Specifications

Specifications

When the Athlon XP 2800+ first rolled out, we cited poor availability as one factor working against the chip. Up until AMD’s most recent product announcement, the 2800+ based on the Thoroughbred core remained elusive to all but the most influential OEMs. But then AMD unveiled the Athlon XP 3000+, which extends the life of the popular processor family until Athlon 64 hits the streets, hopefully this September. Availability doesn’t seem to be an issue any more, as a handful of online vendors are claiming to have a quantity in stock, though it costs as much as Intel’s 3.06GHz Pentium 4.

AMD may have lost its value edge, but we can at least be assured that the chip performs on par with the P4. PC Progress has tapped the flagship 3000+ as its processor of choice and that’s fine by us – we like our gaming systems fast. Of course, a fast processor is nothing without a platform capable of delivering ample memory bandwidth and a slew of features. As such, PC Progress has opted for ASUS’ A7N8X Deluxe motherboard, our favorite nForce2 board thus far. It is an excellent performer by virtue of its lineage, it offers DualNet (two 10/100Mbps Ethernet ports), NVIDIA’s fully featured Audio Processing Unit with Dolby Digital Encoding, integrated USB 2.0 and IEEE 1394 Firewire, among other things.

One of nForce2’s most attractive features is its dual-channel DDR memory architecture that requires two, 64-bit, DDR333 memory modules for optimal performance. PC Progress takes goes a step further, including Corsair’s TwinX PC3200 kit with matched, 184-pin sticks of CAS2 DDR400 RAM. We’d hope that OEMs know nForce2 runs best at DDR333, but we received our system running with a 200MHz memory bus. The negative impact on gaming performance isn’t pronounced; nevertheless we still changed the BIOS setting to DDR333.






Chances are, a big gaming system won’t be moved around much, but we still appreciate lightweight aluminum cases. The Antec Plusview 1000AMG that PC Progress chose is an attractive chassis to be sure, but the steel frame also weighs in at over 30 pounds, without a power supply. It does feature a swing-out side panel, two front mount USB ports and a similarly positioned Firewire connection. Also, there’s plenty of room for expansion; we would like to see a lightweight option, though, perhaps in the flexible configurator. PC Progress also went with Antec for the X Theory’s power supply. We have had issues with Antec units in the past, but admittedly, we didn’t encounter any problems with the 350 watt power supply illuminated by a blue LED.

DVD-ROM and CD burning needs provided by Lite-On

Back of the case

Front panel USB and FireWire

And it’s a good thing that the X Theory system has power to spare, too. Whereas most other OEM’s offer RADEON 9700 Pro cards as their high-end offering, PC Progress is highlighting the All in Wonder 9700 Pro as its crème de la crème. All of the corresponding cables and software are included in the package, as is the HDTV adapter and Remote Wonder RF controller. Knowing that the All in Wonder will be overkill for more casual gamers, PC Progress offers a plethora of other cards. Enthusiasts may prefer a 9700 Pro. Or, if you’re on a budget, Ti 4200 cards are also offered from the likes of ABIT, ASUS and MSI.