box as the 32-bit version, this will facilitate the move to 64-bit computing. The driver situation for 64-bit should be improved by then, too.
• Two of the four systems have widescreen, high resolution displays. The media center PC implies the use of a widescreen HDTV. Wider aspect ratios and higher resolutions will be more usable with Vista's compositing engine. Even the entry -level system sports a display with 1280x1024 resolution.
• Three of the four graphics cards have 256MB of RAM or more. Even the office system has 128MB of video memory. We'll get into why that's useful in a bit. For roughly $20 more, you'll be able to get an Nvidia 7300 GS card with 256MB.
• All four graphics cards are DirectX 9-capable.
• Three of the four systems include two gigabytes of system memory. Continued...

Next: ' What We Couldn' >>

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