Buyer's Guide: Value Systems - May 2001

Value Professional 3D

Professional 3D users tend to require higher-end components, so once again we got for most bang for the buck, but with a little more flexibility as far as price goes. CPU performance is critical and we need more RAM here than any other system we've looked at previously. The graphics requirements are also very different in the professional space and a large monitor is critical.

Processor - AMD Athlon 850 - $100
With CPU prices so low these days, we've gone ahead and bumped the CPU up in our Value Professional 3D system to a Athlon "Thunderbird" 850. The Thunderbird only costs $25 more than a similarly clocked Duron and gives you an extra 192KB of cache that should make a noticeable performance difference in professional apps.

If you feel like overclocking, the Athlon's that we've tested have run at 900 - 950 MHz by simply boosting the voltage and changing the clock multiplier. Of course, overclocking AMD's Socket-A CPU's has been the center of much controversy, but it's quite easy with the right motherboard and the correct information. For full details on overclocking the Athlon, read our AMD Thunderbird & Duron Overclocking Revealed Article and the "What to look for in a KT133 Motherboard" section of our Socket-A Motherboard Roundup for August 2000.

For more information on all Duron processors, read our AMD Athlon 1.33 GHz Review.

Motherboard - EPoX EP-8KTA3 - $130
With the release of the KT133A chipset from VIA, we finally see something new in the Socket-A motherboard arena. The KT133A is the second chipset to offer official 133MHz FSB support for AMD's Socket-A CPU's. That 133MHz FSB is key as it allows the KT133A to provide performance very close to that of DDR SDRAM on the AMD 760 chipset, but does so with much cheaper PC133 SDRAM.

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Since KT133A motherboards don't cost much more than KT133 boards, and because the performance boost can easily be acheived on a 100MHz FSB Socket-A CPU if you're willing to overclock a bit, it's only natural that we'd recommend a KT133A board for this system. Of course, it doesn't hurt that it also gives you a better upgrade path for the future.

While we've yet to have a KT133A motherboard roundup, we have looked at quite a few such boards. So far, the EPoX EP-8KTA3 seems to offer the best compromise of stability, features, and price fo ra system like this. Multiplier overclocking options are included via right in the BIOS and there are even a few FSB speeds to choose from to tweak things further.

For more information, read our EPoX EP-8KTA3 Review and VIA KT133A Chipset Review.

Memory - 256MB Nanya/Mushkin Budget PC133 SDRAM - $90
While we can't point you in the direction of our usual recommendation of Corsair PC133 SDRAM due to cost, Mushkin's Budget PC133 SDRAM which we included in our latest PC133 SDRAM Roundup actually makes use of NANYA SDRAM chips which happened to work fairly well as you can see from our roundup.

Mushkin Budget PC133 w/ Nanya chips

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Mushkin finally has 256MB modules in their value line, so we don't have to go with two 128MB modules as we did in the past.

Video card - NVIDIA GeForce2 MX - $90
NVIDIA GeForce2 MX based cards are still the card of choice for our value professional system. As far as T&L power goes, the GeForce2 MX provides 30% more T&L power than the original NVIDIA Quadro and is nearly as fast as the GeForce2 GTS or Quadro2 Pro/MXR in applications that are not fillrate limited and that don't use anti-aliased lines. Quadro2 MXR cards are finally available, in the form of the Synergy III from Elsa (the exclusive manufacturer of Quadro-based cards), but cost over $350 - entirely too much for this budget system, unless anti-aliased lines are really needed.

For more information, see our NVIDIA GeForce2 MX Review and GeForce2 MX Overclocking Guide.

Monitor - Samsung 1100P- $600
This month, we've stepped up to a 21" monitor in the Value Professional 3D system because prices have finally dropped to the point where it's very reasonable to do so. The Samsung 1100P is one of the cheaper 21" monitors on the market, coming in cheaper than our previous choice of a 19" Iiyama monitor. It still performs very well, but is "only" a standard CRT (ie not apperature grill based) - something that some users actually prefer since standard CRT's don't have the damper wires the apperature grill monitors are known for.