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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PotterVilla - Wednesday, December 28, 2005 - link
Hello,I've not been able to find a XFX, MSI, or eVGA 6800GT graphics card at new egg (I'm not really looking to buy, just being wishful) and I also saw that the 6800XT is only $170. The 7800GT is more in your ballpark of $345 a card. Would ether of these cards be an upgrade, and has their price gone down that much ($175) in only about seven months?
Thank you.
jonp - Friday, August 26, 2005 - link
i wonder about the hp 1905fp recommend for the mid-range non-gaming display. there are considerable comments here and elsewhere about the poor analog (d-sub 15 pin) performance ie image quality. the Genesis gm-5321 controller chip is no longer shown on their web site and the datasheets are no longer available as well. (one wonders how much longer the 1905fp will even be available?) the dvi interface might be great, but there are some of us who connect their display through a kvm that only handles analog signals--so dvi performance is of little interest. i think we need a new monitor review and new pick for the non-gaming monitor recommendation. we depend on Anandtech for solid testing and non-subjective analysis to guide us in our quest for the best value. it is clear that we need new help in this area.JarredWalton - Thursday, June 16, 2005 - link
56 - not usually on NVIDIA nF3/4 or Intel chipsets. That's only an issue with secondary SATA controllers (VIA, SiS, Silicon Image, etc.) But still, never hurts to have that $8 part around just in case!mhallang - Wednesday, June 15, 2005 - link
Another reason to get a floppy drive is to install Win XP on a SATA drive. Maybe SP2 is different, and I would bet there's another way around it; but my experience was that I needed a floppy with the SATA drivers during the install process for XP.JarredWalton - Monday, June 13, 2005 - link
54 - Oh, I'd stay far away from XP64 for SLI. Raw doesn't begin to describe it, IMO. Longhorn is when I'll actually consider switching to a 64-bit OS.GreedyBumps - Thursday, June 9, 2005 - link
I built this system with all major components that are in this guide and cannot get SLI to work. Both cards work great individually but when I try to but them both in in SLI mode screen goes black after the black windows loading screen. I have tried all the driver / bios updates for everything I could find and still no dice.One issue could be that I installed Windows x64 professional - maybe some drivers are still too raw.
Also - the SLI jumpers on this DFI Lanparty board are a complete pain. They are tough to pull out and there are 6 of them. When you are trying to get SLI to work it is absolute nightmare to keep switching between SLI and Normal jumper cable settings.
JarredWalton - Wednesday, June 1, 2005 - link
52 - I got the information from Wesley. Basically, there is a higher number of RMA for motherboards and RAM when voltages above 3.3V are used. (Not too surprising, really, as higher V = higher heat.) 3.3V and below are fine, but there is a jumper to allow up to 4.0V. If you use that jumper, it causes problems. That's my understanding. In other words, don't plan on running OCZ VX at 3.7V with no active cooling. :)hgkfahgsa - Wednesday, June 1, 2005 - link
Jarred, could you elaborate on the problems with high voltages with the DFI cards? Is there any chance of the problems being resolved, does 3.3 volts work? etc... Thanks.JarredWalton - Friday, May 27, 2005 - link
50 - I know there are some Turtle Beach cards with S/PDIF in and out connections. M-Audio also has some, i.e. the Delta and Audiophile. Which one you want depends on the use. Most only have optical *OR* coaxial (RCA). I think many of the models with external boxes have both. If you were interested in an expensive, "everything" solution, there's the Audigy 4 Pro, but that's $280 or so, and I can't vouch for the actual quality as a whole.Honestly, I'm not a demanding audio person. If you want more advice on audio, I'm sure there are people in our forums that can provide better advice for "pro level" cards. You may as well ask me for advice on cars while you're at it! (Get something cheap and reliable!) ;-)
devslash - Friday, May 27, 2005 - link
how important is capability of S/PDIF input. i dont see many motherboards that have this on-board.isn't it important/good to have it, so DVD's audio
can be directly fed into the on-board sound system?
can you recommend a good board w/ S/PDIF input?