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Video Cards CPU / Motherboards Audio USB / SATA / AGP / PCIe
SIMD Recommendations Big's Rig System Software


Video Cards -
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     If you're into gaming, you can't get along without a video card that supports 3D acceleration. In days gone by, a gamer interested in 3D gaming had to be careful to select a card that not only supported 3D acceleration, but to also find one with enough RAM and technology to play 3D games with the graphics options dialed up. But not to worry, these days there's barely a card out there that doesn't support 3D acceleration. However, one still has to be careful to select a card that has the RAM and technology to support the graphics level of choice. And if you're a gamer who likes his graphics options maxed out, then you need to stay no more than 2 generations away from the cutting edge, while the more prudent (and rich) would not be more than 1 generation away for the cutting edge.
     First, a word of warning. Be careful at stores like Best Buy, Circuit City, Staples and yes, even CompUSA, and online OEMs like Dell - most of their machines have a video chip integrated into the motherboard and a lot of those don't even have a video slot (AGP or PCI-Express) for expansion/upgrading. If your planning on playing any 3D games, make sure the motherboard has a video slot (AGP or PCI-Express) and at least 3 PCI slots. And, the motherboard should conform to AGP 8X standards or PCI-Express 16X standards.
     Currently, we're at the cusp between AGP video cards and PCI Express video cards - AGP is the older BUS system and PCI Express is the emerging BUS system that provides a much great bandwidth and higher speeds. Also, video RAM is available in SDRAM, DDR (Double Data Rate), DDR2 and DDR3. DDR3 is the way to go if you can find it. DO NOT buy a card with SDRAM on it unless you know what you're doing.
     There are two big chipset manufacturers - Nvidia and ATi. Both the new NV and ATi series have PCI-E cards in their line up. Companies marketing video cards include ATi, eVGA, BFG, Gainward, Hercules, Elsa, Diamond, Albatron and Matrox among others (Creative may be back soon). Currently, Nvidia's GeForce 7900GTX 512MB is the big boy with 24 pixel pipelines. ATi's new X1900XTX with 512MB of RAM and 16 pipelines is a strong competitor to Nvidia's GF7900 series. The GF7900GTX wipes up on openGL games while the X1900XTX has a slight edge in Direct 3D games. Which measures better depends on what review you're reading. Now for the truth of the future: Nvidia kicks ATi's ass all over. Yes, ATi runs Half-Life 2 and Quake 3 awesomely, but those games are based on old engines. Nvidia whips ATi's ass on new engines like Doom 3 and Far Cry, and supports Pixel Shader 3.0. For more on this, check out this article. It should be noted that ATi has finally supported Pixel Shader 3.0 in it's new X1000 series cards (including the X1900). Kahuna recommends Nvidia.
* Nvidia, News, GF7, GF6, GF5 FX - nVidia website, Product info.
* Nvidia older chipsets: GF4, GF3, GF2 - nVidia website, Product info.
* ATi: Radeon X1900, Radeon X1800, Radeon X1600 & Radeon X1300 - ATi's newest retail cards.
          Radeon X850, Radeon X800, Radeon X700, Radeon X600 & Radeon X550 - ATi's recent retail cards.
         Radeon 9800, Radeon 9700, Radeon 9600 & Radeon 9550 - ATi's older retail cards.
* eVGA: 7900GTX Superclocked 512/EGS, 7900GT Superclocked CO - eVGA's new GF7 series.
     7800GTX KO, 7800GTX, 7800GT CO, 7800GT, 7800GS AGP - eVGA's  older GF7 cards.
     7600GT CO, 7600GT, 7600GS, 7300GS - eVGA's  value based GF7 cards.
     6800GS CO Superclocked, 6800GS CO SE, 6800XT, 6800GT - eVGA's  value based GF6 cards.
* BFG Technologies: 7900 GTX OC 512, 7900 GT OC 256 - BFG's new GF7 series.
     7800 GTX OC 512, 7800 GTX OC 256, 7800 GS OC AGP - BFG's  older GF7 cards.
     7600 GT OC, 7600 GS OC, 7300 GS OC - BFG's  value based GF7 cards.
     6800 Ultra OC 512, 6800 Ultra OC 256, 6800 Ultra OC AGP - BFG's  value based GF6 cards.
* Asus: 7900GTX 512, 7900GT TOP 256, 7900GT 256 - Asus' new GF7 series.
     7800GTX TOP - Asus' older GF7 card.
     6600LE Extreme, 6600LE Silencer, 6600GT - Asus' value based GF6 cards.
        X1900XTX 512, X1900XT 512 - Asus' new ATi X1900 series cards.
        X1800XT 512, X1800XL - Asus' older ATi X1800 series cards.
        X1600PRO, X1600XT Silent - Asus' ATi X1600 series cards.
* Leadtek: 7900GTX 512 & 7900GT - Leadtek's newest retail cards based on the GF7.
      7800GTX Extreme, 7800GTX, & 7600GT - Leadtek's older retail cards based on the GF7.
      7600GT Extreme, 7600GT, 7600GS, 7300GS & 7300LE - Value based GF7 cards.
          6800Ultra 512, 6800Ultra 256, 6800GT, 6800GS - Leadtek's retail cards based on the GF6.
* Albatron: GeForce 7900 GTX 512, GeForce 7900 GT - Albatron's new GF7 series.
     GeForce 7800 GTX, GeForce 7800 GT, GeForce 7800 GS AGP - Albatron's  older GF7 cards.
* Gainward: 7900GTX 512, 7900GT 512GS & 7900GT - Gainward's newest retail cards based on the GF7.
      7800GS Silent 512GS+AGP, 7800GS Silent 512 AGP, & 7800GS TV-DVI AGP,
      7800GT PCS 512GS GLH, & 7800GT PCX 512DD - Gainward's older retail cards based on the GF7.
          6800GS 512GS GLH, 6800GS PCX 512 TV-DVI - Gainward's retail cards based on the GF6.
* Elsa: Gladiac 790GTX (GF7900GTX 512), Gladiac 790GT (GF7900GT) - Newer GF7 based cards.
          Gladiac 780GTX (GF7800GTX), Gladiac 780GT (GF7800GT) - Older GF7 based cards.
       Gladiac 760GT (GF7600GT), Gladiac 730GS (GF7300GS) - Value based GF7 based cards.
       Gladiac PCX 940Ultra (GF6800U 512), Gladiac PCX 935 (GF5900), Gladiac PCX 736 (GF5750),
      Gladiac PCX 534 (GF5300) - Older Nvidia based cards.
          Falcox X190XTX 512 & Falcox X190CF 512 - Newer ATi X1900 based cards.
          Falcox X180XT 512 - Older ATi X1800 based cards.
          Falcox x80 Pro, Falcox X60 XT & Falcox X60 Pro - Older ATi based cards.
* Diamond Viper: X1900XTX 512, X1900XT 512 - Diamond's newest ATi based cards.
         X1600Pro 512, X1600Pro 256, X1600Pro 512 AGP, X1600Pro 256 AGP - Newer ATi based cards.
         X800GTO; X800XL, X700XL, X600PRO - Diamond's older ATi based cards.
     9600XT (Radeon 9600XT), Stealth: S110 (Radeon9200), S100 (Radeon9600SE),
     S80 (Radeon9200SE), S60 (Radeon7000) - Older ATi based cards.
* Matrox:  Phahelia - Top of the line based on Matrox's Parhelia GPU in 128MB & 256MB versions.
     P750, P650, G550 & G450 - Matrox is currently not a good choice for gamers.
* Creative: Graphics Blaster Picture Perfect - Creative is back with 3Dlabs' 128bit GPU.
* Yahoo's Video Cards & 3D Accelerators - manufacturers/venders.

CPU/Motherboard Developments -
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2.4GHz - 3.8GHz CPUs -
    Pentiums are available from the 2.4GHz Celeron D 320 on up to the top of the line P4 Xeon which clocks in at 3.8GHz. The Pentium 4 D 820 2.8GHz/800 LGA775 is now available at the very decent price of $174 - not bad for a dual core CPU. Most currently available P4's run a 800MHz FSB - very fast. P4's also provide Hyper-Threading technology (HT) allowing the CPU to process two threads in parallel improving multitasking.
    The latest from AMD is the Athlon 64 FX-57 (2.8GHz/S939) - a special edition 64bit processor priced at a whooping $811. Next is the breakthrough Athlon 64 X2 series of dual core processors. The baby of the bunch is the Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (2.0GHz/S939) and is a great value at $295. The big boy is the Athlon 64 X2 4800+ (2.4GHz/S939) price at $632. The $336 Athlon 64 4000+ (2.4GHz/S939) is at the top of AMD's regular line of 64bit processors. AMD has gotten completely away from reporting speed in Megahertz, something that Intel is planning to do. Overall, the X2 3800+ gives the best price to performance ratio.
Motherboards -
   The latest motherboards include the Asus P5WD2 SLi (LGA775, SLi/PCIe, 1066/800/533FSB, SATA2), Asus P5WD2-E Premium (64bit Dual Core CPU, CrossFire/PCIe, 1066/800/533FSB, Dual Channel DDR 400/333/266, SATA2) and the Asus A8N32-SLi Deluxe (AMD 939, CrossFire/PCIe, 2000/1500MT/s FSB, Dual Channel DDR 400/333/266, SATA2). DFI's LANPARTY UT NF4 SLi-DR (AMD 939, SLi/PCIe, 2000/1500MT/s FSB, Dual Channel DDR 400/333/266, SATA2) and LANPARTY UT CFX3200-DR (AMD 939, CrossFire/PCIe, 2000/1500MT/s FSB, Dual Channel DDR 400/333/266, SATA2). eVGA's nForce SLi x16 (AMD 939, SLi/PCIe, 2000/1500MT/s FSB, Dual Channel DDR 400/333/266, SATA2), nForce SLi x8 (AMD 939, SLi/PCIe, 2000/1500MT/s FSB, Dual Channel DDR 400/333/266, SATA2) and nForce SLi x8 Intel (Intel LGA 775, SLi/PCIe, 1066/800FSB, Dual Channel DDR2, SATA). From Abit: NI8-SLi GR (LGA775, SLi/PCIe, DDR2, 1066/800FSB, SATA2) and AN8 SLi (AMD 939, SLi-X16/PCIe, DDR, 2000FSB, SATA2).
     The latest Via chipset for AMD include K8T900 (SLi x8, PCIe, 939/940/754pin, SATA2), K8T890 (PCIe, 939/940/754pin, SATA), K8M890 (Onboard video, 939/940/754pin, SATA2), K8N890 (Onboard video, 939/940/754pin SATA2) and K8T800Pro (AGP, 939/940/754pin, SATA). AMD CPUs are available in speeds from the 1.4GHz Sempron 2500+ to then 2.8GHz Athlon 64 FX-57.
     The latest Intel chipsets include i915GV, i915GL, i915PL, i945G, i945P, i945PL, i945GT and i945GZ. Other recent Intel chipsets include the i915P, i915G and the i925X chipsets, all supporting PCI-E, as well as the i875P chipset (HT, dual channel DDR400, 800FSB, SATA, Video Confrencing), i865G chipset (HT, dual channel DDR400, 800FSB, SATA, Extreme Graphics), i865PE chipset (HT, dual channel DDR400, 800FSB, SATA), i865P chipset (dual channel DDR333/266, 533/400FSB), i865GV chipset (HT, dual channel DDR400/333/266, 800/533/400FSB, SATA) and Via's PT890 chipset (PCIe, HT, single channel DDR533/400, 1066FSB, SATA), PT880 Ultra chipset (PCIe & AGP, HT, dual channel DDR533/400, 1066/800/533FSB, SATA), P4M890 chipset (PCIe, HT, DDR2 533/400, 800/533/400FSB, SATA), P4M800Pro chipset (AGP, HT, DDR2 533/400, 800/533/400FSB, SATA), P4M800 chipset (AGP, HT, DDR 400/333/266, 800/533/400FSB, SATA). P4s are available in speeds ranging from 2.4GHz to 3.8GHz.
.BigKahuna's Info Roundup ---------------
5/13 - Pentium 4 3.8GHz! The 3.8GHz/800 P4 670 now priced at $620. Prices have dropped on many of the Pentium 4 CPU's. P4's are available in speeds ranging from 2.66GHz to 3.8GHz. The retail P4 630 3.0GHz/800 is a mere $167, the P4 650 3.4GHz/800 is $272 and the P4 640 3.2GHz/800 is $208. The new performance master P4 965 Extreme 3.73GHz/1066 is $1089. Whoa!
5/13 - Pentium 4 D! Dual core is the latest technology and the price is right on the P4 D 820 3.0GHz/800 - currently $265. If you're budget conscious, check the P4 D 805 2.66GHz/800 at $127! The top dual core P4 D 950 3.4GHz/800 is $331. Kahuna recommends the P4 D 940 3.2GHz/800 as the best buy followed closely by the P4 930 3.0GHz/800 for those wanting even lower cost.
5/13 - Athlon 64 X2 3800+: The baby dual core CPU from AMD gives the best price to performance ratio for a reasonable $295. If you're into graphics processing, video processing or any type of CAD, the X2 is the way to go. Dual core represents the ideal platform anchor for the near future and according to the many studies done on the hardware scene, AMD dual core designs beat Intel's hands down.
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* Tom's Guide - Great hardware and 3D accelerator info.
* System Optimization - A great site packed with info.
* Price Watch - Great place to get the scoop on current prices.
 
Audio -
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This is a big topic encompassing sound cards, speakers, headphones and midi. The big player here are Creative Labs with their high quality 24bit X-Fi technology. My personal preferences in this area are decent speakers coupled with a decent sound card or decent onboard sound. You can check out my rig here. A word about onboard sound: It's really coming of age. My eVGA nForce SLi (nF41) has Realtek's 8 channel 16bit onboard sound. The drivers work great and I have had zero problems with games, including toughies like F.E.A.R., Call of Duty 2 and Tomb Raider: Legends. Here's some good sites to surf for more audio info -
* 3D Sound Surge - Great full service site with reviews and news.
* 3D Audio Immersion - A full service site that's recently lacked updating. Forums good.
* Computer Audio - From the Stereophile website.
* Sound Cards - From the Computer Help website.
 
USB - Universal Serial Bus -
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USB Rocks! For those who aren't in the know, check out this link. Yep, USB Rocks. It's versatile. It's fast. And the absolute great thing about USB is that you can hot-connect, that is plug and unplug with the ol 'puter running! With the advent of USB 2.0, the bus speed is phenomenally improved. If you don't have USB 2.0 capability, get a USB 2.0 PCI adapter card - you won't regret it. For those still dealing with a parallel printer, it's really nice to get the printer off the parallel bus because it bogs the whole system down when the printer is printing, making the system virtually useless during a printout. The USB printer connection causes no lag or bog down in the system at all. Very sweet.

External SATA -
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Currently, it looks like 'External SATA' is gonna over take the USB external storage market - check this out. There are external storage products already out in retail using External SATA - check 'em here.

AGP - Accelerated Graphics Port -
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AGP can be thought of is a high performancePCI slot targeted at 3D graphical display applications.  The PCI bus currently runs at a horrible 33MHz which is one of our most commonly experienced bottlenecks. AGP on the other hand has the capability of running in its so called 8x mode (8 times the PCI bus speed, in this case 8 x 33 = 264MHz!) which allows it to sustain noticeably higher data transfer rates than standard PCI video cards. Another major advantage of AGP over PCI is its ability to support DIME (Direct Memory Execute of textures), aka Sidebanding. With Sidebanding, AGP accelerators can directly use and manipulate your system RAM whenever the need for intense texture-mapping functions are in demand. Since AGP fully supports pipelining operations it can process data much faster and in a much more efficient manner than PCI can. Most current motherboards include an an AGP8x slot so do look for one.
* Anand's Hardware Tech Page - Great discussion of AGP.
* Anand's AGP Benchmarks - Check it out.

PCIe - PCI Express Bus
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PCI Express will eventually replace AGP as the graphics bus due to much higher speeds. It is an implementation of the PCI computer bus that uses existing PCI programming concepts, but bases it on a completely different and much faster serial physical-layer communications protocol. The PCIe link is built around a bidirectional, serial (1-bit), point-to-point connection known as a "lane". This is is sharp contrast to the PCI connection, which is a bus-based system where all the devices share the same unidirectional, 32-bit, parallel bus. Originally, it was primarily supported by Intel, but is becoming the standard throughout the graphics industry. PCIe has been so successful in graphics applications that it is set to replace PCI and take interconnect design into the next decade.

  SIMD: Extra Added Instruction sets -
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Intel SIMD -
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MMX is Intel's original 1997 Single Instruction Multiple Data (SIMD) add in that allows the CPU to reduce multiple compute-intensive loops common with video, audio, graphics and animation. MMX added 57 new instructions. The chips also included a larger L1 cache. MMX was included in most PII chips. Many people feel Intel made a major mistake by not including 32bit precision floating point routines in this set. MMX was NOT the Holy Grail of gaming graphics. MMX can be thought of as a small step up in gaming graphics. Despite Intel's big MMX hype push, MMX enhanced games couldn't hold a candle to 3D accelerated games, especially 3Dfx games.
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Streaming SIMD (aka SSE, aka KNI Instructions, aka MMX2), brought out in 1999, was Intel's next step in SIMD (single instruction multiple data) development and was included in all PIII processors. 70 new instructions are available enabling advanced imaging, 3D, streaming audio and video, and speech recognition applications. Intel was sure to add 32bit precision floating point routines in this set as a kind of fix for MMX. Other than that, these instructions have more to do with internet applications than anything else.
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Streaming SIMD 2 (aka SSE2), brought out in 2003, is included in all P4 processors. 144 new instructions extend the MXX technology and are finally enabling everything that SSE was expected to be in the first place. The 128-bit of packed data, which could only be in form of four single-precision floating-point values under SSE can now be operated in virtually all of the P4's options.

 Streaming SIMD 3 (aka SSE3, aka PNI (Prescott New Instructions)) was brought out in 2004 and is included in all 90nm P4 processors. 13 new instructions that accelerate the performance of Streaming SIMD Extensions (SSE) technology, Streaming SIMD Extensions 2 (SSE2) technology, and x87-Floating Point math capabilities.

 Supplemental Streaming SIMD 3 (aka SSSE3, aka TNI (Tejas New Instructions), aka MNI (Merom New Instructions)) - Intel considers SSSE3 a revision of SSE3. Brought out in 2005, it adds 16 more instructions.
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AMD SIMD -
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3DNow! was AMD's answer to MMX and was brought out in 1998. The technology was a Superscalar SIMD (single instruction multiple data) with 21 new instructions over the MMX set for improving 3D graphics, sound and or imaging within the PC. 3DNow! technology enabled new levels of realism on the PC with life like visuals, big-screen sound, and more realistic 3D imaging. This was a much better implementation of the idea than MMX.
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 Enhanced 3DNow! (aka Extended 3DNow!) was an enhancement to AMD's original 3DNow! which added 19 new instructions and was introduced in 1999 with the first-generation Athlons and the K6-2+/III+ series. These new additions contained MMX support and a partial SSE1 (Intel SIMD) implementation.
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 3DNow! Professional was brought out 2001 as another enhancement to 3DNow! basically integrating the full SSE1 (SIMD) technology from Intel and combined it with Enhanced 3DNow!. The new version was introduced with the Athlon XP processors.

Further Enhancements - Athlon 64 (2003) and Operton 130nm (2003) chips support Extended 3DNow! (with MMX and SSE) as well as SSE2. Operton 90nm (2004) and Athlon 64 X2 (2005) chips support Extended 3DNow! (with MMX & SSE) as well as SSE2 and SSE3.
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Recommended Game Machine -
This represents a solid, affordable, value based 64bit Dual Core gaming machine that will handle every game and application currently on the shelves.  You'll notice that some of the components are a step or two behind the "top of the line", but this will provide you with quality components at reasonable prices.  The game machine has a maximum theoretical price of $1500 - but shop around and you might find it for much less.
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* Pentium D 830 3.0GHz/800 LGA775 * 1GB DDR/2 (2x512MB) * Asus or Abit Mobo *
   - OR -
* Athlon 64 X2 3800+ * 1GB DDR/2 (2x512MB)* Asus or Abit Motherboard *
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* GeForce 7600 (256MB) video * 550W Power Supply Unit *
* 250GB SATA HD * DVD 16X Combo Burner *
* SoundBlaster X-Fi Extreme sound card * 56K Modem *
* 5.1 Speaker system (Check out Creative Speakers for value) *
* 19" SVGA monitor ~.25 pitch ~15ms response *
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Sharky's recommended machine for value conscious gamers - Value Rig Guide.
Sharky's recommended machine for big spending gamers - High End Rig Guide.
 
BigKahuna's Machine/Gaming Rig -
I built this rig in September of 2005 and it handles every game and application out there with no problems.
Gut check:
* AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ Dual Core * 3GB PC3200 Dual Channel DDR RAM
* eVGA nForce 4 SLi Motherboard with RealTek AC'97 8 Channel Audio *
* eVGA GeForce 7800 GTX with 256MB DDR3 RAM *
* Dual 100GB Ultra SATA/150 HD * 56K Modem * Cable Modem *
* Altec Lansing's.ACS 54 PowerPlay Plus for Gamers *
* 19" LCD monitor .29 pitch * MS SideWinder Gamepad *
Goodies:
* External USB 2.0 Hard Drives - 250GB and 60GB * Iomega IDE 250/100MB Zip Drive *
* DVD Combo Drive 16x8x16/48x32x48/8x6 (DVD±RW/CD-RW/ DVD DL±R) * 16x48 DVD-ROM *
* 3D Glasses * TV-Tuner * Printer * Scanner * LAN *
Details:.
AMD Athlon X2 4400+ Dual Core (1000MHz FSB) / eVGA nForce 4 SLi.
The Athlon 64 X2 has it all - Hyper Transport technology, 64 bit processing and dual core power. The eVGA nForce 4 SLi motherboard (NF41) has the nVidia nForce 4 chipset which provides a 1000Hz system bus and SLi. The NF41 also supports Dual-Core, Athlon 64, Athlon FX, and Athlon 939-pin processors. Uniquely, the NF41 supplies 3 PCI-Express video slots - one 16x for single card setups and two 8x for SLi setups. There's also 1 PCI-e 1x slot, as well as 3 PCI slots. The NF41 provides 4 SATA ports (150/300), 2 EIDE ports (Ultra DMA 133), along with 266-400MHz Dual Channel DDR RAM support (up to 4GB).  Other features include 8 USB 2.0 ports,  as well as serial, parallel, floppy keyboard and mouse ports. The NF41 also includes integrated RealTek AC'97 8 channel audio and onboard 10/100 Gigabit LAN.
The power supply is an Antec 550 EPS12V TruePower 2.0, putting out 550W and SLi ready.
The floppy drive is a Mitsumi 3.5".
BIOS: Phoenix-Award Bios, plug & play.  More bios info.
Input: Microsoft 101/102 key Digital Media Pro Keyboard, Microsoft.Intellimouse Explorer (optical tilt wheel mouse).
3GB PC3200 Dual Channel DDR RAM..
Two 1GB sticks and two 512MB sticks of Kingston RAM - PC3200 Dual Channel at 400MHz. If you're a gamer, you should be using no less than 1GB of RAM to run 3D on a Windows system. Some games are now wanting 2GB of RAM. Extra RAM can prevent those lags due to swap files.
Dual Maxtor 100GB SATA HDs in RAID 0..
Maxtor's.SATA Ultra Series (also sold as DiamondMax 10) is designed for high-intensity gaming and digital video editing to deliver maximum performance. Features include 150MB/sec transfer rate, 7200 RPM speed, average seek times of less than 9.0 milliseconds and a 8.0 MB cache..In a RAID 0 setup, these drives are screamingly fast!
Iomega 250GB USB 2.0 HD and Acomdata 60GB USB 2.0 HD (510GB HD)..
For backup and portability I've got an Iomega.Silver USB 250GB USB hard drive - 7200 RPM, 480Mbps transfer rate and 8MB buffer. Also, my trusty 'ol Acomdata USB 60GB external hard drive - 5400 RPM, 480Mbps transfer rate and 9.0 millisecond average seek time.
16x48 DVD-ROM, 16x8x16/48x32x48/8x6 DVD DL Rewriter..
The main optical drive is the Sony.16x48 DDU1615/B2s DVD-ROM.  The burner is the top rated BenQ.DW1640 rewriter that handles reading, writing and rewriting for CD, DVD and Dual Layer DVD (DVD DL).  The speeds are CD:  48x32x48; DVD: 16x8x16 (+RW 8x; -RW 6x); DVD DL +R 8x; -R 4x. Sweet.
eVGA GeForce 7800 GTX for 2D/3D video (512MB DDR3 RAM)..
eVGA's sweet ass PCI Express GeForce 7800 GTX 512  provides great 2D/3D, 32bit color, large texture support T&L, FSAA, as well as support for Shader Model 3.0 and DirectX 9. Nvidia's cards are kickin ass baby!
Samsung SyncMaster 192N LCD monitor..
Samsung's.SyncMaster 192N is a ultra thin 19" LCD, with .29mm pixel pitch and up to 1280x1024 resolution. Very sweet.
RealTek AC'97 8 Channel audio..
Realtek's ALC850 audio codec provides 8 channel 16bit audio from the onboard chipset.
Altec Lansing 4 Point speakers..
Altec Lansing's.ACS 54 PowerPlay Plus for Gamers is a nice 4 point surround system with subwoofer.
Motorola SURFboard SB3100 & SupraMax 56K modem..
Oh yeah baby! Download speed of 8.0 Megabits with the Motorola.SURFboard SB3100 cable modem - sweet. The Supra.SupraMax 56K PCI V.90 internal fax and backup modem.
Logitech Gamepad..
Logitech's Dual Action Gamepad provides 12 digital buttons, a digital pad and two analog joysticks, all on one gamepad.
Elsa Revelator 3D Glasses..
Elsa's.3D Revelator Glasses.bring a whole new dimension to your multimedia gaming experience. They now ship as a standalone product and can be used on video cards that support D3D and OpenGL. They're one of the best gaming accessories available.
WinTV USB TV tuner provides desktop TV..
Hauppauge's.WinTV USB TV tuner provides a great TV window and is an external USB device.
ZipDrive..
Iomega's.ATAPI Zip 250MB Drive reads and writes both 100mb and 250mb Zip disks.
Epson USB DeskJet printer / Canon USB scanner..
 Epson USB printer model Stylus Photo R200 six color photo/text  printer with 5760x1440 optimized DPI that also prints on printable CDs and DVDs. And, the CanoScan D1250U2F  USB 2.0 flatbed scanner by Canon - with built in high quality 35mm film and slide scanning, 1200x2400 dpi and 48bit color.
 
System Software -
Operating System:  WindowsXP Professional version  5.01.2600 Service Pack 2.
Plus! for Windows XP has some nice environmental add-ins that can be used with WindowsXP .  Also, an updated TweakUI is provided for WinXP to help tweak the system. And don't forget XP PowerToys.
File Management:  WinZip & Xtree Gold.
I've got Explorer souped up with a couple seemlessly integrated addins: WinZip is a "must have" for zip file control.  I still find uses for Symantec's good ol' DOS file manager, X-Tree Gold 3.0.
Internet Security:  Internet Security Suite.
McAfee.Internet Security Suite handles virus security, firewall protection along with spam and privacy control.

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