Despite all the gloom and doom concerning the impending death of PC gaming, it continues to grow and break new ground in user interactivity and sheer gaming experience. Taking this into consideration, we decided to refresh our gaming machine section and went looking to see what changes have occurred since the last time we were here.
As compared to previous roundups, we were surprised to find that the entire landscape had changed in just a few months. Not only had processing power of GPUs/CPUs risen exponentially, storage and memory costs had crashed dramatically. Here are the changes...
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8200
Ever since it tasted success with its Core 2 Duo range, Intel has been on a roll. The processor we have chosen here is the Intel C2D E8200 and it’s a part of the recently launched Penryn series. It is built on a 45nm dye process, features a clock speed of 2.66 GHz, runs on a 1333 MHz FSB, and has 6MB L2 cache. With such healthy specifications – and the fact that it’s already earned a reputation for being a prodigious overclocker – this is an ideal choice.
Motherboard: Abit IP35-E
We used this board in our Rs 35,000 PC, and it can be easily used here too. Abit as a firm needs no introduction. Having been a premier OC board maker for a decade now, its products are very reliable and can withstand a lot of stress. The IP35-E is based on the Intel P35 series of chipsets and offers native support for the 1333 MHz FSB. The board lacks onboard graphics, but does offer a single PCIe 16x slot, 2 PCIe x1 slot, 8 USB slots, 3 PCI slots, and 4 SATA 2 (3GB) slots.
RAM: Kingston DDR2 800 RAM 2GB
DDR2 RAM prices have hit an all-time low. A single stick of DDR2 RAM is now available for just Rs 1,550. And Kingston, with its product lifetime warranty and great quality, is the perfect choice.
I think AMD X4 Phenom series for gaming is far superior bet than the Intel ones. Added with 790G chipset, it would be a killer combo. 
