High-End Buyers' Guide: May 2007
by Dave Robinet and Jarred Walton on May 29, 2007 1:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Guides
Basic High-End Intel System
One of the few components held over from our October 2006 High-End Guide, the E6600 processor has dropped in price and remains the sweet spot for high-end purchasers at the $2,000 system range. The processor is known to be an excellent overclocker, and provides an even better value after Intel's price cuts. And speaking of price cuts, it's no secret that Intel is planning another round of price cuts in late July. If you can hold out another month or so, you just might be able to pick up a quad core Q6600 in place of the E6600 for a minor price increase.
Prices of 680i chipset-based boards have been dropping recently, which gives the EVGA 122-CK-NF63-TR its place in the baseline high-end Intel system. There were indeed some 975X motherboards which cost roughly the same, but as these implementations leveraged the ICH7 controller rather than the more-expensive ICH7R and an NVIDIA SLI currently continues to require NVIDIA chipset motherboards, it made sense to give the nod to the EVGA 680i solution.
There are potentially more overclock-friendly solutions like the ASUS P5B Deluxe, which costs roughly the same as the EVGA board and has a wider breadth of overclocking options. It runs on the P965 chipset, however, which sets it at a disadvantage in that one of the PCIe x16 slots can only run at x4 bandwidth, rather than giving each card the full x16. Again, such solutions also lack official NVIDIA SLI support so you would need to look at AMD graphics cards if you want to run a multi-GPU configuration. As mentioned already, however, running a single 8800 GTX in place of 8800 GTS SLI can save some money, avoid some headaches, and would be a great fit for a P965 platform.
We went with OCZ Flex XLC memory in the Intel high-end system. In our labs, this memory has reached 1T timings at speeds even slightly higher than 800MHz on 680i platforms. Your mileage may vary, of course, but this is an excellent pair of memory sticks at the sub-$180 price point.
The remaining components are all carried over from the AMD baseline system. The price for the Intel system comes in slightly higher than that of the AMD system, though the $2000 price point is maintained. Note that the Intel system configuration will show superior performance in virtually all applications compared to the AMD system, largely due to the Core 2 Duo's advantage over its Athlon X2 counterpart. If you're looking to overclock, the Core 2 Duo E6600 will also easily outperform any current AMD Athlon X2 processor, often by huge margins. It's not unreasonable to get 3.6 GHz and higher with E6600 chips when using an appropriate aftermarket CPU heatsink, and at present AMD lacks a dual core chip that can even hope to compete with such an overclocked processor.
This system gets Windows XP 32-bit, like the AMD baseline system. If you do choose to go above 2GB of memory, however, please ensure that you do move up to a 64-bit OS - preferably Vista at this point in time.
| Basic High-End Intel System | |||
| Hardware | Component | Price | Rebates |
| Processor | Core 2 Duo E6600 | $223 | - |
| Motherboard | EVGA 122-CK-NF63-TR | $159 | - |
| Memory | OCZ Flex XLC 2GB Kit DDR2 PC2-6400 | $179 | - |
| Video Card | 2x EVGA NVIDIA GeForce 8800GTS 640MB | $700 | $60 |
| Hard Drive | Samsung SpinPoint HD501LJ 500GB | $112 | - |
| Optical Drive | Pioneer DVR-212BK | $42 | - |
| Operating System | Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 SP2B (OEM) | $110 | - |
| System Total | $1525 | $1465 | |
| Complete Package | $2061-$3720 | $2001-$3660 | |
 |
Prices of 680i chipset-based boards have been dropping recently, which gives the EVGA 122-CK-NF63-TR its place in the baseline high-end Intel system. There were indeed some 975X motherboards which cost roughly the same, but as these implementations leveraged the ICH7 controller rather than the more-expensive ICH7R and an NVIDIA SLI currently continues to require NVIDIA chipset motherboards, it made sense to give the nod to the EVGA 680i solution.
There are potentially more overclock-friendly solutions like the ASUS P5B Deluxe, which costs roughly the same as the EVGA board and has a wider breadth of overclocking options. It runs on the P965 chipset, however, which sets it at a disadvantage in that one of the PCIe x16 slots can only run at x4 bandwidth, rather than giving each card the full x16. Again, such solutions also lack official NVIDIA SLI support so you would need to look at AMD graphics cards if you want to run a multi-GPU configuration. As mentioned already, however, running a single 8800 GTX in place of 8800 GTS SLI can save some money, avoid some headaches, and would be a great fit for a P965 platform.
We went with OCZ Flex XLC memory in the Intel high-end system. In our labs, this memory has reached 1T timings at speeds even slightly higher than 800MHz on 680i platforms. Your mileage may vary, of course, but this is an excellent pair of memory sticks at the sub-$180 price point.
The remaining components are all carried over from the AMD baseline system. The price for the Intel system comes in slightly higher than that of the AMD system, though the $2000 price point is maintained. Note that the Intel system configuration will show superior performance in virtually all applications compared to the AMD system, largely due to the Core 2 Duo's advantage over its Athlon X2 counterpart. If you're looking to overclock, the Core 2 Duo E6600 will also easily outperform any current AMD Athlon X2 processor, often by huge margins. It's not unreasonable to get 3.6 GHz and higher with E6600 chips when using an appropriate aftermarket CPU heatsink, and at present AMD lacks a dual core chip that can even hope to compete with such an overclocked processor.
This system gets Windows XP 32-bit, like the AMD baseline system. If you do choose to go above 2GB of memory, however, please ensure that you do move up to a 64-bit OS - preferably Vista at this point in time.
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Dantzig - Tuesday, May 29, 2007 - link
All in all, I liked your guide. Welcome aboard to Anandtech :)Even for a "base" high-end configuration, your case and peripheral recommendations are simply not acceptable.
The Apevia Aspire X-Cruiser is a riced-out, poorly ventilated, cheaply made and simply obnoxious case. Why not recommend a much more sensible option with better ventilation and construction? You can get many quality cases sans power supply for $60. The Antec recommended in the mainstream configuration is much better suited to a high-end build (although I would still like to see something more sensible and less noisy).
Similarly, the Creative Labs 7.1 speaker system you recommended (actually the Inspire P7800, not I-Trigue 3300) is just junk. There is absolutely no reason to waste $80 on a crap 7.1 speaker system. A system with that many speakers should be done right or not at all. Also, THX and manufacturer's power ratings are just marketing mean nothing to anyone who knows jack about audio. Just recommend a decent 2.1 system that at least has tweeters. The market for real stereo systems with actual receivers starts around $250 these days. Even a low end HTIB (I like Onkyo) will outperform any computer speakers on the market.
takumsawsherman - Tuesday, May 29, 2007 - link
So here are a couple of additional comments."The Corsair CMPSU-620HX is a solid offering from a company long known for providing excellent power supplies" - I wasn't aware that Corsair had power supplies at all before a couple of years ago. Also, Why the PC Power and Cooling product over something like a high end Seasonic?
Now, for the worst part... Thanks to the assistance of the Anandtech forums, I finally found a case that I could put into a business environment that wasn't filled with useless lights, very tasteless appointments on the exterior, or cartoon characters on the side. Antec's cases have been de-improving in terms of accessibility (witness the Sonata II and it's funky air flow system that is a pain in the rear and doesn't seem to improve temps). So I was referred to the I-Star S-8 Storm series. An excellent case, with excellent accessories (Hot swap bays, removable caddys, redundant power supplies) that retails for around $50-$60. No spiderman face, no crazy lights, and the fastest assembly I have ever done. There is one downside, in that they don't like to give you enough screws of any one type, and hopefully they will improve that. Luckily, I have tons of screws left over from other systems built for customers over the years.
I believe that part of the problem stems from reviewers praising really toy-like cases that have all of these useless features. Yes, the 14 year old gamer might think they're cool. Heck, even some 25 year old gamers may think they're cool. But I think the great majority of people would consider them to be tacky. So, how about a compromise: offer up alternatives for each. One with all the glitter, and the other with a more clean look. We should encourage manufacturers to worry more about ease of assembly and functionality, and something that can be sold to a business customer.
anandtech02148 - Tuesday, May 29, 2007 - link
hahah this is so true most pc case are so tacky, this is why Apple can steal your money with it's well thought out designs.I still wonder why these plastics take so much space in retail stores.
The attraction is a well thought out pc case with high prices that you can at least get away with like a Lian Li.
Producing cheap plastic case to cut some cost is not a bad idea, but at least hire some designers.
Martimus - Tuesday, May 29, 2007 - link
Most people have considered PC Power and Cooling the best PSU maker for years. They have just been so expensive, not many people usually buy them. They are kind of like the BMW of power supplies, because they don't cut any corners in the design, but you pay for that in the bottom line price. Since the other companies are now charging similar prices to PC P&C, it is much easier to consider them now. Ofcourse PC Power and Cooling was just purchased by OCZ this month (MAY 2007), so hopefully their quality won't go down to the level of OCZ power supplies.Sunrise089 - Tuesday, May 29, 2007 - link
It's always nice to see Anandtech updating it's price guides, and if the new editor/writer follows Jarred's example then I'm sure he will do fine.A few things to maybe keep in mind: I echo the feelings of some others that a $5000 machine needs to have a soundcard. In fact, I would think it makes MUCH more sense to recommend a soundcard rather than a set of speakers for such a system. Next, why keep mentioning overclocking in the article and never advice a aftermarket HSF? I would think every PC in the $2000+ range would be well served, even if only to run it in a low-noise configuration and keep low temps. I assume a midrange guide will appear next, probably after P35 arrives. I hope to see another Overclocking subconfiguration in that atricle, since many of us to OC and the component choices can be rather different.
Finally, @ Jarred - nice fancy new title and post sig. Hopefully thought you won't be only working on notebooks and displays in the future however, even if you are passing on the Guide articles. I know many of the more unconventional articles you and Gary write are some of the best stuff to appear on the site, and I'd hate to loose you to only reviewing the new Asus notebook or Dell LCD.
Dave Robinet - Thursday, May 31, 2007 - link
Thanks for the welcome. :)You're absolutely right, both about the soundcard and the HSF. In the $5k system, though, we did include the water cooling solution - but point taken about the cooling in general terms. I'd venture that few people at the $2k range are using stock HSF solutions.
For the next guide, I'm thinking that there may be some tweaks - you're right about the overclocking part.
Thanks again!
dave
JarredWalton - Tuesday, May 29, 2007 - link
Thanks,I'm still managing editor (i.e. posting most other articles, doing final proof-reads, etc.) so no worries. Displays and laptops are simply my primary area of focus these days, just like Derek's focus is GPUs and Gary's primary focus is... well, everything. :) I'll still contribute opinions and such to the Buyers' Guides as well (and Gary deserves plenty of credit for the recommendations in this and other Guides if you didn't know that).
takumsawsherman - Tuesday, May 29, 2007 - link
Page 3 states that "While RAID will not markedly improve performance for the average user, it can improve either reliability (RAID 5, RAID 1), or data capacity (RAID 0)"I don't see how RAID 0 improves data capacity. Sure, it will make multiple drives appear as one volume, but the capacity is not improved. Not only that, but the reliability is decreased, as a failure of one drive leads to loss of data from both.
JarredWalton - Tuesday, May 29, 2007 - link
That's what was meant by improving "data capacity" although it probably could have been worded better. It does improve performance in certain applications to the point that a few people might find it useful (people that worry about the latest ORB results for example....)Latyshev - Tuesday, May 29, 2007 - link
In the main review you are clearly goiung for SLI. But in the "alternative" list you never mention any new P35 boards, which are amasing peformers.
How come?