Weekly Buyer's Guide: Cutting Edge System - March 2004

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• Modal - Friday, March 5, 2004 - link

  I'm a little bit confused as to why you recommended the Asus K8V Deluxe for the Athlon 64. From what I can tell, its a great board but, you guys (AT) gave the AOpen AK86-L a glowing review a couple of weeks ago, so I'm wondering why the Asus board was picked over this one.

• Evan Lieb - Thursday, March 4, 2004 - link

  Tulklas,
  
  I would recommend the Phillips. :)

• Tulklas - Thursday, March 4, 2004 - link

  Mr Lieb,
  
  I am in the market for a higher end monitor and am very interested in your reply to Bricksters question:
  
  "I wanted to refer specifically to your monitor selections, and wanted to incur why you chose the Samsung 1100DF over the Philips 202P45?
  
  Price being equal, which monitor would you recommend?"
  
  
  Thanks
  
  
  
  

• Evan Lieb - Thursday, March 4, 2004 - link

  Brickster,
  
  I got your email and replied, thanks. :)

• Brickster - Thursday, March 4, 2004 - link

• Brickster - Thursday, March 4, 2004 - link

  Mr. Lieb,
  
  I wanted to refer specifically to your monitor selections, and wanted to incur why you chose the Samsung 1100DF over the Philips 202P45?
  
  Price being equal, which monitor would you recommend?
  
  Just a but confused as you seem to tout the aperture grille a bit more in your runner up.
  
  Thanks for your help!
  
  Brick

• yc6489 - Thursday, March 4, 2004 - link

  joey2264, I also happen to run a page on computer configurations for 4 different budgets. My mid-range system is around $1500. Take a look: http://people.bu.edu/yc6489/osc/index.htm

• Evan Lieb - Thursday, March 4, 2004 - link

  That's IC7-G MAXII Advance, not MAX AdvanceII. :)

• Evan Lieb - Thursday, March 4, 2004 - link

  mostlyprudent,
  
  1) Not really available and not worth the extra cost.
  2) Yes, they are, my mistake for saying they weren’t in my previous post. Price difference makes it illogical to pay double the price though assuming you don’t need more than 30GB+ of space. If you do, like I said in the guide, there’s nothing wrong with going with the slightly faster 74GB Raptor
  3) Yup, I mentioned that as an option for users who needed additional storage. A big secondary ATA drive is not a bad idea by any means if you need space.
  4) No problem. $7,000 is just insane. :)
  
  VagrantZero,
  
  Thanks for pointing that out, I must have had a brain fart regarding the speed difference in the 36 and 74 Raptors. Duh.
  
  yc6489,
  
  We recommended the z640s in our mid range guide here: http://www.anandtech.com/guides/showdoc.html?i=197...
  
  Pumpkinierre,
  
  It’s a tough choice either way, but ABIT comes out on top for slightly better features for the same price, not to mention great reliability. The new P4C800-E’s are tough to beat, but the IC7-G Max Advance II is by no means a slouch. In the end it’ll come down to personal taste. And those memory issues are long gone, that was only with early BIOS revisions.
  
  Cygni,
  
  It’s not, unless you overclock, that’s why we stated so in our memory section (with regards to the OCZ GOLD modules).
  
  joey2264,
  
  We could do that for a system between budget and mid range, but that would probably be pretty redundant. The best way to shave off a few hundred bucks is by opting for a 9800 Pro instead of a 9800XT, a 955DF instead of the 1100DF, and a 3000+ instead of a 3400+ A64. There are other ways too. :)
  
  buleyb,
  
  Price and performance.
  
  agent2099,
  
  It’s definitely practical, it just might not be as fast. There’s a point you get to where you have to ask yourself if there’s any point in spending another $200 for barely noticeable speed increase.
  
  prazv,
  
  Yes, all prices are listed in USD.

• prazv - Thursday, March 4, 2004 - link

  out of curiosity are the prices listed in american funds ?