Buyer's Guide: Mid-Range to High-End, May 2005
by Jarred Walton on May 23, 2005 5:30 PM EST- Posted in
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Miscellaneous Extras
Besides everything else, there are still a few items that you should probably get. Networking isn't something that you need to worry about with any of these systems, as they all feature Gigabit Ethernet ports. Of course, if you're less interested in bandwidth and prefer to go wireless, you'll need to get an appropriate adapter. While we're on the topic of networking, we'd also recommend that anyone with a broadband connection go out and purchase a cheap NAT/Router/Firewall (usually, you get all three in one device). You won't suddenly become immune to all virus attacks and security vulnerabilities, but the vast majority of network attacks won't get around even a cheap firewall. If you open that virus attachment that you received in an email message, you're on your own, however.You should also grab a surge protector at the very least – again, assuming that you don't have anything of reasonable quality – and we'd even go so far as to recommend getting an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS), also sometimes referred to as a battery backup. A good quality UPS can also clean up the power supplied to your system, so voltage fluctuations are removed. That's in addition to preventing data loss or hardware failure caused by brown outs and power spikes – remember, summer time is almost here in the Northern Hemisphere, so if you live in an area (CA) where everyone runs their AC all the time, brown outs and outages are an all too common problem. $50 to protect a few thousand dollars of equipment is a sensible precaution. We won't actually include the price of a UPS or surge protector in our final total, but we hope that you'll heed our advice and pick up these items if you don't already have them available.
Depending on how you plan to use your new system, you may also need some additional cables. Power cables are included, but you might need a network cable. A more important consideration is cables for hooking up your system to a TV. If you have an HDTV, a DVI to DVI cable will often do the trick. If you have an ATI card, you might want component cables instead. Firewire cables, S/PDIF cables, and longer S-VIDEO cables may also be something that you'll want. Whatever the cable, trust us: buy such cables online! We've seen some cables for $100 at Radio Shack and Best Buy, where you can find them for $20 and less online.
Click to enlarge.
Keyboard and Mouse: Logitech Internet Pro Desktop
Price: $26 Shipped
A keyboard and mouse are definitely required, unless you have something that you're happy with. We're going to go with a bundle from Logitech, although you could grab something from Microsoft or another manufacturer if you want. The bundles often save you quite a bit of money. You could also go with a wireless model if you prefer that, and many of us insist on ergonomic keyboards. [You can have my MS Natural when you pry it from my dead, carpal-tunneled hands! Er, sorry…] You can even go really upscale and grab the MX-1000 laser mouse from Logitech, or perhaps a Bluetooth setup. Whatever you like, go for it. This is simply our baseline recommendation.
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ProviaFan - Monday, May 23, 2005 - link
And I had an Epox board (8RDA, which was all the rage when it came out) die just over a year old from bad capacitors. Now, I use an Abit NF7-S v2, but found the guide useful as I'm planning an upgrade "soon" (dual core is necessary as I'm a non-gaming multitasker: Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign - at the same time, and SMP is well beyond the budget).Thanks Jarred, I appreciated the article, despite the few typos and the whiner(s) in the comment section. :)
arswihart - Monday, May 23, 2005 - link
I think Epox is more than a step above Biostar and Soltek, as for customer support, Epox is lightyears better than Asus and MSI, so not sure what you are referring to there. They also have the best BIOS support I've ever seen, always updated quickly and often, so again I don't know where you are getting your information.kevindarcy - Monday, May 23, 2005 - link
For those of us who run our PCs continuously, I think Anandtech should be giving a clear recommendation of Venice over Newcastle, regardless of their respective overclocking potentials, or support of SSE3. According to PC Perspective (http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=127&type=... a Venice CPU consumes 20W less than an equivalent Newcastle at idle, and 37W less under load (!). Where I live, the electricity savings alone, based on the "idle" number, are at least $16/yr, more than enough to justify the (hopefully temporary) price differential, not to mention the "intangible" benefits of having a quieter, cooler-running computer.JarredWalton - Monday, May 23, 2005 - link
15 - typo. Fixed now.1 - Would you buy a LAN card for a PC? Most people would say no, and I feel about the same for audio. If you find the integrated audio is lacking, it's simple enough to add a sound card after the fact.
whatever - Monday, May 23, 2005 - link
quote:That means Intel's 845 and 855 chipsets or the aforementioned nForce 4 SLI for 775.
Isn't 845 and 855 old? don't they mean 945 and 955? (this is from the Intel mobos section)
KristopherKubicki - Monday, May 23, 2005 - link
>and I even wonder sometimes if your site is getting some compensation for these recommendations.arswihart: Generally we will always recommend at Tier 1 motherboard manufacturer over a Tier 2 one. The peripheral things like product support, updates and MTBF usually sway our opinion in favor of an ASUS/MSI/Gigabyte board over a Biostar/Epox/Soltek board even if they are nearly the same. By the way, Epox's production was actually via another Tier 1 production house until not too long ago.
Kristopher
JarredWalton - Monday, May 23, 2005 - link
*I'm* not in the market for an SLI rig. Very few people really are. My 6800GT is more than powerful enough for what I do, and I think most people feel the same way.The reason I went with SLI for the High-End is because I feel people that are interested in spending $500+ on a CPU are probably going to be interested in the bragging rights of SLI. I think the Mid-Range is the sweet spot for computer purchases, so I really look at the High-End market as potential upgrades rather than entire systems. Of course, if you win the lottery or something, go for it! :)
arswihart - Monday, May 23, 2005 - link
i only say that because the products I refer to have been available for many many months, except for the 9npa sli. It is nonsense that you haven't been aware of their existence until today.arswihart - Monday, May 23, 2005 - link
you mean you miss all of them, not just some of themJarredWalton - Monday, May 23, 2005 - link
I've been going by the AnandTech Pricing Engine (which is apparently missing the EPoX and Biostar SLI products). I generally search around at Newegg, ZipZoomFly, ChiefValue, Monarch, and several other sites to verify that I've got the best prices I can find as well as most recent product lists, but obviously I miss some of them. Sorry.As for the EPoX nF4 Ultra vs. Chaintech, I wouldn't say the EPoX board is bad (though I haven't tested it), but past experience is that it's probably not much better than other options. We'll be coming out with a new nF4 motherboard roundup, so I'll have to see what our other editors say about the various models. :)
(I did mention nF3, by the way - at the top of the page. I would't recommend it for a complete new system, but for upgraders it's still a reasonable choice.)