Final Words
Most users that email questions about building a computer system are planning to build a midrange computer system. With a broad price range of $1000 to $2000, this covers a huge number of potential choices. With the launch of Phenom II just a few days ago, all of our thinking about systems in this price range was rearranged. Hopefully you are the beneficiary of the refresh in our system thinking.
Prior to Phenom II we had prepared a Value Midrange AMD system using our favorite AMD 9950 Black Edition. We did not really have an AMD system to present at the $2000 Performance Midrange price point because AMD had no offerings that competed well in that arena. However, we now have a complete Phenom II 940 system at the $2000 price point that will give the competing Intel Core i7 920 a real run for the money - even when overclocked. At the $1500 price point the AMD Phenom II system based on the Phenom II 920 will likely be the performance winner, since Intel has no real Core i7 offering that is cheap enough for a complete balanced system at $1500. At least that is true this week.
As those involved in this industry quickly learn, things can change very fast in the computer business. AMD is competitive again and we are happy to see Phenom II competing so well. Of course, Intel's 45nm Penryn quad-core chips also compete quite well with Phenom II, so the final choice can really go any of three directions.
The current world economic woes are having their impact on the computer industry as well as many other industries. As often happens in economic times such as these, some players will cease to exist. As also happens, price competition often becomes fierce and the large and strong are more able to play within these guidelines. It would be a mistake to read these economic comments as doom and gloom because there is a huge silver lining to this story. Today you can get more for your money than ever in a computer system. The contrarians among you will buy now for the value and be rewarded with terrific performance for their investment.
As you saw in the tables, our AMD and Intel Value Midrange systems came in closer to $1400 than to $1500. Both are complete systems and include a fast Core 2 Duo 3.16GHz CPU based on 45nm technology or a fast AMD Phenom II 2.8GHz quad-core based on 45nm technology. Both systems feature AMD 4870 1GB graphics, 4GB DDR2-1066 memory, a 1TB hard drive, audio card, powered speakers, a custom case, and quality 80 Plus certified 650W power supply, a Blu-ray/HD player/DVD burner, Vista OS, keyboard/mouse, and a 1080p LCD monitor. That is a lot of value and performance for the price. For those that already have the OS, speakers, keyboard/mouse, and monitor you are talking base component costs of less than $1100 for these very competitive systems.
There is no doubt that our $2000 complete systems easily occupy what would have been considered high-end just a short time ago. The Intel Performance Midrange is powered by a Core i7 920 that overclocks extremely well if that is your choice. 4.0GHz is a very doable and stable overclock. The AMD Performance Midrange is similarly powered by the top Phenom II 940, a 3.0GHz quad-core that reached 3.9GHz in limited OC testing for the AnandTech launch article. Both performance systems feature upgrades to almost all of the capable components in the Value Midrange offerings. This includes a 24" monitor, an upgraded case/700W power supply, and 4870X2 graphics or NVIDIA SuperClocked 280GTX graphics,
The point of all these component selections should be very clear. Now is a great time to build a Value Midrange or Performance Midrange system, with either an Intel or AMD core. The bang for the buck is as good as we have ever seen in computer space. You can build the latest Intel Core i7 or AMD Phenom II computer system for less than $2000 - with some systems costing less than $1500. If you already have a monitor and keyboard/mouse/speakers you can build a balanced base i7 system for less than $1600, or a Phenom II for less than $1100. And those are some pretty good silver linings.
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RonnieJamesDio - Tuesday, January 13, 2009 - link
With the internet alive with horror stories about the Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1 TB drives failing in massive numbers I would think Anandtech would withhold such blanket approval of this part until the dust settles. I mean, the equivalent WD part costs 10 bucks more on average and in the last storage roundup they couldn't really choose between them!Gary Key - Tuesday, January 13, 2009 - link
We are recommending either the WD Caviar Black 1TB or the Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31000333AS 1TB drives. To be honest, the new Hitachi EK71000 is not bad either if the price comes down. However, we did not and will not recommend the ST31000340AS 1TB drive due to lingering concerns about the quality of the drive at this point.We have requested additional information from Seagate concerning the current problems with the 340AS drive but have not experienced those problems with the 333AS at this point. Seagate did comment to us that we should not expect to see the same problems with the 333AS drives due to a different platter/head design along with optimized firmware.
I have tested four 333AS drives in a Promise NAS unit over the past month by running several VMware applications and other tests that abuse the disks on a constant basis. Temperature readings have ranged from 10C to 50C in a controlled setting and the drives have yet to show a problem when allowed to shutdown for periodic breaks, which have shown to be a major cause of failure on the 340AS drives.
In the meantime, the WD Caviar Black 1TB drive is a favorite of ours and continues to be the drive we utilize in our new test beds.
formulav8 - Tuesday, January 13, 2009 - link
My lord, I would hate to see what you see a Low-End system price to be? This is deinitely not a real world guide from my experience...Jason
JarredWalton - Tuesday, January 13, 2009 - link
Cripes people... it's just a term. Wes put together a $500 to $1000 guide a couple weeks back, so it makes no sense to start the next level guide at $1000. I think you're all intelligent enough to look at both guides and pick and choose parts based on your final budget. You want a $1250 PC? How about taking the $1500 starting price of the base "midrange" systems in this guide and then downgrade a few parts?E8400 saves you $25 or so.
If you don't overclock, you can save $40 on the HSF.
Don't need 1TB of storage? Then how about a 500GB HDD to save $55?
No sound card saves another $50.
DVDR instead of BRD-ROM saves $70.
$80 for speakers that you may not use.
There you have it: the $1450 Intel system is now only $1130, and you can still downgrade the GPU if you're not a serious gamer.
The goal of our buyers' guide has always been to give you a good overview of the market and some reasonable recommendations. There is no "perfect" system that will please everyone, and all the complaints about the definition of "midrange", "entry", "budget", "high-end", "dream", etc. are all missing the point. Are these good systems for $1500 to $2000? Are there any serious flaws? Minor quibbles about whether or not you need that much storage are easily fixed.
Personally, I'd go quad-core Penryn right now over the various other options. That's $100 more than the E8500, but with overclocking you can still get close to the same performance. The http://www.mwave.com/mwave/SkuSearch_v2.asp?SCrite...">Q9450 is still a good buy if you can find it (2x6MB cache is better than the Q9400 and Q9300, not to mention the cache-limited Q8200). I also always recommend getting a better display if at all possible - assuming you didn't do that some time in the past 3-5 years, naturally. A good display can last through many PC upgrades.
7Enigma - Tuesday, January 13, 2009 - link
Completely agree. It's all semantics. 1/3 of the comments are complaining about the wording of what mid-range is? At least bring a real criticism to the discussion.Now can someone comment on the HSF recommended in the Intel mid-range build? I posted an earlier comment and didn't get an answer but the Xigmatek is no where to be seen that I could find on Anandtech. I ended up ordering it along with the C2D 8500 today, but am going to be pissed if there was a better or cheaper (or both? :) option. Could someone link to me the data that the article referenced?
From the article:
"While the stock Intel cooler is adequate for modestly overclocking a Core 2 Duo, better cooling is needed to push the CPU to its limits. The Xigmatek HDT-D1283 120mm Rifle Cooler did very well in our cooling tests and it is a good match to the E8500. OCZ also markets a similar 120 Rifle cooler and either should work well in this system."
Wesley Fink - Tuesday, January 13, 2009 - link
I tested the OCZ variant of the Xigmatek a couple of months ago and found it performed near the top compared to other coolers in its price range. It did not reach the performance levels of the more expensive Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme, but it was in that ballpark.At the time I was working hard on Digital Camera reviews and news and we decided to can the article and devote more time to other review areas.
The Xigmatek is actually available from others as well, but the price for the Xigmatek brand was the best I could find for this cooler. It is a good match to Core 2 processors since they are not generally super difficult to cool. You will be pleased with the performance.
The Core i7, on the other hand, is something of a cooling challenge (I tried hard to stay positive and not say 'nightmare'). So much so that I will be publishing reviews of Socket 1366 coolers in the nest few weeks. No one is really doing a good job in testing Socket 1366 coolers so we are working on an i7 cooler test platform and testing procedures right now.
Core i7 overclocks well IF you can cool it properly, but it is already pretty hot even at stock speeds with the Intel Retail 1366 HSF.
7Enigma - Wednesday, January 14, 2009 - link
Thank you very much for the reply! I had assumed as much since you mentioned it had been tested but I was going crazy looking again and again at 2008 cooling articles unable to find even the slightest mention of it. $/performance is definitely what I'm shooting for on my latest build and it seems that your recommendation is perfect.My only concern is that it uses pushpins for mounting (or spend an additional $15 (not including shipping) for the backplate). Hopefully it won't be too difficult to mount, but I thank you again for this recommendation.
It may be worthwhile to update this buyers guide to mention that although Anandtech does not have posted data it falls between X and Y on the list for OC'ing, and maybe a 1 sentence mention of installation/noise levels. I'm sure someone else that used the guide for a new build had a similar question as I did.
You guys really are the greatest at not only writing excellent articles but backing up your articles with responses to comments.
JarredWalton - Tuesday, January 13, 2009 - link
I wouldn't be surprised if this is an item that Wes has tested but hasn't had a chance to write up yet. (Or perhaps Matt tested it.) I know from personal experience that the testing is only half the battle when it comes to producing an article. :)takumsawsherman - Tuesday, January 13, 2009 - link
Why the Tuniq tower instead of the Thermalright? The Thermalright seems like a far better cooler based on the reviews on this very site...JarredWalton - Tuesday, January 13, 2009 - link
Price performance... the Ultra 120 eXtreme is a great cooler, but with a fan it's often twice the cost of the Tuniq 120. All that for a difference of perhaps 2-4C? Take the $50 and put it elsewhere if you want better performance.