Buyer's Guide: Mid-Range to High-End, May 2005
by Jarred Walton on May 23, 2005 5:30 PM EST- Posted in
- Guides
Sound and Speakers
We've covered almost everything with the exception of sound. We feel that the integrated audio is sufficient for anyone who doesn't intend to do any recording of audio, so we don't feel that an actual sound card is really necessary. If you do want a sound card, you can always pick up a Creative Audigy 2 ZS for about $75 or the M-Audio Revolution 7.1 for about $90. Both are good cards, with the Creative having more of a gaming slant. However, those cards are rather expensive for the offered features, and you might want a sound card if your motherboard doesn't offer an S/PDIF connection for output, though you need speakers with an S/PDIF input to make use of such a feature. Since that's what we'll use for our High-End speaker selection, we're going to include a sound card specifically for that segment.
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Sound Card: Chaintech AV-710 7.1
Price: $27 Shipped
We're not going to blow a ton of money on the sound card, especially when all we're really interested in is the digital audio output. The good news is that the Chaintech card is still a good quality card and provides audio comparable to that of the Revolution 7.1 at a much lower cost. Powered by the VIA Envy 24PT chip, the card provides clean, crisp audio that many will feel is more than worth the price. Two stereo input ports are also present, which allows for line-in as well as a microphone. About the only thing missing is an S/PDIF IN port. If you want that, you'll need a more capable sound card like the Turtle Beach Catalina. It has 24-bit 7.1 audio along with optical in and out ports for around $50 if you're interested.
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Speakers: Logitech Z-5300e 5.1
Price: $135 Shipped
We're going with more capable speakers for our mid-range setup than what we've recommended in the past. If you don't need really nice audio from your PC, you can go with the cheaper X-530 speakers from Logitech or some good quality 2.1 speakers. You could even get by with no speakers, though we feel most people will want at least decent audio out of a $1000+ computer. The Z-5300e is the big brother to the X-530, with higher quality and better sounding satellites. They're also capable of much higher volume levels, so you can make sure that the whole neighborhood knows which movie you're watching - or not. Other than getting even louder speakers, the only real omission on the Z-5300e is support for digital connections. It's certainly not required, but many home theaters use digital audio connections, and with good reason. That brings us to the High-End recommendation.
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Speakers: Logitech Z-5500d 5.1
Price: $245 Shipped
If the Z-5300 is the big brother of the X-530, then the Z-5500d is the X-530's daddy. While there are other differences between the 5300 and 5500, the major addition is support for DTS and Dolby Digital decoding on the speakers. Sure, you can have the PC or sound card do that for you, but then you have to deal with potential noise and interference from the circuitry within the computer. If you go with a digital connection, you're basically guaranteed to get no interference up to the speakers. If you don't already have a decent home theater setup, the Z-5500d speakers are capable of giving much more expensive speakers a run for the money. They're not likely to beat out speakers costing thousands of dollars, but for the price, they're extremely impressive.
We've been saying "Logitech" a lot while talking about speakers, but they certainly aren't the only option out there. Altec Lansing, Boston Acoustics, Creative, and Klipsch are all reasonable alternatives, and the way sound is perceived varies from person to person - what we like may not be what you like. That said, Logitech has been extremely aggressive with their pricing. Klipsch ProMedia Ultra 5.1 speakers are another favorite of the high-end, and many would say that the warranty and support provided by Klipsch is more than worth the increased price. You would lose the digital aspect of the Z-5500d's if you go that route, however, and which speaker actually sounds better is something that audiophiles could debate for hours on end. We think that they both sound good, but digital inputs and $100 in savings is hard to argue with, which is why we've gone with the Logitech speakers. If you have further questions on the matter of speakers, the peripherals area of our forums is a good place to start.
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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.)