System Summaries
Taking the complete system recommendations, what sort of damage to your wallet are we talking about? First, let's make it clear that these are systems that
we would want - we put together all the parts without any consideration of meeting a specific budget. For the High-End setup, we threw out almost all restraints and picked out the parts that we all lust after when we're not busy reviewing other hardware. The Mid-Range was built by making some sensible downgrades to keep the price in check, but it should still pack quite a punch. You can also find a middle ground on many of the parts, so if the High-End is too expensive, but the Mid-Range just isn't powerful enough, going with a few parts from each range is definitely an option. As far as the AMD vs. Intel debate goes, we prefer the AMD setup right now, but dual core processors on Intel would get a few of us to reconsider. Let's start with the Mid-Range systems.
Mid-Range Summaries
| Mid-Range AMD |
| Hardware |
Recommended Component |
Price |
| Processor |
Athlon 64 3200+ 90nm (Retail) - Winchester core |
$190 |
| Motherboard |
Chaintech VNF4 Ultra |
$89 |
| Memory |
2x512MB OCZ Premier |
$84 |
| Video Card |
Powercolor X800XL OEM |
$279 |
| Hard Drive |
Seagate 250GB 7200.8 SATA |
$128 |
| Optical Drive |
NEC 16X DVDR 3520A |
$48 |
| Floppy Drive |
NEC; Sony; TEAC; Samsung; etc. |
$8 |
| Case |
Antec SLK3000-B |
$56 |
| Power Supply |
Antec SmartPower 2.0 400W |
$66 |
| Display |
Hyundai Imagequest L90D+ 19" 8ms |
$350 |
| Speakers |
Logitech Z-5300e 5.1 |
$135 |
| Keyboard and Mouse |
Logitech Internet Pro Desktop |
$26 |
| Bottom Line |
|
$1459 |
| Mid-Range Intel |
| Hardware |
Recommended Component |
Price |
| Processor |
Pentium 540J 3.2GHz 1MB (Retail) - Prescott core |
$213 |
| Motherboard |
ASUS P5GD1 |
$110 |
| Memory |
2x512MB OCZ Premier |
$84 |
| Video Card |
Powercolor X800XL OEM |
$279 |
| Hard Drive |
Seagate 250GB 7200.8 SATA |
$128 |
| Optical Drive |
NEC 16X DVDR 3520A |
$48 |
| Floppy Drive |
NEC; Sony; TEAC; Samsung; etc. |
$8 |
| Case |
Antec SLK3000-B |
$56 |
| Power Supply |
Antec SmartPower 2.0 400W |
$66 |
| Display |
Hyundai Imagequest L90D+ 19" 8ms |
$350 |
| Speakers |
Logitech Z-5300e 5.1 |
$135 |
| Keyboard and Mouse |
Logitech Internet Pro Desktop |
$26 |
| Bottom Line |
|
$1503 |
Some of you may be wondering why the price of our Mid-Range systems is suddenly $250 more than the last time that we looked at the segment. The answer lies mostly in the upgrades to the LCD and speakers, though overall, the system is simply more powerful. Besides, with our Budget systems ranging from $500 to $1000, we felt that it would be safe to bump up the Mid-Range choices. Feel free to refer to the last
Budget Guide and mix and match parts to fit your needs. This is the system that
we recommend as an all-around computer. It won't be the fastest in every category, but the difference between it and the High-End systems isn't going to be very noticeable for most users. Sure, you can drop back to a CRT and get cheaper speakers, go with a slightly smaller hard drive and a slower CPU and graphics card, etc. None of those are terrible decisions, and you can get quite a lot of computer for close to $1000. We hope it's clear that there is no
specific system that will meet everyone's demands, but we've used all of the parts listed in this system, and every one is a reasonable purchase/upgrade.
High-End Summaries
| High-End AMD |
| Hardware |
Recommended Component |
Price |
| Processor |
Athlon 64 4000+ 90nm (Retail) - San Diego core |
$507 |
| Motherboard |
DFI LANPARTY UT SLI-DR |
$178 |
| Memory |
2x512MB OCZ EL Platinum Rev 2 |
$188 |
| Video Card |
2 x 6800GT - eVGA; MSI; or XFX |
$690 |
| Hard Drive |
Hitachi 7K250 400GB SATA |
$265 |
| Optical Drive |
NEC 16X DVDR 3520A |
$48 |
| Floppy Drive |
NEC; Sony; TEAC; Samsung; etc. |
$8 |
| Case |
AeroCool Spiral Galaxies |
$108 |
| Power Supply |
Enermax EG565P-VE FMA2.0 SLI 535W |
$97 |
| Display |
Dell 2001FP 20" 16ms |
$530 |
| Sound Card |
Chaintech AV-710 7.1 |
$27 |
| Speakers |
Logitech Z-5500d 5.1 |
$245 |
| Keyboard and Mouse |
Logitech Internet Pro Desktop |
$26 |
| Bottom Line |
|
$2917 |
| High-End Intel |
| Hardware |
Recommended Component |
Price |
| Processor |
Pentium 650 3.4GHz 2MB (Retail) - Irwindale/Prescott 2M core |
$412 |
| Motherboard |
MSI P4N Diamond |
$229 |
| Memory |
2x512MB Crucial PC-5300 Value |
$172 |
| Video Card |
2 x 6800GT - eVGA; MSI; or XFX |
$690 |
| Hard Drive |
Hitachi 7K250 400GB SATA |
$265 |
| Optical Drive |
NEC 16X DVDR 3520A |
$48 |
| Floppy Drive |
NEC; Sony; TEAC; Samsung; etc. |
$8 |
| Case |
AeroCool Spiral Galaxies |
$108 |
| Power Supply |
Enermax EG565P-VE FMA2.0 SLI 535W |
$97 |
| Display |
Dell 2001FP 20" 16ms |
$530 |
| Sound Card |
Chaintech AV-710 7.1 |
$27 |
| Speakers |
Logitech Z-5500d 5.1 |
$245 |
| Keyboard and Mouse |
Logitech Internet Pro Desktop |
$26 |
| Bottom Line |
|
$2857 |
We still really want the option to throw a Pentium D into the Intel system, but we'll have to wait a little longer. The same goes for the Athlon X2 chips, though those are further off than the Pentium D. While the Intel system is actually cheaper than the AMD, despite the extremely expensive motherboard, it's really not a fair comparison. Both systems are SLI capable, but the AMD system will overclock better and quite a few benchmarks - especially games - will be dominated by the AMD platform. Besides the mentioned caveats, there isn't much that you can do to increase the power of the High-End systems without spending a lot more money. If you're looking for a good way to spend all of your tax returns and then some, at least computers are generally less harmful than other addictions.
Closing Thoughts
It's been a while since our last Guide, so we felt that it was best to cover a lot of options in a single article. Hopefully, you now have a better idea of what you want to spend your money on. Any questions, comments, feedback, corrections, or even complaints are welcome.
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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.)