Buyer's Guide: High-End Systems - June 2001

Case
Supermicro SC760-A Full Tower ATX - $200
Fong Kai FK-320ATX Mid Tower ATX - $120
We need a case that can handle anything we can throw at it, but at a reasonable price level.  That case is the Supermicro SC760-A full tower and is available for about $200 with an Athlon approved 300W Sparkle power supply.  A total of ten drive bays and the ability to accept an extended ATX motherboard insures that this system will always have room for upgrades. 

If you want something a little smaller than the monstrous SC760-A for your home, consider the Fong Kai FK-320ATX. It offers plenty of room to work inside, is well built, provides excellent cooling, and even includes an Athlon approved Enhance 730-ATX power supply.

For more information, read our Supermicro SC750-A and Fong Kai FK-320ATX Reviews.

Sound card - Sound Blaster Live! Value OEM - $50
The "5.1" versions of all Sound Blaster Live! cards are now available that allow it to handle Dolby Digital decoding. This is only important if you plan on using a speaker system with 5.1 analog inputs that also doesn't its own Dolby Digital decoder. The two speaker options we've presented for this system do not need the 5.1 analog inputs, so there's no real reason to go with the 5.1 version of the card.

The Live! 5.1 is now available in OEM form for about $25 more than the standard Live! Value if you want to go that route.

Speakers - Cambridge SoundWorks Desktop Theater DTT3500 / Klipsch ProMedia 4.1 - $250
We obviously need some speakers with 4-channel surround support to properly render the 3D positional audio output of our SBLive!  As mentioned previously, we also wanted something that could interface with the digital out on the Live!  Well, the Desktop Theater DTT3500 looked to fit the bill.  But the real key is its top-notch sound quality and built-in Dolby Digital decoder.

If you're not interested in Dolby Digital 5.1 surround or simply want better sound quality than the DTT3500's, the Klipsch ProMedia 4.1's are probably the best choice for something in this price range. The monstrous sub can really pound out the bass and the whole system can get louder than your neighbors will appreciate without distorting.

For more information, read our Cambridge SoundWorks Desktop Theater DTT3500 Review and our Klipsch ProMedia V2-400 Review.

Ethernet - Linksys EtherFast 10/100 - $20
We use Linksys products here in the AnandTech lab all the time and have never been disappointed.  Besides, at just $20 for a card with full support directly from the manufacturer under the major OS's, including Linux and Windows 2000, the EtherFast 10/100 is a deal that's impossible to pass up. 

Hard drive - IBM Deskstar 60GXP 60GB - $200
Once again, the fastest drive on the market gets the nod, plain and simple. We've chosen to stick with just one drive since RAID performance doesn't really help that much in gaming situations where disk access is not a major bottleneck. If you do any disk intensive work, definitely consider getting a RAID controler and another drive.

CD/DVD-ROM - Pioneer DVD-106S 16X Slot Load DVD-ROM - $80
What high-end system is complete today without a DVD-ROM?  Pioneer continues to lead the pack with their DVD-106S, a 16X DVD-ROM drive. Of course, it also reads CDs as well at a swift 40X max clip.

CD-RW - Plextor PlexWriter 16/10/40A CD-RW - $225
Plextor remains the performance leader in the EIDE CD-RW market with their latest 16/10/40 burner. It beats out Yamaha's CRW2100EZ, which is also a 16/10/40 burner, by using a constant linear velocity (CLV) motor that allows it to burn at 16X across the entire disc. The Yamaha, meanwhile, is a CAV drive, meaning that only the outside edge of the disc is burned at 16X. The Yamaha is a great drive as well, and even costs $50 less if you're looking to save a bit of money.

OS - Windows 2000 / Windows 98SE Dual Boot - $200 + 150
Even though Windows 2000 supports DirectX 7/8, the fact that it wasn't designed for gaming prevents it from performing on par with Windows 98SE.  Of course, Windows 2000 is the future, and its just so much more stable.  Our solution: work in Windows 2000 and boot back to Windows 98SE if you need maximum performance for games.  Of course, if you just need a quick break from work, you can still frag in Win2K. We passed on WinME since it seems to cause far more problems then 98 and adds very few truly useful features.

Bottom Line: $2,625 (without software or shipping)