Samsung 17" SyncMaster 740BF

The Samsung SyncMaster 740BF is a 17" LCD that supports a resolution of 1280x1024 and both VGA and DVI ports. Based on a TN (Twisted Nematic) LCD panel, it has a fast (albeit gray-to-gray) response time of 2 ms.

While colour saturation and viewing angle may not be as good as PVA- or IPS-based panels, the fast response time of the TN panel prevents ghosting, even when the action is fast and furious. TN panels also have the advantage of being cheaper. That's just we need for an affordable gaming PC.

The Samsung 17" SyncMaster 740BF comes with a 3-year limited warranty and is available in both black and silver colours. But please do not confuse it with the cheaper SyncMaster 740N which does not support DVI input.

Razer Krait

The Razer Krait is a no-nonsense gaming mouse. It's a simple optical gaming mouse with two large buttons and a scroll wheel. Nothing more.

Although it lacks the frills of its more expensive brethren - the Diamondback and the newer Copperhead, it comes with a fast 6400 fps infra-red sensor with a resolution of 1600 dpi.

The sensor allows for good control and a quick response - characteristics of a good gaming mouse. Those who are used to side-buttons will be disappointed, but if you don't mind working with just two mouse buttons, this is a good, affordable gaming mouse.

It is certainly affordable, being much cheaper than its brethren or even competition from Logitech and Microsoft. Hence, it's a suitable addition to our Christmas gaming PC.

The Damage

Now, let's take a look at the damage...

Please note that these prices are based on Pricegrabber prices and Low Yat Plaza price lists as of December 4th, 2006.

Now, isn't that cheap? You can actually get a new gaming PC based on the Intel Core 2 Duo and the NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT for only USD 1010 or RM 4169! That's below our target budget of USD 1,200 or RM 4,440.

Heck, if we really want to max out the budget, we can actually add another GeForce 7600 GT to make this an SLI gaming system! Imagine that, you can set up an SLI system for only about USD 1,150 or RM 4,700.

With a little bargaining at Low Yat Plaza, you can easily get the whole setup for about RM 4,000, or RM 4,500 with an additional GeForce 7600 GT.

Now, let's find out just how fast this gaming PC is. We will also see how much faster it can be if we make it an SLI system by adding an additional NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT graphics card.