Building a Core 2 Duo gaming system for under $1000

Synthetic 3D Performance

3Dmark2001 SE takes both processor and graphics card performance into account. Given the more expensive E6700 system also features a Radeon X1950XTX, it is not surprising to find a 1600x1200 score of 34475pts. The $1000 gaming system using the E6300 (Gigabyte 965P-DS3 2.0) and Radeon X1950 Pro also did very well at this resolution, scoring 28417pts. The ASUS P5VD2-MX on the other hand scored just 23164pts thanks to the limited single channel DDR2 support. This meant that the E6300 using the P5VD2-MX was just as fast as the overclocked Athlon64 3800+ budget AM2 gaming system in 3Dmark2001 SE.

The 3Dmark2003 testing was even more torturous on the single-channel ASUS motherboard using the VIA chipset. At 1600x1200 this E6300 configuration managed just 9163pts, whereas the same components using the dual-channel Gigabyte 965P-DS3 2.0 motherboard scored 13208pts.