Entry Level Buyer's Guide, October 2005
by Jarred Walton on October 14, 2005 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Guides
Miscellaneous Part Recommendations
We've covered the major components for a computer, and we'll finish by covering the storage, keyboard, mouse, sound, networking, case, and power supply choices. (That's a lot of choices left, but the impact on performance for most of them is negligible at best.) If you grab the cheapest parts for several of these options - input devices and speakers - then you can get the bare minimum of functionality. Depending on how much you plan on using the computer, though, we'd upgrade some options.
First, the keyboard and mice are how you actually communicate with the computer (unless you're planning on trying out some voice recognition software). If you're going to be using the computer for work, sitting at it eight hours a day, then do your body a favor and get a keyboard and mouse that are comfortable for long-term use. Ergonomic keyboards might help a bit if you have carpal tunnel problems or suffer from RSI (Repetitive Stress Injury). Of course, the truth is that the best way to combat such problems lies elsewhere: a good desk and chair combined with frequent breaks is critical for long-term comfort. The desk and chair can easily cost more than an entire computer; thankfully, upgrades are rare occurrences. We've given you a bit of advice on what you might want to consider, but the rest is up to you. As usual, we're going to recommend a standard keyboard/mouse combo from either Logitech or Microsoft.
Sound and networking devices are really easy to cover: use the integrated devices on the motherboard. Every modern motherboard includes both sound and network functionality. Is it the best sound that you'll ever hear from a PC? Hardly, but you probably won't care much. Networking performance is even less critical; unless you're planning on running gigabit Ethernet wiring, nearly all 10/100 network devices are close enough in performance that discussing it further amounts to splitting hairs.
For the speakers, at least for non-gaming use, just grab a $10 to $20 set (or use what you already have). If you need a truly cheap recommendation, you can get a pair of Logitech S-100 speakers for free with the purchase of a keyboard, courtesy of Newegg. It's tough to beat free (though we're really only saving $7). The sound quality just about matches the price, so if you want something where you could actually listen to a CD or even watch a DVD on your computer, you'll want to bite the bullet and at least get some speakers with a subwoofer. Small satellites simply can't produce bass well, and cheap satellites are even worse. Logitech's X-230 speakers run $37 shipped and provide a good minimum level of sound quality. We'll use those for the home/office setup, but for gaming, we'll upgrade to 5.1 speakers.
Office Components:
Gaming Components:
Most of the choices should be pretty self-explanatory, so we just want to touch on the important areas. First, our hard drive and optical drive selections are essentially a toss up. Our last Hard Drive Roundup showed that SATA 3.0Gbps drives were faster in some areas, and NCQ could help out in certain tests as well, but there was no clear victor. This is a budget guide, so price as well as $/GB are going to be the primary factors in what we select. Hitachi won out in both the 80GB and 160GB categories - we chose a larger drive for the gaming system, though in truth, you could put either drive in either configuration, depending on how you plan to use the PC. The less than 40 cents per GB cost of some Maxtor 250GB models also bears mention, but we aren't big fans of the MaxLine II models and wanted to keep the HDD cost under $100, so we didn't upgrade to a 200GB or larger drive. The 160GB choice will still provide plenty of room for games, videos, music, photos, and whatever else you might want. Combined with the ability to archive old data to DVDR discs, storage capacity shouldn't be a major concern.
The 5-year Seagate warranty (you can get a similar warranty on the more expensive Western Digital drives) is also something to consider, but warranties don't cover lost data. (You might want to wait for the new Seagate drives as well, if you're looking to get a Seagate anyway.) That's why a good backup strategy is important, and the DVDR drives provide that. Firmware updates to the NEC 3540A, BenQ DW1640, and Pioneer 110D drives have ironed out most of the media compatibility issues, so they pretty much tie for price, performance, and compatibility. NEC wins on total cost plus shipping right now, but prices can fluctuate daily, so feel free to choose one of the other models.
The case and power supply choices are certain to draw plenty of comments, as they did with the last budget guide. We actually picked up the MGE CAG-M1-BK with the 400W PSU that we listed to run it through some tests. The quick summary is that the case is flimsy and cheap, the front panel connectors feature individual connections for the USB and Firewire ports rather than a nice molded block, and as a whole, the case is underwhelming. For $65 shipped, though, it gets the job done. It's been running almost 24/7 for a couple of months without any problems, even when overclocking a Sempron to 2.60 GHz. Will the power supply fail at some point? Probably. With the overclocked Sempron and an X800 Pro, though, peak power draw is only hitting 190W or so. For a budget system, you really don't need to go out and buy a $75 PSU in order to run stable. Something else to consider is that since shipping costs about $15 for many cases when ordered online, you might just run down to your local computer shops to see what's available.
The Foxconn cases and power supplies that we chose for this month's gaming selections are of higher quality than the MGE, but they're still not high-end. The "office" selection is a bit cheaper and only includes a 300W PSU (which should be fine for the integrated graphics and other components). For the gaming case, the PSU has a 24-pin power connector (really, this time!), and it's also ATX2.0 compliant. Both have a relatively conservative look, and we like the more expensive model a bit more. It has spring-loaded optical drive doors on the top two 5.25" bays. The cases also include a 120mm fan mounted at the back and a CPU duct, which should easily handle our budget builds.
You may eventually need to upgrade the case a bit with a new PSU or a second fan, but with Intel's talk of performance per Watt, the next generation PCs may actually reduce power requirements. (Here's hoping...) We don't expect people to have problems with either of these cases, but if you start thinking about adding multiple hard drives, you might need a heftier PSU.
We've covered the major components for a computer, and we'll finish by covering the storage, keyboard, mouse, sound, networking, case, and power supply choices. (That's a lot of choices left, but the impact on performance for most of them is negligible at best.) If you grab the cheapest parts for several of these options - input devices and speakers - then you can get the bare minimum of functionality. Depending on how much you plan on using the computer, though, we'd upgrade some options.
First, the keyboard and mice are how you actually communicate with the computer (unless you're planning on trying out some voice recognition software). If you're going to be using the computer for work, sitting at it eight hours a day, then do your body a favor and get a keyboard and mouse that are comfortable for long-term use. Ergonomic keyboards might help a bit if you have carpal tunnel problems or suffer from RSI (Repetitive Stress Injury). Of course, the truth is that the best way to combat such problems lies elsewhere: a good desk and chair combined with frequent breaks is critical for long-term comfort. The desk and chair can easily cost more than an entire computer; thankfully, upgrades are rare occurrences. We've given you a bit of advice on what you might want to consider, but the rest is up to you. As usual, we're going to recommend a standard keyboard/mouse combo from either Logitech or Microsoft.
Sound and networking devices are really easy to cover: use the integrated devices on the motherboard. Every modern motherboard includes both sound and network functionality. Is it the best sound that you'll ever hear from a PC? Hardly, but you probably won't care much. Networking performance is even less critical; unless you're planning on running gigabit Ethernet wiring, nearly all 10/100 network devices are close enough in performance that discussing it further amounts to splitting hairs.
For the speakers, at least for non-gaming use, just grab a $10 to $20 set (or use what you already have). If you need a truly cheap recommendation, you can get a pair of Logitech S-100 speakers for free with the purchase of a keyboard, courtesy of Newegg. It's tough to beat free (though we're really only saving $7). The sound quality just about matches the price, so if you want something where you could actually listen to a CD or even watch a DVD on your computer, you'll want to bite the bullet and at least get some speakers with a subwoofer. Small satellites simply can't produce bass well, and cheap satellites are even worse. Logitech's X-230 speakers run $37 shipped and provide a good minimum level of sound quality. We'll use those for the home/office setup, but for gaming, we'll upgrade to 5.1 speakers.
Office Components:
 |
 |
| Click images to enlarge. | |
| Hard Drive: | Hitachi 3.0Gbps 80GB 7200RPM 8MB Deskstar 7K80 | $57 |
| Optical Drive: | NEC 3540A Black (OEM) | $41 |
| Case and Power Supply: | Foxconn 3GTH-002 plus 300W PSU | $70 |
| Speakers: | Logitech X-230 2.1 Speakers | $37 |
| Keyboard and Mouse: | Logitech Internet Pro Desktop | $23 |
Gaming Components:
 |
 |
| Click images to enlarge. | |
| Hard Drive: | Hitachi 3.0Gbps 160GB 7200RPM 8MB Deskstar T7K250 | $81 |
| Optical Drive: | BenQ DW1640 Black (OEM) | $46 |
| Case and Power Supply: | Foxconn TPS544-S350 plus 350W PSU | $82 |
| Speakers: | Labtec ARENA 685 5.1 Speakers | $47 |
| Keyboard and Mouse: | Logitech Internet Pro Desktop | $23 |
Most of the choices should be pretty self-explanatory, so we just want to touch on the important areas. First, our hard drive and optical drive selections are essentially a toss up. Our last Hard Drive Roundup showed that SATA 3.0Gbps drives were faster in some areas, and NCQ could help out in certain tests as well, but there was no clear victor. This is a budget guide, so price as well as $/GB are going to be the primary factors in what we select. Hitachi won out in both the 80GB and 160GB categories - we chose a larger drive for the gaming system, though in truth, you could put either drive in either configuration, depending on how you plan to use the PC. The less than 40 cents per GB cost of some Maxtor 250GB models also bears mention, but we aren't big fans of the MaxLine II models and wanted to keep the HDD cost under $100, so we didn't upgrade to a 200GB or larger drive. The 160GB choice will still provide plenty of room for games, videos, music, photos, and whatever else you might want. Combined with the ability to archive old data to DVDR discs, storage capacity shouldn't be a major concern.
The 5-year Seagate warranty (you can get a similar warranty on the more expensive Western Digital drives) is also something to consider, but warranties don't cover lost data. (You might want to wait for the new Seagate drives as well, if you're looking to get a Seagate anyway.) That's why a good backup strategy is important, and the DVDR drives provide that. Firmware updates to the NEC 3540A, BenQ DW1640, and Pioneer 110D drives have ironed out most of the media compatibility issues, so they pretty much tie for price, performance, and compatibility. NEC wins on total cost plus shipping right now, but prices can fluctuate daily, so feel free to choose one of the other models.
The case and power supply choices are certain to draw plenty of comments, as they did with the last budget guide. We actually picked up the MGE CAG-M1-BK with the 400W PSU that we listed to run it through some tests. The quick summary is that the case is flimsy and cheap, the front panel connectors feature individual connections for the USB and Firewire ports rather than a nice molded block, and as a whole, the case is underwhelming. For $65 shipped, though, it gets the job done. It's been running almost 24/7 for a couple of months without any problems, even when overclocking a Sempron to 2.60 GHz. Will the power supply fail at some point? Probably. With the overclocked Sempron and an X800 Pro, though, peak power draw is only hitting 190W or so. For a budget system, you really don't need to go out and buy a $75 PSU in order to run stable. Something else to consider is that since shipping costs about $15 for many cases when ordered online, you might just run down to your local computer shops to see what's available.
The Foxconn cases and power supplies that we chose for this month's gaming selections are of higher quality than the MGE, but they're still not high-end. The "office" selection is a bit cheaper and only includes a 300W PSU (which should be fine for the integrated graphics and other components). For the gaming case, the PSU has a 24-pin power connector (really, this time!), and it's also ATX2.0 compliant. Both have a relatively conservative look, and we like the more expensive model a bit more. It has spring-loaded optical drive doors on the top two 5.25" bays. The cases also include a 120mm fan mounted at the back and a CPU duct, which should easily handle our budget builds.
You may eventually need to upgrade the case a bit with a new PSU or a second fan, but with Intel's talk of performance per Watt, the next generation PCs may actually reduce power requirements. (Here's hoping...) We don't expect people to have problems with either of these cases, but if you start thinking about adding multiple hard drives, you might need a heftier PSU.
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artifex - Thursday, October 27, 2005 - link
I helped my mom get a $300 eMachines desktop at Office Depot (after rebates) earlier today. It's got a Sempron 3100+, 256MB Ram, "Unichrome" shared 64M graphics but free AGP slot, 100GB hard drive, DVDRom/CD burner, a 17 inch (16 inch viewable) CRT and some Canon Pixma printer, all in the bundle. And of course, a legit copy of Win XP, home version. I'm not supporting teaching her or my dad how to use Linux, not when this cheaper machine has XP for "free."To me, this is entry level for office or home use. Not a gaming machine, but something the average adult person can use to solve productivity needs, do word processing, etc. If she wants to, she can upgrade it to 2GB RAM later, drop in an AGP video card, buy a DVD burner, etc. I don't expect her to do anything except maybe get me to upgrade it over time to 1GB RAM and maybe a DVD burner. After Christmas, that'll be maybe $100 extra, tops. And after all, this is a $300 machine. By the time she really needs much more, in a few years, she'll be able to buy the next OEM deal for $300-400 or whatever, and this will be a secondary machine for my dad, or yet another file/media server for me, or something. Oh, and she'll have another new monitor and printer, too. Does she need PCI-E now? No. She will get more value from buying a new system 3 or 4 years from now than you will get from spending $300-400 to upgrade yours with a faster processor, mobo, and memory.
Oh, don't forget, the OEM, eMachines in this case, gets to pay to replace stuff for the next year. If I buy entry level parts from mail order or Fry's, I'll have a heck of a time getting someone to replace most of it after 90 days, without lots of mailing of parts at my time and expense. She is taking some of the money she saves to buy another hard drive to back up to, so there is hope she's not totally screwed even if the hard drive dies one day after the expiration, if she and my dad remember to back their junk up. (I have had a few Hitachis and Maxtors throw errors 13 months in, so I assume it will happen. The backup will be a Seagate, of course)
So anyway, all this rambling hopefully suggests that OEM machines can be a better deal than you think.
JarredWalton - Friday, October 28, 2005 - link
OEM systems aren't terrible, but they are lowest common denominator. I would hate to use a 256MB RAM system these days. Rebates are also something of an issue, as it can take months to get the larger rebates back, and often they'll make you jump through additional hoops - all in an effort to get you to forget (or miss the deadline for) the rebate. But yeah, a $400 PC will work well enough for many people.I have to say that personally, I don't touch such systems. If someone calls with a Compaq, Dell, HP, etc. $500 "special" and says they're having problems, I tell them that I don't work on such PCs. The reason for my stance is that people who purchase such cheap systems don't care about quality, they just want cheap. You "fix" a system like that for someone, and they'll come back to you next time a part breaks and lay the blame at your feet.
My philosophy is that getting someone to understand more about the computer hardware and buy a better product will result - long term - in a person that is happier with their computer and hopefully more knowledgeable. It's my pipe dream, I know. :)
Evan Lieb - Monday, October 17, 2005 - link
Just thought I'd pop in and say great guide Jarred. Hard to disagree with any of those components save for the speaker system, which will be overkill for a lot of home/home office users. Otherwise a superb guide. You're doing them better than I did. ;)JarredWalton - Monday, October 17, 2005 - link
Thanks Evan!Good to hear from you - where you at anyway? :p
Anyway, I like to think that anyone who doesn't want speakers will know that. It's very easy to not include them, and I also mentioned the option of free Logitech speakers with keyboard purchase. I know my office PC has some garbage $10 speakers that get the job done, and I use cheap headphones if I want "quality" (or to isolate myself).
JarredWalton - Saturday, October 15, 2005 - link
Another reader email, which mentioned something I wasn't aware of. Here it is:---------------------
Congratulations on what I found to be a very good guide - I'm sure anyone in the market for a budget PC would find it to be extremely useful.
I have just one suggested addition - my understand is that in the Sempron 64 range, the 3000+ model is the lowest one to support the Cool 'n' Quiet feature. Given that this Cool 'n' Quiet doesn't work if the CPU is overclocked, this isn't of any use for an overlocked gaming rig but may be important for those who are building a Media PC or simply would like a quiet PC.
Thank you for your consistently high quality articles and guides!
---------------------
I hadn't heard about Cool and Quiet not being on the lower end Semprons, though it would make sense. Once you're running the 90nm SOI chips at 1.6 GHz, they only consume about 25 to 30W I'd guess. Total power draw at 1.80 GHz for the 3100+ (whole system) is about 140W, but that's in a 3D intensive application with an X800 Pro GPU. The GPU looks to be using somewhere around 50 or 60W, so without the GPU you'd be well under 100W.
I guess some people would like to have added power savings, but really we're talking about $20 per year for cutting power draw by 30W, and that's running 24/7. :)
Regards,
Jarred Walton
SFF and Guide Editor
AnandTech.com
JarredWalton - Friday, October 14, 2005 - link
I received the following email from a reader, and thought some of you might find it useful, along with my response:--------------
Am in the market for a low end PC so found your http://www.anandtech.com/guides/showdoc.aspx?i=256...">latest review very
interesting.
Am wondering if you happened to note the capacitor mfrs on the mainboards
you tested.
Am asking because of cap problems http://www.badcaps.net/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=6">with even "Good Mfrs".
FYI http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_Plague">this is the most complete listing I have found so far concerning "Bad
Caps".
--------------
Hi [reader],
No, I didn't look for capacitor brands - in fact, I don't have most of the parts listed in this article. It's a Buyer's Guide based off of what's on the market and prices, and performance results are not included for a reason. We have tested many of these components individually, but the parts are likely scattered across the AnandTech staff.
As far as leaking capacitors, the majority of cases occurred back in the Athlon XP/P4 and earlier days. I had at least two Pentium 3 and one Athlon XP board fail due to leaking capacitors. (The last was 18 months ago, and the first was over three years ago.) A few of those boards are still out there and are only now failing, but I haven't encountered problems with any of the Athlon 64 of socket 775 boards. Gigabyte, DFI, Biostar and ASUS should be relatively safe choices. If the board were to fail within 3 years, I believe all four companies provide at least a 3 year manufacturer warranty. (Someone else may have specific details, though.)
Regards,
Jarred Walton
SFF and Guide Editor
AnandTech.com
--------------
mino - Friday, October 14, 2005 - link
I'l definetely stick to 2500+/2800+ fo OC setup.256k IS really usefull, and I know, the benchmarks say othewise. But try doing some multitasking or any really new software titles-the newer the SW, the bigger the cachesize it is generally optimised for...
Also low multiplier is no issue if You stick to nf4 infinity where 350MHz+ base speeds are standard.
Other than that quality of Your BG's climbing steadily with time.
Keep it this way and there may soon be no place to improve:)
just kidin'...
BTW Jared:
what about to do a an multitasking test of the budget CPU's ? AT did las budget CPU test in april and roundup a bit before. Roundup of possible options that appeared snce (higher grade Semprons&Celerons + 2500+).
I will list the CPU that will be nice to have tested:
AMD
s754: 2500+,2600+,2800+(the budget trio) & some higher Sempron grades
s939: 3000+Sempron, 3000+A64 & 3700+SanDiego,3800+X2 for comparison
Intel:
s478: 310
s775: 331,351 Cellys & 506,521,630 P4's & 820 PD
as a GPU try something in the 6600/X700/X1300 range
also an 2500+@2.1GHz and 310@3.2GHz to show what budget OC could bring one
It will also show what 800FSB would give to 351 cellys and what difference 1MB cache makes.
I believe the 3.2/256/533 vs. 3.2/256/800 vs. 3.2/1M/800 could be very interesting and also pretty unique.
You should also mention that s478 Cellys start at $60 since there are sold big numbers o those and some good boards are available for 478 at bargain prices.
Power consumption test should be also present since at these prices the power consumption make huge part of the TCO.
mino - Friday, October 14, 2005 - link
Reduced test suite would be perfectly OK here also.We all know it takes _much_ time to test all those configs, but at least for Semprons You would need just one 128k&one256k chip setup thanks to lower multis option :)
JarredWalton - Friday, October 14, 2005 - link
I'm actually trying to get an overclocking article put together using a Sempron 3100+ base. Maybe I should buy a 3000+ as well, to cover the 128K variant? Hmmm... about 100 more hours of benchmarks if I add the 128K, unfortunately. :( We'll see what I can manage. It might be more than a month before I can get it all finished up.mino - Sunday, October 16, 2005 - link
Huh, 100+ hrs is huge..even so I believe that some comparison of 128k/256k 754 + 512k/1M 939 at points like:
1.6G, 2.0G, 2.4G would be really nice and pretty sufficient to show many trends.
The Celly 310@3.2G I was asking for is just to be able to see what 1M L2 and 1ML2+HT means for Prescott. Everything other being equal.
Anyway, keep on track.