High End Buyer's Guide - September 2004
by Wesley Fink on August 30, 2004 12:22 AM EST- Posted in
- Guides
Recommended High-End System
| Hardware | Component | Price |
| CPU & Cooling | AMD Athlon 64 FX53 Socket 939 Retail | $829 |
| Motherboard | MSI K8N Neo2 (nForce3 Ultra) Socket 939 | $145 |
| Memory | 1GB (2 X 512MB) Crucial Ballistix PC3200 | $278 |
| Video Card | 256MB NVidia 6800 Ultra | $526 |
| Monitor | Dell 2001FP 20.1" Flat Panel | $809 |
| Computer Case | Coolermaster Praetorian (PAC-T01-E1) Silver plus 480W Antec True Power PSU |
$203 |
| Sound Card | M-Audio Revolution 7.1 | $94 |
| Speakers | Klipsch Pro Media Ultra 5.1 | $357 |
| Networking | Onboard 10/100/1000 Ethernet | $0 |
| Hard Drive | 2x74GB Western Digital 74GB Raptor 10,000RPM SATA RAID (148GB Total) | $356 |
| DVD/CD-RW | Pioneer 108D 16X DVD+/-RW Dual Layer | $97 |
| Bottom Line | $3597 | |
$3597 is the final price of our recommended Athlon 64 high end system for September, not including any money that you'll spend on software (Windows XP Professional or Home, Office, Photoshop, etc.) or a keyboard and mouse. This is a few dollars less than our last High End Buyer's Guide recommendation, even though we have significantly upgraded some components. Our monitor is now a fast 20.1" flat panel. The optical drive has been upgraded to a 16X Dual-Layer burner that can handle both + and - media at 16X write speeds. The audio card is now an M-Audio card based on the VIA Envy 24T audio chip. Many of you have suggested that we choose the best in these areas and we are happy to accommodate you. We have also updated memory recommendations based on the latest benchmarking at AnandTech.
$3600 is not pocket change, but we do believe that you will get a heck of a high end system for this $3600!! We've included the latest High End video from nVidia and the top Socket 939 Dual-Channel chipset from nVidia that is a particularly good match to an nVidia video card. The system also includes one of the fastest and most visually-pleasing flat panel displays tested at AnandTech in a large and satisfying 20.1" display. There are also CRT options at a lower price for those who prefer a CRT monitor, in addition to the $1050 21.3" flat-panel. You can spend a bit more at every price point, but we really don't believe that you will gain much, if anything, in performance.
Alternative High End System
Almost every recommendation in our alternative system is new, since we are now recommending an Intel 560 (3.6Ghz) on a new 925X motherboard as an alternative. The new Intel LGA 775 requires PCI Express, DDR2, and a 24-pin connector Power Supply in addition to the new processor, so parts are not generally interchangeable with the Recommended System.| Hardware | Component | Price |
| CPU & Cooling | Intel 560 (3.6Ghz) LGA 775 | $505 |
| Motherboard | Asus P5AD2 premium | $264 |
| Memory | 1GB (2 X 512MB) Crucial DDR2-533 | $362 |
| Video Card | 256MB ATI X800 XT Platinum | $545 |
| Monitor | Dell 2001FP 20.1" Flat Panel | $809 |
| Computer Case | Coolermaster Praetorian (PAC-T01-E1) Silver plus 480W Antec ATX v2.0 'NeoPower' PSU |
$248 |
| Sound Card | M-Audio Revolution 7.1 | $94 |
| Speakers | Klipsch Pro Media Ultra 5.1 | $357 |
| Networking | Onboard 10/100/1000 Ethernet | $0 |
| Hard Drive | 2x74GB Western Digital 74GB Raptor 10,000RPM SATA RAID (148GB Total) | $356 |
| DVD/CD-RW | Pioneer 108D 16X DVD+/-RW Dual Layer | $97 |
| Bottom Line | $3637 | |
Our Intel alternative system based on the new Socket T/DDR2/PCIe options totals about the same as our top-performing Athlon 64 system. The advantage of the cheaper Intel 560 is offset by the requirement for more expensive DDR2 memory, a more expensive motherboard, and an ATX 2.0 power supply. Where they are interchangeable, we have used the same parts recommended for the Athlon 64 system to provide a better comparison of the true cost of a top LGA 775 system vs. an Athlon 64 system.
By carefully choosing components from our alternative suggestions, you can reduce the price of either high end system to about $3000. The biggest savings would come with the alternative 200GB 7200RPM hard drive and the Mitsubishi 22" CRT instead of the fast 20.1" flat panel. Those two alternatives alone would reduce the total by almost $400. With the excellent on-board sound solutions provided by the motherboards - the 7.1 channel Realtek ALC850 on the A64 and Intel High Definition Audio on the Asus 775 - you can also reduce costs another $200 by using on-board sound and the alternative speaker system. Sound will still be outstanding and very satisfying for most end-users.
There are lots of changes in this High End Buyer's Guide. Take a close look at the complete High End Socket 939 FX53 system and the alternative Socket 775 Intel 560 system. Then, sharpen your pencil and start shopping for your dream high end system.
Please let us know what you think in the comments section at the bottom of each page. Your comments are always welcome, good and bad, and they help us refine our Buyer's Guides for the future.
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Wesley Fink - Monday, August 30, 2004 - link
#17 -Thanks for the info on Apple's updated interface. While I agree the picture on the Dell is a bit gainy with smearing on analog, I have found the 2001FP to be outstanding on DVI. With this size flat panel I assumed no one would run anything but digital input.
Hikari - Monday, August 30, 2004 - link
On the Apple displays and ADC. That is no longer true, they use DVI now.There is some new 23" HP that is based on the same panel as the Apple, and I think it is a better deal. Although the Apple is prettier. ;)
danidentity - Monday, August 30, 2004 - link
Few mistakes I'd like to point out:Page 3, CPU and Motherboard Alternatives:
"When Socket 775 was launched a few weeks ago, it did not appear that any of the new 925X/915 motherboards would ever become a recommended Overclockers board."
***Socket 775 was launched two months ago, not several weeks ago. Looks like a copy/paste mistake.
Page 6, AGP Video:
"We ended up relaxing our rules by including the Gigabyte 6800 Ultra because several vendors are showing availability in the first 2 weeks of July."
***July??? This is August, almost September.
JonathanYoung - Monday, August 30, 2004 - link
kherman,Who's complaining about advertisements? That realtime pricing engine is hardly an advertisement... it's a long list of prices and vendors in plain text and zero differentiation between vendors. Again, that's hardly an advertisement.
I'd read AT's disclaimer on the subject if I were you, particularly the following lines:
"We select vendors to appear in our Price Guides based on two requirements: solid consumer feedback and having the lowest possible pricing."
"AnandTech does not sell positions on the Price Guide."
Note the "We select" and "AnandTech does not sell positions."
Sincerely,
"#5"
Aelius - Monday, August 30, 2004 - link
Actually I own a brand new Apple 20" Aluminum Cinema Display. Dispite the site telling you that it can take a month to ship one to you I got mine in 4 days.The stand is increadibly solid. No way to simply knock it over. It's gota be solid metal and most of the weight of the monitor comes from the stand.
It's very light at around 7 1/2 lbs.
It's not dinky at all. You can adjust the way the monitor points up and down and it stays the way you leave it. That part is also very solid.
There are no vents anywhere because the power brick is not built-in and the entire casing is made out of aluminum which absorbs the heat so the top gets fairly warm to the touch after long use.
The whole thing is increadibly high quality.
A cool feature of the monitor is that you can adjust the backlight through a + and - touch pad on the right side and the power button is also a touch pad found on the right.
Far as I know the Apple's come with very few dead or stuck pixles but mine came with 3 dead and 2 stuck blue pixles. Honestly I can't even notice even when I look for it unless it's a black background.
It's so sharp and bright that it makes my old Viewsonic PF CRT look like an ancient wreck.
Is it expansive? Oh God yeah and it's worth every penny as far as I'm concerned.
P.S. There seems to be a quality control issue with 23" displays but mine seems fine and couldn't find any issues with it that others reported on the 23" ones.
Any questions just PM me as I won't monitor this page.
ksherman - Monday, August 30, 2004 - link
#17- agreed, and according to apple, have a response time of 16ms, so maybe it is worth doing a review of, even though it is several hundred dollars more... and is it just me, or does the stand on the apple display seem like it not be able to support the screen?shuttleboi - Monday, August 30, 2004 - link
#9: your information is outdated. Apple introduced new monitors a few months ago that have DVI. Check their website. Their new 20" LCD is selling for $1299, which is in line with the equivalent Samsung and Planar models. From what I've read, the Dell 2001fp is extremely grainy with a crosshatch pattern on the screen, so I'm avoiding that.behemoth68 - Monday, August 30, 2004 - link
I Just put a BFG 6800 ultra into my system and am currently using an antec true power 480 and you seriously need the antec true power 550 especially since its only 20 more online its the smart move my system voltage was fluctuating a little at 480 but i put the 550 in and it worked great!phray - Monday, August 30, 2004 - link
about the price engine thingy:i agree with kherman on this. if you want this site to stay free, get used to it.
if you don't like scrolling down all that much, try pressing the 'End' key on your keyboard.
SMOG - Monday, August 30, 2004 - link
Great article, I continually am impressed by the quality of the articles here, and find the buyer's guides particularly helpful.I did find one strange comment in the artical,
"We ended up relaxing our rules by including the Gigabyte 6800 Ultra because several vendors are showing availability in the first 2 weeks of July." Are these cards still hard to find? (quick search told me that both Newegg and ZipZoomFly had some in stock, but were sold out on many brands)
Thanks,
SMOG