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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mcveigh - Monday, August 30, 2004 - link
what about for a storage drive the new maxtors with 16mb cache and TCQ features?didn't Anand hint a little while ago there would be a review of them ?
of course now he has a wife to keep happy....there goes the place! ;)
Booty - Monday, August 30, 2004 - link
Just agreeing about the price engine thing - scrolling that far is pretty annoying. If they have to have it that way to earn money and keep the site free, so be it... but if not, I know I'd definitely appreciate it being moved.PrinceGaz - Monday, August 30, 2004 - link
Good article, I couldn't really fault any of the suggestions this time :) The only things that might be worth considering as this is a high end system is spending an extra $200-300 and throwing in 2GB of memory, either as 2x1GB sticks if they are just as fast, else as 4x512MB. As I do a bit video capturing and editing, and like many broadband users fill a lot of space quickly (don't ask), I'd definitely go for the Maxtor 300MB drive with 16MB cache for $260. Both of those are only minor points though and overall I agree with the suggestions.One thing I've been thinking about for a few days now are dual Opteron systems. A couple of Opteron 250's on a suitable dual S940 mobo would only cost about $1000 more than the FX53 system and mobo. Alternatively a couple of 248's will lower the differential to around $600.
The important thing is that multi-threaded apps are becoming increasingly common because of HT, and next year when dual core CPUs start appearing it'll be normal for any CPU heavy application to be multi-threaded so as to take full advantage of them. I know you could always replace the FX53 with a dual-core Toledo next year, but why wait for the extra performance when you can get it today with a couple of 250's (and the 250's could be replaced with dual-core Italy's next year giving even more power if desired).
The extra thousand dollars is a roughly 30% total price increase and is not insignificant, but you'll get considerably more than 30% performance improvement with any multi-threaded CPU heavy application, so its money well spent. In fact its hard not to recommend it as the high end choice as its still comes in under the $5000 limit.
iversonyin - Monday, August 30, 2004 - link
i would rather have dual dell 2001 then 23" apple23" apple is nice but also come with a steep price.
dont we all love dual-monitor here?
but if anyone can spend $3600 on a computer, what extras $2000 to them
Wesley Fink - Monday, August 30, 2004 - link
#3 - Typo corrected.I agree the Apple is a nice display, but Apple uses a proprietary Digital interface called ADC instead of the standard DVI Connector. Some enterprising manufacturers have developed some conversion connectors but the converter doesn't work with most nVidia video cards. In the end this is not a solution we could recommend right now.
There is also the cost difference, since the 20.1" Dell is about $800 and the 23" Apple is about $2000. A 260% price increase to go from a great 20.1" display to an Apple 23" display and converter seemed a bit much. There is also a 30" Apple Cinema display BTW.
Fr0zeN2 - Monday, August 30, 2004 - link
Great guide, but...Yeah, the pricing engine's been bugging me for a while now too. Honestly, there are sites like pricewatch.com that you can go to to view prices on these, as well as many other similar products. Especially when your listings include products that have absolutely no relevance to the one mentioned (helooo gf5950 prices?).
kherman - Monday, August 30, 2004 - link
#5This is a free site. If you like it that way, I'd get used to those advertisements.
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Aside from that, 74 gig? If I made a "dream rig" yuo'd be seeing 400 GB+ in RAID 5 (3x200)
kherman - Monday, August 30, 2004 - link
Of course, for this rig, get the BFG 6800 UltraJonathanYoung - Monday, August 30, 2004 - link
I just want to add a comment I've been wanting to make for awhile now... would you please add a link to the next page *above* the realtime pricing engine so that people who do not wish to view the pricing engine don't have to scroll alllllllll the way down just to get to the next page? This was especially bad on the "AGP Video" section of this guide. Thank you!shuttleboi - Monday, August 30, 2004 - link
Why hasn't Anandtech reviewed any 6800GT videocards???