DIAMOND MULTIMEDIA
Viper Radeon HD 3850 256MB Graphics Card: $229
www.diamondmm.com

REMEMBER WHEN $600 GRAPHI CS CARDS CAUGHT ALL THE headlines? You were left scratching your head and thinking, “None of my customers are ever going to buy one of these things.” Just when it seemed like those enthusiast boards were only destined to get more expensive, AMD launched its Radeon HD 2900, 2600, and 2400 families. Instead of cranking prices up yet again, the three lineups set new precedents for affordability. Even more surprising, the topend Radeon HD 2900 wasn’t the attention-getter because it didn’t include every available type of hardware-based video acceleration.

ASUS’s EAH3870/G/HTDI/512M, based on the new Radeon 3870 GPU, puts AMD’s fastest GPU back in the spotlight with an even stronger value proposition, additional functionality, and impressive performance. The 3870 chip leverages a new 55nm manufacturing node and slimmer internal bus, which halves die size compared to AMD’s Radeon HD 2900 without sacrificing processing power. Your customer still gets 320 stream processors and 16 texture units. However, the 3870 adds PCI Express 2.0 support, DirectX 10.1 functionality, UVD, and PowerPlay. UVD is the video decoding engine that wouldn’t fit on the Radeon HD 2900. As a component of AMD’s Radeon 3870, enthusiasts can now buy the company’s flagship GPU and get the functionality they expect, including high-def video acceleration.

In addition to the powerful Radeon 3870 GPU, ASUS endows its board with 512MB of GDDR4 memory blazing along at 2.25 GHz and a 775 MHz core clock. Two dual-link DVI outputs connect to digital displays, analog monitors through bundled adapters, and high-def TVs through an included HDMI connector. ASUS adds value to its EAH3870 through a comprehensive software package that features Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts, one of the few DirectX 10 titles currently shipping, Gamer OSD, Splendid, Smart Doctor, and Video Security Online—all ASUS titles that help facilitate tweaking and tuning.

AMD
Phenom 9600 Black Edition Processor: $299
www.amd.com

NOW THAT AMD IS IN THE PLATFORM GAME WITH SPIDER, resellers have something more than the marketing call of native quad-core to tout. By combining the Phenom chip, a motherboard centering on AMD’s own 790FX chipset, and one of the company’s affordable Radeon-based graphics cards, you have a potent mixture of enthusiast-bred hardware that’s selling for a reasonable price. Of course, Phenom is AMD’s desktop quad-core chip, and the 9600 model is the fastest of two currently shipping versions of the processor. Clocked at 2.3 GHz, it doesn’t feature the raw frequency of AMD’s dual-core offerings. However, each of the chip’s four cores wields 128KB of L1 cache and 512KB of L2 cache, with two additional megabytes of L3 shared between the quartet. As with the Athlon 64 derivatives before it, Phenom includes a built-in memory controller. This one is clocked at up to 1.8 GHz and supports DDR2 memory running at up to 1,066 MHz. The chip communicates over a single HyperTransport 3.0 link at up to a 3600 MHz effective data rate. The Black Edition features an unlocked multiplier for overclocking enthusiasts. AMD leveraged a lot of its latest technology in order to get the chip’s 450 million transistors into a 285 square millimeter package. The company’s 65nm manufacturing node not only helps keep size in check, but it also facilitates a low operating voltage and 95W TDP rating. The real value here lies in AMD’s total solution. The Phenom 9600 by itself performs acceptably well against Intel’s comparable Core 2 Quad chip. However, when you put the inexpensive CPU together with a value-oriented motherboard and the affordable Radeon, you’re talking about a much more exciting package.